by Michael Mahaffey
OU Online will host its first Speaker Series session of the fall semester at noon Wednesday, Sept. 27. The virtual information session, offered via Zoom, will focus on a new 24-hour tutoring service provided by Tutor.com.
Available to all OU Online students through Canvas, Tutor.com provides 24/7, on-demand, 1-to-1 tutoring and homework help that is fully accessible in more than 100 subjects, including math, business, computer science, technology, writing, marketing and more.
During the 40-minute session, Marcy Melanson, senior customer success manager for Tutor.com, and Cindy Hewitt, Tutor.com’s director of academic partnerships, will discuss how the service can help students reach their academic potential.
“We want to make sure our students have the same opportunities and experiences as students who attend class in person on campus and the same opportunities to be successful,” said Hannah Rieger, director of student support services for OU Online. “Part of that is ensuring that they have access to the same resources as traditional students, even though they may live hundreds or thousands of miles away.”
Tutor.com’s comprehensive toolset allows tutoring sessions to take place on any computer or mobile device. Each session will include chat, voice and video options, access to a state-of-the-art online classroom with a virtual whiteboard, graphing calculator and code editor, and file-sharing options.
Students can establish favorite tutors for live sessions, schedule appointments for future sessions and even review their previous tutoring sessions. They also will have access to 24/7 live writing center support, a drop-off service with responses guaranteed within 12 hours and averaging around six hours.
Rieger said since many OU Online courses are asynchronous, the Speaker Series gives students a chance to interact socially in a live setting when significant announcements are made about new OU Online features.
“By hosting Speaker Series sessions at lunchtime, we want to allow our students to come together in a live way, even if it is through a little Zoom window, and introduce them to a new resource or topic, so they become familiar with everything it has to offer,” she said.
“We also want to encourage students to maximize their networking opportunities during these sessions. If they find other people within their program who are also watching or they really connect with the speaker who is highlighting the new resource, we want them to reach out to those people to discuss what was presented. Our goal is to make sure our students have a good online educational experience at OU.”
Students can join the live session at Noon CDT on Wednesday, Sept. 27, on Zoom.
Individuals who can’t join the live session will be able to watch a video of the session on demand on OU Online’s YouTube channel immediately after. While there, they can also view the session from earlier this year about OU Online’s Career Development Center.
For more information about the OU Online Speaker Series, contact OU Online Student Support Services at hrieger@ou.edu.
Visit the Student Resources page on the OU Online website for more information about additional support services offered for OU Online students.
