Checking In...

[Robert Lunday]

Hello Tutors,

Sorry for my silence; it's been a busy term, with extra projects added on....

I've just had a chat with a student who was unhappy about her experience in the Writing Center, so, I guess it's time for some discussion -- reminders, retooling, re-coordinating, etc.

First, some of the practical details: that darned printer! 

What, from your points of view, are the problems regarding the printer? Here's what I see so far: we don't have a way to oblige students to pay for printing; so, we use the printer simply for tutors' needs -- printing out a student paper or assignment instructions. Is that correct?  We don't allow students to print -- although, it seems to me, it is OK for a student to ask to print out his or her draft or assignment sheet. Do you agree?

So, can we agree that we will let students ask for permission (of the tutor or receptionist) to print out a few pages of material for the tutorial session?

If they print out their drafts or instructions on their own, and then work with a tutor -- no big deal if they didn't actually ask permission, it seems to me.

However, if they are not working with a tutor, students should not print in the Writing Center; we aren't a printing service.

SO -- how to deal with it when someone does feel free to print?

ALWAYS, please, be polite. 

Smile, tell them politely that the printer is only for tutors, and for helping students with a tutoring appointment; and tell them about the Computer Lab, etc. But don't chastise, argue, etc.

But -- please tell me, from your experience and reflections, what sort of policy/strategy we might have regarding the printer. Should we ask for it to be removed?

I have asked them to set up a password for us, but evidently they can't I will inquire again, because it seems to me there must be a solution between no printer and a totally exposed, abused printer causing conflict.

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OK, Next:

Appointments, signing in, etc.

We have an online appointment system in need of fixes; please, since you guys use it every day, tell me -- again -- what improvements it needs, and I will make it my mission to get it working. I don't think returning to WCOnline will be an option for us (for various reasons); but I believe our homemade (Antonio-made) system can be made to work well, with some fixes. Tell me what specifically is wrong, and I will sit down with him, as I should have already.

Also: obviously, students who want to work with a tutor need to be recorded. My own opinion is that students who want to quietly work -- sit at an unoccupied table, or on a couch -- are fine, invited, welcome, and don't need to sign in. But we need a consistent, sensible policy on that. SO -- students who want to work with a tutor need to make an appointment and sign in; students who want to quietly work, read, write, don't need to sign in. Any thoughts on that?

I guess the problems arise from: phone use, conversations, that start to interfere with tutoring. Or, as today, someone using audio on the computer.

I think it's a good idea to ask students not to use audio on the computers (without a headset, and we don't have headsets for their use if they don't have their own). But, again, do it politely.

Other situations seem like judgment calls. If there is too much chatting unrelated to actual tutoring, you might -- politely -- ask the students to go to the lounge.  It's a writing center, a place with a specific purpose, so we can control and should control the environment as needed; but we want students to feel welcome. It's a balance.

Any thoughts or particular experiences that might help us on how to maintain the best sort of environment?

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Anyway, please post your thoughts/advice regarding the appointment system, the printer, and anything relating to our social dynamics in the Writing Center, and how to keep it healthy. BUT -- please -- always, always be polite to the students. I am not talking about their behavior, presently; how to deal with our clients' bad behavior is another issue, though one worth revisiting, I agree -- but right now, I just want to emphasize the need for tutors and receptionists to be kind and polite to students in the Writing Center, even when you are trying to get them to do or not do something they should or shouldn't be doing, in your view. We've seen in the past that one seemingly isolated incident can reverberate and cause big problems, and we don't want t alienate the students; we have a Writing Center only for them.

Thoughts?

[pwayne.stauffer]

The printer might be moved to one of the cubes in the room to take it out of general view. Since students are charged for printing in lab and library, they will abuse it in the WC because we won’t charge them for copies.

 

Why is it there in the first place? To facilitate tutors working with students. Its use should be the tutors’ call, not the students’.

 

I know the student involved in this incident (had her in class), and Attitude is her middle name…it goes with her into every encounter. She didn’t want to be told she couldn’t use the printer outside a tutoring circumstance, so she complained that a tutor was rude to her because she thought it would get results.

 

We can be sympathetic to their unjust plight, but we also don’t get any more funding for paper they use when we need more to help students who come for the primary purpose of the WC—tutoring.

 

w

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[Ronald Foster]

You have well pointed out that the mentioned event is pretty isolated, Wayne. For sure, when someone comes into the writing center and ask if they can print, the ones on my shift always - and very politely - tell them that this printer is only for the Writing Center and our students.  Also, Danny and I monitor the paper levels to keep them low.  They seem to understand very quickly that they are in the wrong place, and we tell them about other places that are set up for them.

As for students who must want to come in and work, we are usually somewhat 'discriminating.' We have found that as long as they want to work alone, it's usually OK, but when they want to sit down in groups, they tend to 'chatter' and get loud, so that many times we have had to ask them to leave - though very politely, and they are seldom surprised.  Some, who have been students of the WC for some time, routinely come in and sit down and work quietly. These folks know the rules and are very polite and quiet.

We do not have a sign-in sheet, and I have not seen anyone sign in all semester.

Another problem that comes up sometimes originates in the hall way.  It may be an event, or simply people getting out of a class, but they can get very loud. It disrupts the sessions quite a bit, so I usually step out and ask them to quiet down, that people are working in here. It usually works, but perhaps a big sign that says, 'Quiet, Writing Center,' could help.  It doesn't seem that bad this semester, however.

Ron Foster C. 281-748-1994

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From: pwayne....@hccs.edu
To: hccs_se_wri...@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: Checking In...
Date: Tue, 2 Apr 2013 22:07:21 +0000

[ivy]

My opinion, also known as my two cents worth (which of course, has no bearing on what should or should not be done in the future):

In regard to the printer, in order of my personal preferences, I think we should:

1.      remove the printer altogether, there is no real reason we tutors need it, the students should already have assignments printed out in hand when they show up in the Writing Center for appointments, and tutors can get Tutorial Records printed out down the hall. On the other hand, if a student has not printed out their assignment ahead of time, this will pose a problem. We tutors ought to be able to have printed assignments in hand when reviewing them with students.

2.      make the printer in the Writing Center a paid printer like every other printer on campus. This would eliminate the urge to abuse the system in the first place

In regard to the appointment system, if we could get a grant to fund WCOnline, I would be in favor of that. If Robert or Selena do not have the time to apply for one, I would be happy to do the legwork to find someone or some local company that might give us the money. (I spoke with my sister who works for some government agency and she was of the opinion that a Federal Grant would only be forthcoming if we wanted a LARGE sum of money. WCOnline only costs $750 a year...)

In defense of WCOnline, if we had this system again:

1. sudents could easily make or cancel appointments themselves

2. tutors could easily make or cancel appointments for students

3. the receptionist could easily make appointments for the students

4. all tutors could easily record comments about their sessions with students after the sessions are over

5. students could receive reminders of their appointments so they wouldn’t have as great a chance of forgetting them

6. tutors would be able to block out sessions for themselves (in case they need breaks between back-to-back assignments, or any other reason)

7. (and most importantly) students could make online appointments and work in a synchronous chat format with tutors on their papers. This could increase Writing Center traffic, which would probably be a good idea with the threat of cutbacks always looming on the horizon. To date, we have had 334 sessions in the Writing Center (these are all the ones for which we have written “Writing Center Tutorial Records” in hand). I believe there would be considerably more Writing Center traffic if we could offer online tutoring as well.

 

In regard to other problems with the current appointments system:  there is still no direct link on the HCCS website home page, or the Learning Web to connect students to the Writing Center. This is definitely making it difficult for students who have used the Writing Center in the past, and for new students to find us.

In regard to the correct behavior to exercise around students:

No matter what the circumstances, I need to be civil and polite to the students.

ivy

[Ron Foster]

All good, Ivy, except the part about the printer. It's just not a problem, and it's very handy having it there for our students. Many of them have so little time, it's amazing. We often find them working 40 hours a week, taking care of kids and taking classes, so if they show up and need to print the assignment they worked on for hours, I have no problem accommodating them. 

ivy

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Ron Foster
Solar Panels of America LLC
281-748-1994 Fax: 832-203-1455

[Robert Lunday]

Thanks, Ivy, Wayne, Ron, for the helpful responses. I can see that it is a rare thing, and the student did seem a bit bristly; I just needed to get feedback, and your responses helped.

I will find out about changing the printer location, but it sounds like we mainly need to post a sign; what, in addition to some words about restrictions on the printer, might we add, to strike the right balance -- not too bossy, but clear about certain needs in the Writing Center regarding behaviors you've dealt with often enough to think they need mention?

About WCOnline... the program itself, from the back end, had problems. It might be better by now -- I'm not sure.  I had a love/hate relationship, myself. The main problem with our custom-made system is (a) like all software, it needs tweaking and (b) I have been remiss -- I just need to sit down with Antonio and keep working on it with him. I believe we can make it better than WCOnline for our needs, and it will be free, and we can focus on paying for tutors (I'm hoping to work with Deborah on a grant idea...more later, after I've talked to her and Selena).

Yes, we need a direct link on the English page -- there is a link to our "Learning Commons" site, but that whole enterprise seems to be on the way out -- there is no link to it anywhere I can see. The "Learning Web" is now the main, system-wide site -- and I don't have anything there yet. So, again, I need to get my behind in gear and make something. Right now I'm not even sure how; I think need to set up a separate WC account, and will get going on that this week.

Thanks again for your hard work and keen minds. And patience!

[ivy]

three things:

1. we had a sign on the printer and the students just ignored it

2. abuse of the printer is a daily event, not a rare thing. altercations with students that refuse to respect our policy of not using the printer are rare things.

3. the current system may need tweaking but as i recall it took several semesters to get it running up and running in the first place, this does not inspire confidence in me as far as the abilities of our present IT department to make changes in a timely fashion.

 

still working on the list of things that we would need to do to the current system to make it more useful...

 

ivy

[Ron Foster]

I don't understand. When a student wants to print and they are not one of 'our' students, we just tell them they need to go elsewhere. We also keep the printer very low on paper. If they are printing English papers that we helped them with, why not?

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[Robert Lunday]

Hello,

I will start on the list of appt system problems; I imagine it will take the rest of the term to get all of these write -- it's a matter of writing code, which is time consuming.

Regarding the difficulty in getting this to be as good as WCOnline: the real story is that I had believed, mainly because the A&M people believed, that their impressive "Cleopatra" software could be made to work in our system. It took several months on both sides -- with knowledgeable tech people working on it -- to realize that it would be very difficult to make that system work here, for various reasons, but partly because our student-data systems are different. It was not Antonio's fault -- it had to do with a range of things that he has no control over or intimate knowledge of, but we didn't know that would matter until months into the effort -- and we couldn't pay for WCOnline at that point. Anyway, Antonio started working on the current (incomplete) system, at first to be a temporary solution, and (for now) our permanent solution -- with necessary improvements, of course.

The only options are: pay for Tutor Trac -- expensive, and not that great; subscribe to WCOnline -- good in some ways, and the most used system for WC's, but problematic for reports, among other issues, though it did work as an appointment system for us. Third -- an open-source program that Antonio could modify; but probably, he couldn't get permissions very easily for integration with student data -- I don't know. At this point, it makes more sense to improve his own creation. A fourth option is to use one of a few Web2.0-type Web-based programs, but I have a feeling they wouldn't work long-term, and certainly couldn't connect to school data. The college might nix use of such software, anyway -- for that sort of purpose.

So, I just need to get cracking with Antonio -- I will start with Ivy's list, prioritizing tasks, also based on what Antonio is able to do most easily or efficiently.

Printer? For now, please use your judgment. Printing assignment instructions or a few pages of a draft for tutorial use should be fine. I think, overall, we should not let more student printing than that -- they can go to the lab to print, or home; and it seems hard to draw a clear, fair line if we don't limit it to tutorial-related uses, initiated by the tutor. If we have a sign letting students know the printer is not for student use, we can politely remind them when the just hit "print" frequently or for massive projects. A page here and there, it's up to you; but I think we need a mechanical solution, and I will ask again when I go in to talk to Antonio about the appt. system. 

On Tuesday, April 2, 2013 4:35:28 PM UTC-5, Robert Lunday wrote:

[pwayne.stauffer]

Regarding the printer—the computers are mapped to that printer. Remove that mapping from all but 1 or 2 computers (that only

w the tutors know are mapped), and students can hit the print button all day long but it won’t print….just sayin’ …

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