Emma Jones, Author at Nimbus Learning

Effectively serving a diverse student body requires a full suite of tutoring tools - not just text based tools

Online tutoring services are an incredible way to make student services easier to access. Video, interactive white boards, and text based tutoring all combine to create a responsive service that is better able to meet the needs of a diverse student body with different learning styles. At Nimbus, we value this opportunity to offer a full range of communication mediums to maximize success for student communities.

In conversations with our clients and network, however, we’ve begun to notice a worrying trend. Education leaders are entering into contracts with online tutoring platforms to find that many of the platforms they are paying considerable sums for only offer chat-based tutoring services.

A full suite of tutoring models creates a more successful experience and reduces drop off. A study published in the Reading and Writing Quarterly found that when schools coupled peer tutoring programs with Learning Management Systems that include online messaging and interactive multimedia resources, access and use of the peer tutoring system increased (Abbott, Greenwood, Buzhardt, & Tapia, 2006).

Better use of the tutoring system resulted in an increase in student grades and academic confidence, as students were getting more out of their tutoring sessions.

Text-based tutoring brings some benefits — notably, the ability for students to reach support from anywhere, without the need to find a quiet environment to have a conversation in. Students who are contending with anxiety or a language barrier may also be more comfortable in this medium. However, while chat-based conversations can help bridge the gap during distance learning, it does have significant drawbacks that require face-to-face or video support to make a successful learning experience.

“When schools coupled peer tutoring programs with Learning Management Systems that include online messaging and interactive multimedia resources, access and use of the peer tutoring system increased.”

The words we use cover only a portion of the total communication experience. Cues such as eye contact, body orientation, tone of voice and gestures also carry critical information (Subrahmanyam & Greenfield, 2003).

Tutors can use information like facial expressions or tone of their responses to understand when a student is confident with the material or may need some more explanation. Conversations can also help tutors understand if a student is feeling stressed or excited about the material, or approaching overwhelm.

All of this information is critical to offering a fully engaging, wrap-around support model that will help students master the material and embrace the learning experience.

Drop-in chat rooms — round-the-clock online conversations that anyone can join or leave at any time — also offer a flexible method of tutoring. Often, these sessions will be moderated by a trained teacher or tutor during specific times, at which students know they can drop in to connect with an instructor. The complex nature of communication in a chat room, however, can create an extra barrier to understanding information a student may be uncomfortable with.

In worst-case scenarios, this complexity may mean students who are struggling to connect with the subject material go unnoticed. According to Subrahmanyam & Greenfield, conversations in chat rooms typically have four distinct elements:

Several questions or subjects being asked/discussed at once
In a lively chat room, many comments between a conversation and its response
Participants contributing to several conversations, often at the same time
Moving on from subjects or questions quickly

"Cues such as eye contact, body orientation, tone of voice and gestures also carry critical information."

This complex nature of group chat rooms – where several people can ask a question at once with multiple others responding, means the conversation moves quickly. A lack of non-verbal cues often mean the tutors don’t have a chance to ensure the students grasp the topic before the conversation moves on. This is why Nimbus offers a video-based drop-in model, where students can engage in conversation with attendees – or drop questions into the text chat – and tutors can effectively manage the teaching environment.

Tutoring is an opportunity to bridge the gap for students, by personalizing how information is conveyed. With so many digital tools available to us today to provide those customized learning services, we can help every student meet their true potential. Students, tutors, and university leaders deserve more than chat boxes – get in touch with us at Nimbus Learning to see how a full suite of tools and services will elevate your learning community.

About Nimbus Learning

Nimbus Learning works with the student success services at universities and colleges, to provide an end-to-end platform for easier access, more efficient management and receiving program insights for programs including tutoring, mentorship and study groups.

Organizations that have partnered with Nimbus Learning see on average 52% in time saved for administrators managing these programs and up to a two and half fold increase in student usage. 97% of students rate sessions booked and facilitated through the Nimbus platform 4.5 out of 5 stars or higher and report increases in grades.

The Nimbus platform can utilize anonymized data points such as current course grades, class attendance, demographics and more to develop a unique predictive score of academically at-risk students. This allows administrators to directly approach at-risk students instead of relying on them to seek help when it may be too late. This feature allows Nimbus to help schools better target at-risk students and significantly improve student retention.

Connect with us today to get started.

Running a tutoring program is no easy task. There’s scheduling, interviews, background checks, helping with lessons, and so much more. But did you ever stop to think about the work that affects other departments?

That’s one thing Derek Collins, Chair of Teaching and Learning at Lakeland College, noticed about their tutoring program before they decided to partner with Nimbus Learning. Not only did it take a ton of time for the person responsible with managing the program, but there was also support needed from their HR department and other members of the department.

Thankfully, Nimbus Learning provides an easy solution. We sat down with Derek to see how Lakeland used Nimbus Learning to cut back, big time, on the amount of time and effort it takes to run their tutoring program.

NL – How were you managing your peer tutoring program before Nimbus?

DC – We had a system that we used through our HR department to sign up tutors. Officially, they were done as individual contracts – you can imagine all the paperwork that involved.

Scheduling was managed through a spreadsheet. The person who looked after it just had a big sheet of paper and then would schedule tutors and match students with them. Eventually, we had to have a few more people on the team pick to up extra work because it was just too much.

Has Nimbus helped save your department time managing the Lakeland tutoring program?

Yeah, it was more than one person managing this program on top of what they were doing. It was quite a bit, and then you have to factor in the HR department doing all these contracts and then sending out checks once the hours were submitted.

Now we find maybe, at most, it takes one person a couple of hours a day – but that’s rare. Maybe at the start when there’s an influx of students and tutors.

I finished my duties in 20 minutes today.

Has the Nimbus platform helped your program be more efficient?

Oh, absolutely. Most of the students seem to be able to get onto the app no problem, whether they are a student or a tutor. Tutors take a little bit more work because we have to review their candidacy to be a tutor, so they’re waiting a little bit, but it’s still pretty good.

I like how the students can just connect with the tutor directly. That messaging is handled all within the system – we’re not sharing anything, so that privacy is maintained. That makes scheduling way easier.

There’s so many things I like about Nimbus. Being the chair of the department, I like being able to see the dashboard and track and see how it’s being used.

The funds are also managed through the app, which saves our HR department time too. The tutors have communicated they’re happy with how it’s deposited fairly quickly and easily. The way we do it is we front load: we give each student X amount of money. So that’s in the system already and most students aren’t paying anything; they can just book a tutor and are done.

What tips do you have for tutors using the Nimbus platform?

Making sure their availability is up to date. That’s probably the biggest one, remembering to make an updated schedule.

How do you intend to use the Nimbus platform to continue to grow your tutoring program?

There’s been a lot more demand for groups. I’ve noticed that some tutors are just spontaneously offering group sessions.

We have more of a demand for tutors than we have availability, so we end up with not enough tours generally. Encouraging more group sessions may be a way to facilitate more connections and support for students.

I’ve also taken a look at the mentorship platform. We could certainly see down the road expanding a mentorship program onto the platform.

About Nimbus Learning

The Talented Scholars Resource Room (TSR^2) at MIT provides academic support and guidance to students through the Office of Minority Education. Academic support services — such as exam reviews, facilitated study groups and one-on-one tutoring — are provided to students free of charge and are led by advanced undergraduate and graduate students.

In line with the world-class reputation of MIT, TSR^2 offers top-notch services at an incredibly efficient pace, optimizing a small team to meet the needs of their student body. For the 2021 school year (July 2021-June 2022), the small team of facilitators (tutors) hosted 330 sessions, exemplifying consistency and productivity in support of their students.

Because of their large impact, the TSR^2 team needed a responsive program that could take over the time-consuming and repetitive tasks, while being easy for students to adapt to and use during stressful periods of their academic calendar.

The Nimbus Learning Solution

A 50% reduction in administrative labour

“Before Nimbus, everything was on us. The actual platform for students to request their tutoring times had to be maintained by us. That was the same platform for the facilitators to put their times and the availability. So we had to add everything, remove everything, we had to take care of any changes that we needed to make.”

— Somiya Kalloo, Assistant Dean for Academic Excellence programs, MIT Office of Minority Education

The Nimbus platform takes over scheduling and data collection for both students and tutors, meaning administration has more time to focus on connecting with students and responding to their needs. By switching to the Nimbus platform, the TSR^2 estimates they saved 10 hours per week. Uri Martinez-Tavera, Program Coordinator for MIT Office of Minority Education, says she now only spends 10-15 hours per week on orchestrating the program, meaning they have seen a 50% reduction in administrative time.

Reliability is also a factor for any technology-based program. The team estimates they are saving even more than the 10-hours-per-week, considering their previous platform would sometimes glitch and the team would have to manually schedule all sessions until a fix was made. With Nimbus Learning, this is no longer a concern.

On top of the administrative workload, Nimbus also added new methods of data collection the team was able to use to plan ahead. Information, like which courses are in high demand, help them make facilitator recruitment responsive to the changing needs of the student body. This makes it easier for students to get the help they need when they need it — and happy students continue to come back.

Making the student experience easier

“It has been a consistent upward trajectory, which has been awesome.”

— Somiya Kalloo, Assistant Dean for Academic Excellence programs, MIT Office of Minority Education

Being able to advertise an easy-to-use booking system has made it easier for students to take advantage of the services offered by TSR^2. After a brief transition period lasting approximately one month, the number of sessions have begun to climb over the course offerings from the year before.

Kalloo says this is due in part to how easy it is for students to use the Nimbus platform, as well as training videos and FAQ provided on their website that can help students on demand. Facilitators trained in all aspects of the platform by Nimbus also means that if students have a question, they have multiple resources they can go to for answers.

Improving access wherever possible is important, as each barrier increases likelihood of student drop off. An easy-to-use system helps ensure programs are used to their potential.

A solid program structure

The TSR^2 program runs a tight ship, which means students know what support they can expect both in terms of working as a facilitator and when seeking out help.

One staff member is specifically dedicated to getting academic material and course outlines from the different departments. All of this information – upcoming midterms, assignments, material to help with these tasks, et cetera, is then consolidated and provided to the tutors. Facilitators also have training sessions on both the platform and on educational skills, as well as monthly check-ins with the administrative team.

Recognizing the many types of learning styles students may have, TSR^2 also offers flexibility — from one-on-one to group study sessions to problem nights, offered remotely and in-person. The program meets the students where their needs are.

Supported by a responsive partnership team

“It has always been a ‘Yes, we can do it,’ or, ‘Let’s work on it.’ It’s never been a ‘no, that’s not something we can do,’ which has been really awesome.”

— Somiya Kalloo, Assistant Dean for Academic Excellence programs, MIT Office of Minority Education

As with all programs, TSR^2 has specific needs that cater directly to their program and students. The Nimbus team is always an email away, ready to adapt to the demands of a growing program.

At first, the program allowed students to sign up on an as-needed basis, but the TSR^2 became concerned that a few eager students were quickly booking up all the sessions. Nimbus introduced a cap for each student, to ensure support is available for all students when they are ready for it. This cap can be adapted as needed, so the team can adapt for special circumstances.

Conclusion

Small teams can have a large impact on the lives of students — especially when one has been set up as effectively as TSR^2. Nimbus plays an important support role in this program, cutting down on their administrative workload by an estimated 10 hours per week, while also keeping the team informed through up-to-date analytics. This means the TSR^2 team has more time to focus on what really matters — and the information they need to do it better than ever before.

“A wonderful aspect of working with Nimbus Learning is they have been so open and welcoming. Both the facilitators and TSR^2 team have the option to just reach out for help, and the Nimbus team has been super responsive.”

— Somiya Kalloo, Assistant Dean for Academic Excellence programs, MIT Office of Minority Education

Connecting faculty tutoring programs can be a huge benefit to the students and tutors, giving them more opportunities to find the resources they need to thrive. This is one of the reasons that two faculty associations at the University of Manitoba, the Engineering Society and the Science Students’ Association, connected with Nimbus. Now, both faculties are able to run their volunteer tutoring services independently, but students from each are easily able to see what is being offered across the board in one centralized platform.

These programs are also unique in the fact that they are run by volunteers. To understand the unique needs and challenges of these programs, Nimbus Learning sat down with Amy, Director of Academics with the Science Students’ Association, and Kassem, the Vice Stick Academic with the Engineering Society, to talk about staying efficient, juggling multiple roles, and how they motivate their peers.

How many volunteer hours do you dedicate to your tutoring programs a week?

Amy: The beginning of the semester is usually when I spend the most time on the program, just to review the tutors properly and to answer emails and stuff like that. That takes at least a couple of hours a week. Towards the end of the semester I only average an hour, maybe, a week.

Kassem: It’s the same for us. In the beginning of the semester, it was almost up to five hours a week, whereas now I’m barely making an hour per week.

What are the key objectives for your programs?

A: There are a lot of courses within the faculty of science that have a reputation for being difficult. A lot of the course material isn’t easy, so we recognize that there is a need for tutoring. Peer tutoring is great because students who have recently had success with the course can meet you at your level, right? There’s not that need to make a connection with someone who’s a lot older and is maybe more intimidating.

One of the objectives that is unique to this kind of programming, that other tutoring services might not be able to offer, is fostering relationships and building a sense of community within our faculty between people in different years.

K: The engineering program is also a very difficult field for a lot of students. We had a tutoring service before that wasn’t through Nimbus — it was just on our own type of thing. That was a lot less structured and we had some trouble with it. I agree with Amy on the fact that students want to be tutored by students that have taken the courses and who’ve been through the same pain with the same professors. It’s more relatable.

A: Oftentimes students will have the same teacher too, so the tutors know how the exams work and they can give that kind of personalized advice.

As student volunteers, the tutoring programs aren’t your only responsibility. How does Nimbus help you stay efficient?

K: Nimbus is super easy to use. Once you set someone up, they just free rein to do what they want in a controlled environment. When you sign up a tutor, it’s now their job to be available for the students. We don’t have to matchmake, which we used to do before we partnered with Nimbus. I think that’s how it makes it so much easier.

A: Also, the digitalization of the program is huge. Having an app format makes it so much more accessible for both students and for tutors. It’s a very familiar format for people and it’s available on both Samsung and Apple products. It’s just great.

From our administrative standpoint, it’s nice to have a list of all the tutors that use our platform, and then it’s also nice to see all the individual sessions. I can see who’s canceling sessions versus who’s re-booking sessions, so you can get an idea of who’s showing up to the sessions that they book.

As students yourselves, what are your relationships with the student tutors like?

K: Honestly, for tutors I met through Nimbus we now know each other on an acquaintance basis, and some of them actually became pretty good friends afterwards. It opened the door to a larger network.

How do you market to your student body?

A: Especially through COVID, we’ve moved almost all of our marketing online. So through social media, we have it on the Faculty of Science newsletter that goes out. We have monitors in the halls that are being put up, so we’ll have slides running through those continuously. Email services have been where we’ve had our biggest increase in users, but I think just word of mouth helps a lot.

We’ve done some in-person marketing — in the fall we had a lab event, which is just like a seminar with about a hundred or so students that are interested in pursuing research. We advertised it to the whole group, because these are people who are looking for academic, enriching opportunities, and we got some people who joined as tutors after that too.

K: We’re pretty similar. We’ve sent out a lot of emails and put notices in the weekly newsletters to the engineering department, both calling for tutors and advertising to tutees. On Instagram there’s weekly posts, stories and reels. And when Patrick came in, we did Nimbus pop-ins to lectures, which was really useful. A lot of people signed up from that.

At Nimbus, we’re not just rooting for you – we’re actively working to help your program succeed. If you have any questions or are looking for support for a tutoring program custom-designed to suit your campus, we want to help! Connect with us today to get started.

There’s nothing quite like a leader who came up through the ranks. Katarina Allan, President of the Mount Saint Vincent University Students Union (MSVUSU), knows first hand what it is like to be a tutor and having to spend a considerable amount of time connecting with students and setting up course work.

Allan first started her own company, Katarina Allan Tutoring, in 2016. Then, when the MSVUSU first started with Nimbus, Allan signed on. Overall, as a tutor, she says the platform made her more efficient. It got rid of the back and forth to book a session, and provided an easy way to advertise her services.

Now, as President of MSVUSU, Allan takes on a bird’s eye view of the tutoring program and Nimbus’ role within it. She sat down with Nimbus to talk about using the platform to improve tutoring in university and her advice for new peer tutors.

What was your first introduction to Nimbus Learning?

I’m actually a professional tutor. I run my own company in Halifax, Katarina Allan Tutoring. I’ve been tutoring professionally since 2016.

When the MSVUSU got the Nimbus tutoring platform in 2020, I thought it made a lot of sense to apply. I was approved, and I found the platform works really well. It increases the efficiency of connecting with students and takes away a lot of that extra time that goes into booking and rescheduling sessions and all that stuff.

** To avoid a conflict of interest when administering the Nimbus program on the MSVU campus, Katerina no longer operates as a tutor on the Nimbus platform.

Do you feel the Nimbus platform made it easier to connect with students?

It’s easy to connect with students because they can find you in the app and send you a message. Tutors also make their times available right on the app. It takes away a lot of the back and forth, emailing questions about pricing, availability, or what courses you teach. Nimbus just sort of deals with all of that and streamlines it. It’s much easier that way.

It also makes payment processing way simpler. When I’m working with students off the Nimbus platform, I’m generating invoices and sales receipts and working through all of that. So there’s a bit of paperwork on either end. Sometimes, there’s situations where you have to go and ask someone to pay you or remind them because they’ve forgotten. With the Nimbus platform, that’s all taken care of ahead of the session — you don’t have to have those awkward conversations.

Has Nimbus made your program more efficient?

It’s much more efficient through the platform than it is to connect with them through other means. And I think it’s also more efficient for the student because, when they look for the course, they can select from the tutors available. They don’t have to spend time on Kijiji or in a Facebook group, trying to track down tutors. They also don’t have to purchase their tutoring service from a larger company where the tutoring rates tend to be a bit higher, and the amount that actually goes to your tutor is lower.

What do you find are the most useful features of the Nimbus platform?

The tutor profile, the in app messaging, and the scheduling and payment processing are the most useful ones. The tutor profile is really useful because it saves time on questions like, Are you able to tutor this class? If I was available, I could turn it on and then the answer is evident through the app. And if I tutored a class, the class is available and that’s evident through the app.

The tutor profile is also more efficient for the student because they can get a pretty good picture of what the qualifications the tutor has and what their price point is going to be.

One thing that I also find works really well is providing feedback to the Nimbus team, and having new features in the app developed.

How do you intend to use the Nimbus platform to continue to grow your tutoring program?

For the university and for our students, I’m really looking forward to increasing the visibility of the Nimbus tutoring platform on campus and increasing our course coverage. I’m continuing to onboard more tutors so we have that support available.

What tips do you have for tutors using the Nimbus platform?

Create a really thoughtful tutor profile and apply to teach as many courses as possible, because you can always turn them off if you’re getting busy. You’re more likely to get a student if you have more course coverage and more availability. Even if you couldn’t spend a full 10 hours tutoring in a week, if you have 10 hours available, put them on your profile. Then, once you have however many hours filled, you can adjust your schedule.

What tips do you have for tutors in general?

Tutors need to be able to say when they don’t know something — it’s really important. It doesn’t mean that you’re not doing a good job as a tutor. Honesty is pretty key there.

You also need to listen to your student and to what their different learning needs are. Being able to explain the same concept in five different ways back-to-back is a skill that you’re going to want to have because you’ll get to know your student, and you’ll get a more efficient view of what types of explanation will work with that student. By just repeating the same explanation you heard in class, it is not going to work.

You’re there to help them work with their situation. Everyone is capable, they may just need different learning strategies, techniques, and different amounts of time. In the lessons, sometimes people struggle, and it’s definitely helpful when a tutor can say something as simple as you know what, I see a lot of people with this issue. It’s not just you. Then there’s a sense of relief and you can move forward in a problem solving way. A lot of tutoring can be managing student anxiety. You never want to pretend you’re a counselor, because you’re not, but you can help bring that anxiety level down and help them learn better.

Finally, take notes for yourself so you remember, when you go to tutor that same student again, what worked last time. Start with what worked, and each session will get more and more efficient.

At Nimbus, we’re not just rooting for you – we’re actively working to help your program succeed. If you have any questions or are looking for support while recruiting more tutors (help drafting email campaigns, marketing materials, et cetera) we want to help! Connect with us today to learn more.

There is no greater burden than potential. That’s the experience Lindsey Voisin, Student Learning Coordinator of Writing & Academic Skills at Nipissing University, felt about her school’s peer tutoring program. She was keenly aware of the benefits peer-tutoring programs bring to students but, faced with the burden of an analog database, didn’t have the time she needed to help the Nipissing peer tutoring program flourish.

Nimbus Learning was able to help alleviate many of the challenges Nipissing was experiencing in launching their tutoring program, leading to a significant jump in sessions in just one semester. (79 times more sessions compared to the previous year, to be exact.) After developing a vibrant and functioning tutoring platform, Voisin also says she still has time to connect with tutors and help them develop critical soft skills that will benefit them for years to come.

We sat down with Voisin to hear about Nipissing’s first year with Nimbus, how Nimbus gave her time to focus on what matters and where she intends to direct the momentum.

How were you managing your peer tutoring program before Nimbus?

We’ve gone through a couple of different things. At one point, we had a binder filled with requests for tutors and a binder filled with applications of tutors with the courses that they could teach. We kind of played the memory game.

Our database and programming team did everything that they could with what they had. But, in the end, it was an internal database and we spent quite a bit of time just trying to make it what it could be.

We know the importance of peer-to-peer education and the value of that vicarious learning model, but we couldn’t offer it. We just couldn’t do it justice. Nimbus has really, significantly changed my interaction with a program that I have wanted to see succeed, but was being held back by its own realities. And that means the world.

What drew you to Nimbus?

I was spending a good chunk of my days either running defense on database issues or trying to support peer tutors and make these connections, when there was a whole other part of my job that needed to happen. That’s really what drew us to Nimbus – the ability to actually spend time with my tutors, to spend time on their training and their development.

I should add – it reduced a lot of barriers for students. Our former system was full of barriers, from the initial cost output to the amount of time it would take to set up a session. Students also had to go down to the finance office and bring us a copy of their receipt to show they paid for the session. There were all of these extra steps that Nimbus has taken care of.

Nimbus has really, significantly changed my interaction with a program that I have wanted to see succeed, but was being held back by its own realities. And that means the world.

How was the onboarding process with Nimbus?

Seamless. I have no complaints.

I think the most helpful thing was that I honestly felt like there were no dumb questions. I am sure I came up with some ridiculous things, just because I was having trouble conceptualizing things and understanding program credits and sessions, but I never felt like there was a bad question.

What are your goals for the first year with Nimbus?

I think I’ve achieved them. I definitely want to get more students onto the platform. At this point I feel good with my tutor recruitment. Now I’m focused on getting more students on here, because we can see the students who start using the platform make use of it multiple times. Something is working there – we just need to get more of them on.

I feel that Nimbus has pulled out all of the stops. We’re building a new baseline and it’s doing good so far.

If you want perspective, we did the math and we’ve had an 8,000% increase in sessions over this time last year. I should say that that means that we had one tutoring hour this time last year – but that’s meaningful, right? It’s still, vis-a-vie other institutions, a small number, I admit that. But for us, that’s huge. And for each of those students, that’s huge.

We’ve had an 8,000% increase in sessions over this time last year.

You said you like to spend time with your tutors so they feel like they get some personal development out of this as well. What does your training look like?

I’m pretty proud of our training program. We offer paid training for all of our tutors which, to me, shows we value their time and their commitment in a meaningful way. We don’t just offer a certificate of completion or whatever, but some money.

We run training in a few parts. Tutors do virtual modules on all of the standard institutional requirements: workplace health and safety, accessibility, training, harassment, discrimination. Next, they do a training module about academic integrity. They then have a training session with me where we actually go through the program policies and procedures, how to use Nimbus, what their expectations are, et cetera. Finally, they’re added to a Microsoft team that’s dedicated to the tutors. That’s where they can have conversations with other tutors and we have short training videos on different topics that we throw into that team. Any resources that we come across we put into files, and they have access to all of those materials.

We’ll also have a January check in as well, to make sure they have everything they need.

Whether or not they’ve had a session, they also get recognition as being peer tutors on their co-curricular transcript. This way they get recognition for doing that training. Then, if they happen to have sessions as well, they can get recognition on their transcript for that.
(At Nipissing, the co curricular transcript — called the Record of Student Development — formally tracks students’ out-of-classroom learning. Things like training, workshops, volunteer opportunities and certificates, all get put on Nipissing University transcript with the goal of demonstrating the transferable soft skills they develop at school.)

Was there anything else you'd like to add about your experience with Nimbus?

Honestly, we’ve had a lovely time. It’s been nothing but support this entire journey.

Midterms, essays, finals… being a student is a TON of work. So much work, in fact, that a lot of students simply don’t have the time to look for the services that you provide.

So when things get stressful, it’s important to be where the students are. Here, we have five tips to alert students that help is available.

Tip #1 - Ask professors to tell students about your tutoring program at the start of class

A professor’s vote of confidence can go a long way to helping students seek help. Bonus if they include the program details in their course syllabus.

Tip #2 - Plug Nimbus in your LMS system so that students associate Nimbus with academic importance and relevance.

When students are looking at course work or starting to prepare for an upcoming test is when searching for a tutor is likely to be front-of-mind. Make it easy for them to get to the resources you provide by plugging them directly into your LMS.

This also gives students that aren’t on social media the resources more directly.

Tip #3 - Invest in advertising and promotion

Not everyone reads their emails — and sometimes they may even go to the dreaded junk folder – so it’s important to increase the variety of ways you get the message out.

Social media adverts are a relatively cost-effective way to advertise your opportunity. You can make them as targeted or as general as you want, and connect with students in a more fun, informal way. If you have the time, try getting creative! Have past tutors post short videos of why they like working with your team or make some cool graphics advertising the top perks of being a tutor.

Is the budget too tight this year for paid adverts? Try having student ambassadors (or tutors) announce the opportunity at the start of target classes, and reach out to students you interact with to see if they may know anyone who’s interested. For virtual classes, have ambassadors record a short video that teachers can play at the start of class.

*Promotional partners can be found throughout the institution, administration, student unions, student groups and more can be leveraged in sharing one message.

Tip #4 - Have students share their own stories

We all have trouble asking for help sometimes. Seeing other, successful students or alum who previously asked for help can make it easier to take that first step.

Ask previous students to record a quick video or write a brief blog about why they sought out a tutor and what they got out of the experience and share through your promotional tools to help create a culture where asking for help is accepted.

Tip #5 - Get support from Nimbus

At Nimbus, we have a wealth of recruitment services, marketing resources and other files to help your program succeed while also saving you time. Check in with your Nimbus partnership representative to see what resources we can tailor to your needs.

Peer-to-peer tutoring and mentorship programs can also help students form valuable, lifelong connections to their community — the trick is to make them easily accessible. Nimbus’s platform easily integrates into your institution’s learning management system and can connect students with the support they need in a few easy clicks. With Nimbus’ tutor management software, 60% of our partners have been able to expand their current student success programs or add new services that meet students where they are. Our dedicated team can help inform you (and your student interns) on where to focus your marketing efforts and can even provide custom materials and strategies to ensure your program’s success.

Get in touch with us to learn more about how we can help!

Midterms are now in session and students are looking for support. If you’re looking for ways to boost your tutoring service, here are five easy tips.

1. Send out a student wide tutor recruitment email

Job opportunity emails are some of the few emails students don’t skip — leverage that. Advertise a flexible, institution-approved work position in the subject line or description for maximum impact.

2. Include your tutor application form link on your website

The more clicks it takes to find the tutoring application form, the more likely a potential applicant is to drop off. If you can, also include this link on your instagram page in the bio section and refer to it in an instagram story to boost recruitment.

3. Don’t neglect social media, make posting a priority!

The more opportunities you make to reach out to students, the better. Create weekly posts on your social accounts that alternate between student program promotion and tutor recruitment/engagement.

If you wanted to be creative you could even create a TikTok to recruit tutors.

4. Leverage different department, clubs and organizations

Ask other departments to share the recruitment posts and emails with their students so the program can grow across the entire institution.

5. Sometimes, old fashioned is best

Print posters and flyers, and put them up across key campus key locations to bring awareness to the student body. Or, try adding a Nimbus bookmark in every book sold at the bookstore.

BONUS

Hire student ambassadors to give a quick 2-4 min announcement at the start of classes to promote the tutoring program and open positions. This was our most successful method of recruitment when we originally launched Nimbus within McGill University.

Peer-to-peer tutoring and mentorship programs can help students form valuable, lifelong connections to their community — the trick is to make them easily accessible. Nimbus’s platform easily integrates into your institution’s learning management system and can connect students with the support they need in a few easy clicks. With Nimbus’ help, 60% of our partners have been able to expand their current student success programs or add new services that meet students where they are. Our dedicated team can help inform you (and your student interns) on where to focus your marketing efforts and can even provide custom materials and strategies to ensure your program’s success.

Get in touch with us to learn more about how we can help!