The situation
Nipissing kept one binder of tutoring requests and another of tutor applications. Later it built an internal database. Students had to pay at the finance office and bring back a receipt before a session could be booked.
“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.”
What Nimbus did
Booking, payment, and tutor management moved to Nimbus, which removed the extra steps for students. The onboarding team answered every question as the program launched.
“I think the most helpful thing was that I honestly felt like there were no dumb questions.”
The result
In one semester, sessions grew 79 times over the same period the year before. Voisin is clear that the starting point was small, a single tutoring hour, and that for Nipissing the change is still huge.
“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?”
With the scheduling handled, Voisin now runs paid training for every tutor: institutional modules, academic integrity, a session on program policies and Nimbus, and an online community with short training videos. Tutors also earn recognition on Nipissing’s co-curricular transcript.
“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.”