Tag: StFX

To find out more about integrating a new tutoring program with the existing student culture, we spoke to Cecil VanBuskirk, the former President of the St. FX Student’s Union and a current member of Nimbus’s Student Advisory Council which helps Nimbus understand the needs of current students.

Did St. FX have a tutoring program before you got in touch with Nimbus?

We did have a tutoring program, but it was based out of our library and never really caught on with the wider student body. A lot of people would tutor each other off of books, right in their little core demographic. They’d find their smart, cool friend that would tutor them just for free in the library or, like what I did in first year, I just found my fourth year buddy and paid him a couple of bucks just to help me out. It was all very informal. So to have a company come in and offer a solution that kind of modernized the tutoring overall made things a lot better for the state of the FX tutoring community.

We partnered with the library, that’s how we got the whole thing going. We said, okay, we want to help you out with this and make this successful and the librarian loved the fact that Nimbus offered a very modern approach: used technology, hands off for them, hands off for us too.

How are you approaching getting students interested in Nimbus when the formal tutoring program already wasn’t part of your campus culture?

Nimbus has, I think, added a lot of value to our campus, but students didn’t really flock to the program right away.

People don’t like change, right? We tried to employ more marketing, just try and promote the fact that this product could save everyone time if they just tried. Sure enough, it did actually take up.

**according to our analytics, St. FX increased their sessions from 36 in their first semester to 220 in the fall 2021 semester

Did you notice anything that really got people’s attention?

Overall, what worked is when the student representatives actually talked about Nimbus. What we did is we went to all the different classes around when midterms and exams were approaching. We figured if we targeted the first years, that would create some succession in the idea of Nimbus. So, we went to the big first year classes and asked them to go check out Nimbus, it takes two flippin seconds, and we got people to go try and download the app on their phone. That was great for just general uptake. Word of mouth, you could call it.

That’s where we kind of pivoted, we were like, Okay, this isn’t a big school. They actually need to see people talking about it or else they won’t pay attention.

The promotional materials that Nimbus supplied that we just kind of copied and pasted were unreal. We loved the convenience of it and the overall branding of it because it was so easy to fit into our own brand. We saw a lot of traction on certain Instagram posts that Nimbus created. They would get a lot of uptake and likes.

We also did one or two contests. But word of mouth was the big thing for us.

When you got Nimbus rolling, how did you find tutors?

We basically just pivoted the already existing legitimate business onto the Nimbus platform. Something that we struggled with was finding tutors that were willing to do it. There wasn’t as much of a need for it because everybody knows each other – everybody knows somebody that can help them.

Once we got the word of mouth out there, the more it was connecting the groups that didn’t know each other. So, if somebody needed help in a science course that they randomly took, that was the opportunity because they had no friends in that class. In the elective classes too, those were the opportunities which I thought were interesting because it’s a little bit different. People were looking for elective tutors on their hard courses.

The team at Mount Allison mentioned that one of the big things about the Nimbus program is that they could connect tutoring programs from different societies so they’re all on this one platform. So, if you were a business student and you had to take a science course to get an elective credit, but the business society didn’t have any science tutors on staff, then you could go to the science team and get a tutor through the app.

Yes, exactly. It’s like building bridges across different departments that you wouldn’t otherwise have access to. I think that that’s the beauty of Nimbus. And this whole new proposition of bridging the gap between schools to build this network that’s broader than just one campus.

Did Nimbus help with admin after the fact as well?

Yeah, the Nimbus guys were often the single point of contact between all of us. St. FX has a complicated structure but, basically, the library and the Student Union talked but we weren’t bonded, you know? We were often pulled in different directions and we would talk to Nimbus at different times. They would be kind of like our secretary – the people that would kind of hold everything together.

How was the process of transitioning through the pandemic?

I was ending my term just as the pandemic was beginning, but it was weird. It was certainly weird. And that’s where Nimbus became a big asset because it’s online.

To think about how many students are struggling right now, I can only imagine it is amplified when there’s no connection to anybody. Probably procrastination goes up, people don’t want to do it because they don’t have that connection to the work.

How can you connect with people online? Like, like, I feel like you and I are talking in person to a certain degree right now over Zoom, right? How can you encourage people to feel that way? everywhere?

The transition process was so much easier than I thought it was going to be with Nimbus, because they did so much of the legwork for us. I think that that’s a huge asset for anybody that’s considering Nimbus, simply because we’re all busy. We all don’t have time to achieve our goals because we have often spread ourselves way too thin. And to have a goal that’s very simple, which is improve the learning environment of St FX or a school and improve the tutoring environment and to have a platform that does all the legwork to set it up for us even as far as the negotiated contracts. That’s what was amazing to me is, I was anticipating having to write these tutoring contracts and I hated just thinking about it but, sure enough, Nimbus pulled through to do it all for us. I think that that was a huge relief on me that I could then focus on what really mattered, which was trying to get students and tutors to the platform.

The beauty of joining with Nimbus is that the transition process is easy. They’ll do a lot of strategic development and consulting with you to make sure that they succeed because they’re just as vested in the students’ learning experiences as we are

Keeping up with the demand for your tutoring program can be difficult – Nimbus can help. With our help, program administrators reduce their workload by 52%, which has allowed 60% of our partners to expand current or add new student success programs. 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 success.

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

We recently sat down with Mark Leeming, the Learning Skills Coordinator at St. Francis Xavier University, to talk about the University’s transition to the Nimbus platform and how their tutoring programs intend to use Nimbus to assist students throughout the era of social distancing.

StFX connected with Nimbus in Fall of 2019. Leeming found the Nimbus platform allowed him to keep better track of the tutors, creating a more precise registry and a better understanding of what types of tutors are needed. Moving forwards, Leeming is excited about continuing to unify the StFX online tutoring presence via the Nimbus platform and reaching more students with easier marketing tools. The online tutoring presence will also prove useful if social distancing measures need to be enforced next fall.

What sorts of barriers were you experiencing with your tutoring program before you moved to Nimbus?

Well, there used to be a central tutoring program at this university, but it expired many years ago and it was sort of the tutoring wild west when I showed up. Every department had different policies – some had a close hand on things and others had a deliberate hands off policy.

I started by simply maintaining a registry and vetting tutors and my registry at first was on paper and then was just a document on a website, which served its purpose for a while, but it’s very limited. People didn’t know it existed and it was very hard to keep it up to date and, of course, in the end it’s just nothing more than a list.

I was looking for solutions and just as I happened to be looking for improvements the Students Union came along and said, ‘we’re interested in this thing, Nimbus. Do you think the university would be interested in participating?’

We created a partnership [with Nimbus] fairly quickly there and we drew in the Schwartz school of business as well. We’re setting up a branch office of my Student Success Center over there called success Schwartz Success. And the business school has also attempted to maintain their own tutor registry through the Schwartz business society, which was about as successful as my own, but it was inconsistent.

So, you were looking to kind of bring everything under one umbrella?

Exactly. It was easier to manage.

We spent some time investigating providers, there are a couple of main providers in Canada, and we decided that Nimbus was the way to go

How did the transition go, from no platform to integrating it fully into several different programs?

It hasn’t been that difficult to transition [since] I was developing a kind of registry before this. I’ve been spending a couple of years conditioning people to know that if they want to be tutors, they should come talk to me. So that wasn’t too difficult. There were some challenges convincing some people to move to an online database and scheduling system. A lot of people don’t want to include their financial details in an app, or scheduling details, they just want their name on a list to have people find them offline. But otherwise a fairly simple changeover…

The biggest change has been trying to expand it and convince more people to come online and away from the strict offline tutoring business; Convincing them that there’s enough utility to commit to the process of having a profile.

And how have you been able to convince them to do this?

It’s more or less a process of attrition. In that the more people who join the more isolated the ones who don’t. The better it works, the more people will join it.

Now that you have been working with it for a while, how has Nimbus helped your tutoring program?

It’s helped me to know what’s going on. Knowing which courses people are searching for. It’s a lot better than the blackbox method of trying to have a tutor for everything but not knowing who’s working on what.

Being able to keep up with updating the list is so much easier, rather than sending out emails every term. My list always had a number of tutors who weren’t really active, but they were on there anyway. So that’s easier.

I can’t say whether or not it’s really expanded the number of people giving and receiving tutoring, because I really don’t know what the numbers were before. And I don’t know fully what the numbers are now, because there have been still a lot of people who remained offline. Our process of incorporating was interrupted by a certain pandemic.

What I’m most optimistic about is the student union, the Schwarts Success Center are all working on unifying the online presence and approaching students marketing, more so even than last year. This year we get to start with students before they get to campus, or to our virtual campus, or whatever happens.

What do your tutors think of the app?

I’ve spoken to some of them, not a huge number, because I don’t actually employ tutors – they’re privately employed. The platform registers scheduling and payment system. When I talk to the tutors it’s often either they’re new and haven’t used it yet, and going through the vetting process, or they have a problem. If it’s working well people tend not to speak up.

I’ve talked people who have trouble with payment system or have trouble with the scheduling system, whatever their troubles were, they were all very pleased with how well the Nimbus team responded. I mean if you’re used to seeking tech support for apps and programs hardware or software, you’re probably used to asking questions and not getting answers for a long time. You guys are quick.

Is there anything else you would like to mention that I haven’t asked in regard to what you’re looking at this summer?

You guys are working hard on providing an online tutoring platform, which you did, and now working on providing something for group tutoring. Very useful departments at the University are going to be interested in providing some group tutoring options, even at the department level.

Most people are generally aware that things are going to be different. And when things are different, inevitably, some students are going to suffer from that because we have to deal with the full range of humans.

Every situation will be better for some than others, and the ones that it’s bad for are going to need help. It’s good to have something like Nimbus to help that group of people get what they need.

Keeping up with the demand for your tutoring program can be difficult – Nimbus can help. With our help, program administrators reduce their workload by 52%, which has allowed 60% of our partners to expand current or add new student success programs. 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 success.

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

Nimbus began working with the St. FX Student Union in the Fall of 2019 to assist in streamlining their tutoring platform. Representatives of the Student Union say the system has made it much easier for the tutors to connect with their clients. Rather than having to track the various communication methods and messaging systems that clutter up modern life, both tutors and students knew exactly how to get in contact with each other through the app. The platform also allows the administrators of the program to set up specific sites approved for tutoring – increasing the safety for both students and tutors. Finally, since they are now able to track what subjects students are requesting, the tutoring program knows which subjects they need to recruit tutors for, better supporting their students.

Here, we spoke to a representative of the student union to see how Nimbus is fitting into their tutoring program.

When did the St. FX Student Union start using Nimbus?

We implemented the system in November.

What made you look for a platform like Nimbus?

We were struggling a lot with our past system for peer tutoring and a lot of tutors sounded very frustrated to us. It wasn’t really accurate. And so, when Nimbus came to us suggesting them as a peer tutoring app, we began to look into other options and ended up going with Nimbus because we thought they were the best option.

What sorts of barriers were you experiencing with your tutoring program before implementing Nimbus?

I couldn’t speak to all of the barriers, but from what I’ve understood from listening to students, the main barrier was the technology and getting in contact with their own tutor. Rather than the apps facilitating all of it, which it does now, they would have to ask and email each other and a lot of other barriers to entry. The vetting system was complicated, and the software in general was pretty dated.

What were you looking for in this sort of app?

[When] we started looking, we began to realize that what we were looking for is an app that facilitated everything: messaging, calendar invites, the whole ten yards.

Like a one stop shop – so students don’t have to navigate away from the app in order to get this sorted out?

Exactly. A lot of tutors, what I found, were using their Facebook messaging for some students, emails for other students. They would have trouble remembering where they were meeting up.

How did Nimbus help your tutoring program?

We’re still in the midst of really making it go, but so far the safety of [the program] because all of it’s in house and we get to pick the locations that tutors tutor at. The fact that we’re able to now monitor how many happen, where we need more tutors, or what subjects we need more tutors for and things – that’s really excellent. It organized it, to give you a short answer.

So, it helped you not just with scheduling but also to kind of streamline the entire program?

Yeah, absolutely.

Is there anything else that you’d like us to know about Nimbus or how you’re implementing it?

Everybody that I’ve worked with in Nimbus and in the implementation process have been incredible to work with. And the speed at which Ben and Will work at, also, how they’ve helped us in our marketing troubles and creating marketing materials and creating classroom announcements scripts has been superb. From a customer service perspective, they’ve been absolutely great to work with.

The Nimbus App can make connecting students with tutors easy and flexible. Let us show you how.