Tag: tutoring

The Alma Mater Society at the University of British Columbia had an incredibly successful first semester with Nimbus. They quadrupled the amount of tutoring sessions run, reduced their administrative workload, and began a group online tutoring feature which will be fully supported by Nimbus at the start of this year.

We spoke to Sheldon Birkett, the coordinator for AMS tutoring, about launching a completely virtual tutoring program and how they worked with Nimbus to tailor the app to exactly what they needed.

AMS has had a really successful year so far. How did you guys set yourselves up at the start of the semester to hit the ground running?

At the very beginning of September we held virtual imagine day, a day where students can go around to different booths and ask questions and see different clubs. We we mainly focused on Nimbus, and I think that really increased the initial interest in it.

This year we also had tutors pre-record announcements for class which I actually sent to all the major first year courses like the sciences and other big courses. We also sent the professors some materials the Nimbus business development team provided me about the app. I also made a course banner they could add to the syllabus, like a QR code on the syllabus they could scan and go to the app or find out how to access other services offered by AMS tutoring.

Nimbus helped a lot because they reached out to many AMS constituencies – the clubs and organizations at UBC, like the arts undergrad societies, the economics society, geography… Nimbus reaching out to them helped promote the service because there’s only two of us overseeing 30 to 40 tutors for both in group and private tutoring, so we don’t have that much time to devote to marketing.

What sort of supports did the Nimbus business development team provide?

Mainly it was any technical issues or anything that had to do with repayments, like refunds or anything like that. I would also ask [the Nimbus team] to also help out with marketing type stuff. What we really appreciated at the start of the year was self-promotion tips for tutors on the Nimbus app. That was a great idea because tutors can have much further reach than a coordinator can by just doing the promoting online.

We can only provide a certain number of courses because the AMS is funded through UBC AMS and we can only provide so much. Nimbus is a great solution because Nimbus brought on the engineering undergrad society; there’s a big demand for engineering courses that we can now offer.

Do you feel that Nimbus has helped you with the growth of the program?

Yes. I think that it made it more accessible. I’m on the app and its intuitive to use, especially during COVID it made the service a lot more accessible for students…I think that’s a major reason why a lot of students prefer using Nimbus rather than going through Zoom. Also, the appointment [feature] to book one on one; I think students really appreciate that.

Has Nimbus helped you guys reduce your administrative workload at all?

This saves a lot of time for me because we have, in addition to the constituencies, you also need tutoring for UBC varsity athletes. A large part of our tutors are appointment tutoring in previous years, and this year as well, because varsity athletes get subsidized tutoring…In terms of the payment structure, what we used to do at the end of every term, I would tally up all the training sessions and hours and everything and send it over to them, extended the payment, everything. On the Nimbus app, …[the athletes] they just pay on an as needed credit basis through the app, which is super helpful for myself as I don’t have to keep track of that. They have their own console on their end to deal with it.

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 more about how we can help!

This week, we sat down with Manjyot Kalkat, the Vice Stick Academic for University of Manitoba Engineering Society about running a faculty specific tutoring program and how he’s expanding the program while everyone is off campus.

Kalkat also talks about the discord server UMES is using to stay in touch and keep that school spirit going across the country.

What was your tutoring program like last year?

Before this we just had a registry that was posted on our website. If students wanted it, they would go to the registry, look for tutors under specific classes and then contact them from there.

What are your tutoring program goals for this year?

This season, we’re looking to increase our reach to the undergraduate engineering students. We hope to do this by increasing the tutoring programming through our partnership with Nimbus, adding more tutors so that students will have a number of choices from the different classes and making sure that students know that we have this set up.

How are you approaching this expansion?

After we got the {Nimbus] program set up and I got access to the admin console, my first step was to approach tutors from the previous years to see if they would be interested in joining our new program this year. Once everyone has been transitioned and were accustomed to the new platform, we pushed our promotions. We promoted to various social media accounts and sent an email blast to the undergraduate body. Doing that we were able to recruit more tutors and made sure that the students knew about the program there.

It has been effective. Through the weekly newsletters and emails there has been an increased number of applicants to the tutoring program.

What made you interested in working with Nimbus?

[Our exec team] really liked what they saw with Nimbus, mainly that everything was encapsulated in one platform. The big thing for me was having the online whiteboard feature, so during these trying times students will be able to teach each other online. Also having a payment feature right there as well, just having everything in one.

I’ve heard a lot of tutors enjoy the ability, when they’re setting up meetings, to use the messaging feature and then they can contact and find out what specific topics that the students would like to address. Then they can be better prepared for their first meeting.

What [the students] enjoy is how you can give feedback on tutors and read reviews that others have posted about them. They can better gauge if they will be a good fit for you.

I could imagine that the whiteboard feature would be pretty necessary with engineering.

It’s really good.

What other sorts of strategies have you put in place to cope with the pandemic?

One thing we have set up is this faculty wide Discord server. All the students can come on to chat and there’s different class channels on there. It’s another method for students to have discussions with one another and help each other out. They can just hop on the discord to chat and whatnot, it’s nice and relaxing as well to be in contact with everyone.

Students are always able to come and contact me with any academic needs. I can either help them or I can direct them to someone else who might be better suited to help

Do you have any advice for students this year?

I would say just ask for help, whenever you need it. There are plenty resources that UMES offers the Faculty of Engineering and is offered university wide by the University of Manitoba – like mental health resources and academic resources. So, making sure to get well informed with those. We make sure to do our job, promoting them as well.

Along with that I would also advise students to try to make connections in these times with other classmates and older classmates.

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!

This week we sat down with Ann-Majella McKelvie, the President of the Trent Central Student Association, about launching Trent’s new tutoring program in the midst of a pandemic and how outsourcing the tutor hiring and on-boarding to Nimbus is helping the program get started.

What is the Trent Central Student’s Association?

We are the Student Union at Trent university that represents all the undergraduate students on the Peterborough campus.

Our biggest role is to represent our membership. We do this through advocating to our university’s administration on different campus issues, and to different levels of government.

We also work with the Canadian Federation of Students to communicate with all levels of government and to advocate for student needs and issues.

We also provide services for our members – Our biggest services are transit as well as health benefits. We work very closely with the city to be able to provide an affordable universal bus pass and we also have the privilege of being able to actually plan the routes and things like that.

We also do lots of different events, and campaigns around different things that students are really passionate about.

What is the Trent Central Students Association connection to the tutoring program?

It is a new program that we are launching this September.

With online learning and students voicing their concern of needing extra support while they’re navigating their education online, we felt that this was a really good opportunity to pick up on and provide for students. After doing a feedback survey, students shared that they would love to see tutoring more widely available on campus – with the ability to do tutoring [virtually] with the Nimbus app, that was a huge desire for us.

We also don’t have the capacity to do the hiring and vetting and all that stuff and so that was another piece that was really attractive for us as well. To have that partnership [with Nimbus], to be able to launch something and also provide capacity that we don’t have is really great.

What are your goals for the school year with the tutoring program?

Definitely the biggest goal for me right now is to get it out there and share this new app with the students. Also to really gain feedback on if this is a beneficial tool for students.

I think really sharing those benefits and not only being able to provide a tutoring service but also to be able to provide job opportunities for students was really attractive as well. We know students are struggling in terms of finances and trying to find work and stuff and so to be able to provide that with this app was attractive as well. Being able to provide both support as well as opportunities for students was definitely a big goal for me and I think the Nimbus app is really great and providing that opportunity for students.

Has your organization changed his approach to Student Services this year because of the pandemic?

Absolutely. Everything for the summer was moved all remote, all online and communication was definitely a new thing to navigate. Obviously we’ve used social media for communication and such, but in person stuff was a huge part of what we do and to not have that was very challenging, especially at the beginning. A really valuable learning curve for us was to adapt and learn what students need in order to get the information that they require to be able to be successful in the upcoming year

Definitely some big challenges but we’re learning a lot and how to provide better service for students.

What advice do you have for students as they begin school this year?

The biggest advice I always give, COVID or not, is to be open minded to new opportunities that may come your way. Being able to go to university is a privilege, and I think it’s important to take advantage of the opportunities that are there for you when you’re at school. To not just go to classes, but something like joining a club or applying for a job. Being open minded, trying new things and stepping out of your comfort zone a little bit – you don’t know where that’s going to take you.

For me that definitely applied when I started at Trent. I decided to join my college cabinet; definitely a huge step out of my comfort zone. If I didn’t make that choice in first year there’s no way I’d be where I am today. So, take the opportunities that come your way and don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone because you don’t know where that may take you in the future

Another piece of advice I’d like to get for folks is treat people with kindness; be nice. A lot of people are feeling a lot of like frustration and a lot of like negative feelings at this time.

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 more about how we can help!