Phoenix Forward

Struggling with math? This online tool could be your shining knight

Jill Elaine Hughes

| May 2, 2012

$Student struggling with homework.$

Thanks to a new support tool, University of Phoenix students can get one-on-one math help when they need it most.

The University of Phoenix's Timely Tutoring tool tracks how students currently enrolled in the basic algebra course MAT 116 are doing in their coursework. If a student appears to need some extra help by week two of the course, Timely Tutoring sends an automated invitation with a live clickable link that takes the student straight to the University's live online tutoring function.

"We find that by just sending this simple automated notification, we are getting a lot more of our students to take advantage of math tutoring," explains Clifton Luke, PhD, a former math instructor and the vice president of learning products for the Apollo Group, the parent company of University of Phoenix. "It's a good use of a simple technology."

The Timely Tutoring tool, which will eventually be available to even more math students, grew out of student support services that the Center for Mathematics Excellence currently offers.

Although online tutoring with a live, online, real-time math instructor has been available for some time, "we found that those resources have been quite underutilized," Luke says.

By tracking and identifying students who may need an extra boost in math, Timely Tutoring takes the guesswork out of when to ask for extra help. "Not all of our students know when they need help, or that these resources exist," Luke says. "By making it automatic, Timely Tutoring connects students with the support that can help them succeed at math without students' having to dig around for that information.

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