TAMPA, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Link-Systems International, Inc. (LSI), an educational technology company that pioneered the concept of on-demand, 24/7 online tutoring in 1996, with student-centric eLearning solutions, announced today that its flagship online tutoring service, NetTutor, now offers support specifically designed for students taking Student Success, or Freshman (or First-) Year Experience (FYE), courses.
NetTutor Student Success is highly customizable for each partner institution, as the learning objectives for the associated courses can vary greatly. Depending on the course objectives, specially trained tutors help students understand the course structure, navigate the Learning Management Systems, or familiarize themselves with terminology and acronyms used by the college. During each session, Student Success tutors coach students on non-cognitive skills like grit, resiliency, and time-management to help them achieve positive outcomes. Additionally, Student Success tutors support students by looking at the larger academic picture and helping them improve their study and learning habits by offering ways to structure, organize and plan their school work.
According to the 2009 National Survey of First-Year Seminars: Ongoing efforts to support students in transition, 87 percent of two- and four-year colleges offered an FYE course. In 2012, the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition reported that more than 52 percent of four-year institutions require all first-year students to take a student success class.
“As more colleges offer student success courses designed to help incoming students adjust to the demands of college curricula and independent learning, our partners told us that students need more than just curriculum support for these courses. Students need help applying the skills they learn in these types of courses, which will enable them to succeed throughout their college careers and after graduation,” said Vincent Forese, President, Link-Systems International. “Link-Systems designed Student Success tutoring to help students develop critical thinking skills, confidence and become independent learners. This is important because there’s substantial evidence that student success courses have a positive impact on GPA, persistence, and retention.”
First-year experience, student success course, and tutoring are three of 13 high-impact practices for community college success, according to the Center for Community College Student Engagement’s special initiative, Identifying and Promoting High-Impact Educational Practices in Community Colleges.
NetTutor Student Success has been piloted at an online college that found student success courses were especially important for its students, who tend to be older, had taken time off before going to or going back to school, and may not have been academically successful before. Student Success tutors helped students improve their study skills by identifying their learning patterns and how to apply those patterns to their life. The sessions also helped students become better critical thinkers, readers and writers; decode academic tasks; and self-regulate their school work to match the assignment.
Link-Systems’ professional development for its tutors includes understanding how to tutor all types of learners, including what used to be termed non-traditional college students and their specific challenges – especially their work/life/education balance – and to go beyond course material to coach students on what it takes to be successful college students. Training includes strategies to foster student agency and confidence.
“In our 20 years of working with higher education institutions, we know that tutoring is a healthy study habit — not only as a just-in-time intervention when a student is stuck on a homework problem or feeling lost when studying for a test — and that student success courses promote productive help-seeking behavior,” Forese added.
NetTutor Student Success tutoring is available now, at the same cost as traditional NetTutor. Interested colleges already offering NetTutor need to request the offering as part of their package.
About Link-Systems International, Inc. (LSI)
Link-Systems
International (www.link-systems.com)
draws on two decades of innovation to deliver eLearning solutions that
improve student success and institutional effectiveness. LSI partners
value and trust LSI because of a shared purpose: helping students learn.
All LSI solutions are FERPA & ADA compliant. With a satellite office in
Tempe, AZ, the privately held EdTech company is based in Tampa, FL.
