Academics

Undergraduate peer tutors help HPA students succeed

Undergraduate peer writing tutors coach health policy and administration students enrolled in courses with a writing emphasis.  Credit: Tom KnarrAll Rights Reserved.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The instructor’s office hours are booked; the TA is MIA; and the Writing Center can fix most comma errors, but these edits don't address the content. So what’s a health policy and administration (HPA) undergraduate to do?

Rachele Mash, who graduated in May, was one of four undergraduate peer writing tutors employed in the spring semester to work with students enrolled in the writing-intensive courses HPA 301W Health Policy Issues and HPA 390 Professional Development. Mash, an HPA senior, leads the tutor team, which also includes HPA students Samantha DiMeo, Amelia Browning and Austin Jerman.

Mash, under the guidance of HPA Senior Lecturer and Writing Coach Tom Knarr, first unveiled the tutoring program during the fall 2015 HPA 301W courses. She also helped recruit and train her three colleagues for their spring tutoring duties, which include attending and assisting four HPA 390 courses and two HPA 301W courses.

So what does being an HPA peer tutor involve? As outlined in their signed statement of accountability, tutors will:

  • Be present and prepared for each session of class, including peer review and writing workshops.
  • Understand and be able to communicate fully the requirements of each assignment.
  • Be prepared, based on the course calendar, to verbally offer insight and experiences during each day’s lecture/lesson.
  • Meet with students outside of class and be sure to choose a safe/public location on campus.
  • Maintain online records such as the class blog sites, Twitter, etc.

The last duty has garnered positive feedback from both HPA students and faculty. After each class, the peer tutor will outline the day’s lesson in each class and post reminders of quizzes and other due dates on the HPA tutor blog. The tutor will also tweet these reminders, helpful links, and assignment advice over the blog’s Twitter feed: @theWriteWay_HPA. The account also follows other Penn State Twitter sites relevant to the course, as well as national sites such as Career Builder, Monster, Health Care Careers, and Penn State Hershey Medical Center.

Mash said her ability to have social media ties to her peers provided another route for students to find the help they need.

“Just this year, we have used Twitter and the blog more than ever, but I see us implementing these resources more frequently in class,” she said. “Students seem to enjoy the ability to have a blog to review the day’s activities or to learn more about lecture topics. The more active that peer tutors are outside the classroom helps inform students of our ability and willingness to help.”

DiMeo said she gained as much from her experiences as a tutor as she gave to her peers.

“As a peer tutor, I did not realize how much I would personally take away from the tutoring experience,” she said. “I thought I could be of help to my fellow colleagues, but I did not anticipate the effect that this position would have on me. I have thoroughly enjoyed sharing my experiences with other students and passing along advice that I have received from my own mentors.”

Such experiences are what many of the students value most from the tutors.

“Being able to have those who were in our shoes not long before us guide us and help us to excel in this course has been really beneficial and has overall improved my academic experience,” said HPA student Awele Ajufo.

Browning sees her job as simply easing the tensions and frustrations that many students face trying to discuss assignments with their instructors. Browning pointed out that unlike professor-student or teaching assistant-student relationships, “peer tutor-student relationships provide an open channel for communication in which students feel more at ease with asking questions and receiving constructive criticism.”

Overall, according to Knarr, the program has had a very successful launch; however, he is not ready to rest on the program’s laurels. Over the next year, he hopes to see the program assist in all HPA courses, not just those with writing components. He also foresees the program working more closely with the online undergraduate program through the use of other web technologies.

“What I have noticed most over the past year or so is that students today will respond to old-fashioned emails within seconds of my sending one out,” Knarr said. “They are connected with smartphones, Twitter feeds, and even Fitbits that notify them that social media is calling. We, as instructors, also need to be connected to our students, as well as provide them with resources that relate to their particular lifestyles and trends.”

With that in mind, Knarr said, the HPA Undergraduate Peer Tutor Program’s vision is to be more than a workshop or last-minute review for students. The program strives to remain “connected” to the students it serves and provide continued assistance throughout each semester.

Last Updated August 19, 2016

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