Mississippi State students now have access to free tutoring through a new peer tutoring program. Through the program, students with a 2.75 GPA or higher can provide academic advice and tutoring services to their classmates.
Peer tutoring was developed in the Student Association Academic Affairs Committee and offers a less formal, more flexible option for students seeking academic services compared to traditional options such as the Learning Center or meeting with an adviser.
Jeffery Slater, SA academic affairs director, said the program’s main focus is providing assistance to students having difficulty grasping classroom material. Ideally, the service will be conducted between students sharing the same major.
“General academic advice comes back to what students do among themselves anyway,” Slater said. “Students talk and ask questions like, ‘What is the best teacher to take?'”
The program is run from the SA’s official Web site and operates via e-mail communication between students. A student seeking a peer mentor must explore a database featuring a link to MSU’s eight colleges.
After selecting a college, a list of peer mentors will appear providing the name, major, classification and e-mail address of each student.
Currently, there are more than 55 available peer mentors with more applications being processed.
“If a student needs help, they can contact a volunteer and set up a meeting time, or maybe the student’s question can be answered right then and there by e-mail,” Slater said. “E-mail will be the primary means of contact. We aren’t going to give out phone numbers. This is based off trust.”
Junior international business and Spanish major Ashley Edwards is a peer mentor listed under the College of Arts and Sciences.
“I feel like this is a great opportunity to give back to State and help students, and not just freshmen, but anyone who needs help in a specific area,” Edwards said.
Although she said she can certainly help with business classes, her expertise lies in Spanish.
“Maybe a student may be wondering about what is tailored toward the next exam,” she said. “They could ask questions about how to form certain past tenses, or the uses of the past tenses in Spanish.”
Although the MSU administration is supportive of the program’s premise, some professional advisers on campus hold concerns about whether or not students are qualified to give general academic advice.
Academic adviser Jan Odom said students often make poor planning decisions based on advice offered from fellow students.
“We’ve had so many students come in and tell us that their friend, brother or sister that went here said it was OK to take a certain class, and it wasn’t,” Odom said. “My concern would be students receiving incorrect info with no caution as to the results if the info is incorrect.”
Slater said peer advisers are not meant to take the place of MSU’s professional staff members and peer mentors are all volunteers.
He said general academic advice includes peer mentors offering guidance on topics such as choosing between established electives, explaining the best route for pursuing medical school, law school or the advantages of a double concentration.
“Advisers give students a RAC [registration access code] and approve their schedules. This program isn’t meant for that,” Slater said. “Students can take the advice or not. This isn’t professional advice. We aren’t doing their job in any way.”
Odom is highly supportive of peer tutoring as a concept. She said when students share common interests, it creates a comfortable atmosphere for communicating information.
“There isn’t an authority figure hanging over a student’s head with peer tutoring,” she said. “There isn’t a perceived power differential between a student needing help and a student receiving help, where there usually is when an adult faculty or staff member tutors a student.”
Odom said the peer tutoring program could temper the amount of students falling through the cracks, but it would be a mistake for a student to assume the role of a traditional academic adviser.
“Students cannot rely on anyone but their professional adviser, if they want to be absolutely certain, for correct information about every major here at State,” she said.
Freshman business and communication major Katie Goodman said she will most likely take advantage of the program.
“This is a good idea. It will help me know what teachers to take,” Goodman said. “Also, professors cannot always help you. A peer tutor would be more available and line up easier with my schedule.”
Goodman said she sometimes becomes a bit intimidated while speaking with professors or forgets to approach them after class. She said the peer tutoring Web site will make it easy for her when seeking additional help.
“If I didn’t get all the notes, or didn’t hear right, or need a second opinion or just need to clarify exactly what it is the professor is trying to explain, I can go to the Web site and just pick out a peer,” she said.