1. Online Academic Support Services A Project Developed and Managed Through The Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium

2. WHAT IS SMARTHINKING? SMARTHINKING gives students live, one-to-one assistance from qualified educators 7 days a week

3. Access to qualified and monitored tutors in core courses and skills from any Internet connection An Online Writing Lab for all courses Academic resources SMARTHINKING Provides

4. Give answers or do the student’s work for them Rewrite students’ papers Allow untrained or unmonitored tutors to work with our students Does Not SMARTHINKING Does Not

5. A CTDLC Grant Funded Project Supported by a Davis Foundation Grant which seeks to improve and develop online student services. Designed to be a cost effective, collaborative model which promotes quality and maintains institutional ownership of the tutors.

6. Program Specifics 13 institutions are part of the project Each institution selects, supervises and pays for its own tutors (5 to 15 hours of tutoring a week) Students have access to tutors from all of the institutions for a total this fall of 83 hours of tutoring a week

7. Academic Support Services available to our students: I.One-on-One Drop-in Tutoring live tutoring for Math 7 days a week (basic math – calculus II) Drop-in tutoring for other subjects during the week: Psychology Sociology Accounting

8. SMARTHINKING Hours QUESTION SUBMITTAL –All Subjects: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week SUBMIT YOUR WRITING –All Subjects: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week ACADEMIC RESOURCES –24 hours a day, 7 days a week ARCHIVES –24 hours a day, 7 days a week

9. II. Online Writing Lab Students submit papers for critique 24-hour turn-around time Writing tutors provide assistance in several areas including: ESL General Writing Creative Writing Research Papers Academic Support Services available to our students cont.:

10. III. Question Submittal – Anytime Students can submit questions to SMARTHINKING tutors at any time 24-hour turn-around time V. Student Archives All tutoring sessions are saved in student accounts so they can refer to them at any time VI. Academic Resources – 24/7 Access SMARTHINKING’s academic resources include online writing and study skills handbooks Academic Support Services available to our students cont.:

11. SMARTHINKING Tutors Our tutors’ fundamental objectives are: l to engage and encourage students in active learning, as well as to enhance their motivation. l to strive to help students develop successful learning skills, rather than simply "giving answers" or "doing homework" for them.

12. Tutors Continued Online tutors will: l Encourage students with constructive criticism l Help students identify areas for improvement l Involve students in discussion and problem-solving strategies l Treat students with respect Tutors will not: l Do assignments for the learner, give answers or write any portion of papers l Review and correct errors without active participation of the learners l Comment on grades or predict a possible grade

13. Getting Started Each school has been allocated a generic username and password to distribute to students Students will then log on and create their own unique username and password, which they will use from that point on to access the service After the student creates his / her account, a personal Academic Home Page will be created. CTDLC/Smarthinking Homepage -CTDLC/Smarthinking Homepage

14. Administrative Interface In addition, administrators will have access to usage reports. Under Reports there will be three options to choose from: 1.Total Usage for Schools 2.Who's Registered 3.Usage by Student

15. Usage Reports 1. Total Usage for Schools – This data is broken down three ways, first by interaction type, then by subject and then again by student.

17. Usage Reports Cont. 2. Who's Registered- This option will allow you to gather data for all students who have registered/ created an account with SMARTHINKING. Please note that these students may have created accounts, but may not have used the service. 3. Usage by Student - This option will allow you to pull cumulative data for each individual student. For example, if a professor is requiring that each student use 30 minutes, you will be able to access the total student usage here.

18. A Steady Increase in Usage Usage Report Comparison- Spring 02 to Spring 03 Spring02Fall 02Spring03 Total Registrations56288515 Writing Lab Essays38204398 Submitted Questions43132 Live Sessions338784 Total Sessions114423614 By Subject: Essays41220416 Math3394111 Accounting23641 Psychology/Sociologyn/a3921 Computer Science381825 Distinct Users39136154 New Registrations55284225

19. Online Academic Support: That’s SMARTHINKING! www.smarthinking.com