What can I get help with?
- Tutors can help you with work you are doing for courses you are currently enrolled in at Douglas.
- In keeping with the Douglas College Academic Honesty policy, tutors are not able to do school work for you nor supply answers for assignments that you must submit as your own work
- In addition to helping you with course assignments and course concepts, tutors can help you work on improving your study and academic skills (writing, reading, study, math, and computer skills).
How can I make the most out of my tutoring sessions?
- Plan time before your tutoring sessions to prepare and then time afterwards to incorporate feedback from your tutor and practice new skills
- Do as much work as possible before seeing a tutor
- Bring specific questions about assignments and course content that you have already worked on.
- Remain active and attentive during the tutoring session
- Limit distractions from electronic devices, food, and side conversations
- Build in time between appointments to incorporate tutor feedback
What happens during an appointment?
During your tutoring appointment, your peer tutor will help you
- evaluate and understand the assignment instructions
- guide you to find resources for and answers to questions about your assignment
- suggest techniques for improving your academic and study skills
When tutors can't help you, they will refer you to Learning Centre faculty or to your own instructor.
How does working with a tutor help improve my writing?
In your tutoring sessions, your tutor can help at any stage of the writing process to:
- help you evaluate and understand the assignment instructions
- discuss your questions about your writing
- review writing techniques, such as thesis development, organization and use of topic sentences
- suggest methods for improving your reading practices and writing
- identify error patterns in your writing and help you improve your editing skills
We can’t proofread for you, but we can help you improve your editing skills by
- helping you recognize errors and showing you strategies to fix them yourself
- guiding you to helpful resources
- giving editing advice and practice
Can I get tutoring in languages other than English?
- The Learning Centre is a multilingual centre, so tutoring may occur in languages that will contribute to student learning.
- However, because the language of instruction in most courses is English, an important goal is for the tutor to prepare the student for using English in their coursework.
Is tutoring confidential?
- Peer tutors have signed a confidentiality agreement to keep all student conversations and written work private. Tutors will only share information about tutoring sessions with faculty and staff in the Learning Centre.
How long are the tutoring appointments?
- The appointments are 25 and 55 minutes long. It’s a little confusing, as our online booking system shows appointments to be 30-minutes and one-hour long.
- Tutors reserve the last 5 minutes of your appointment to do record-keeping and provide you with an emailed client report. Please help your tutor by ending your session on time.
What happens if I need to cancel an appointment?
There are three ways to cancel an appointment:
- Online at douglas.mywconline.com
- By emailing learningcentre@douglascollege.ca
- Through the Virtual Front Desk on our homepage bettwen 9:00am and 4:30pm during the semester.
Tutors understand that students have to cancel appointments for many different reasons. If you do have to cancel, please do so with as much notice as possible, so that other students have the opportunity to book an appointment at that time.
How do I book an online appointment?
- Please refer to the "How to book an online Zoom appointment" document at the bottom of this page.
How do I join an online appointment?
- Please refer to the "How to join an online Zoom appointment" document at the bottom of this page.
What is the policy on long papers for Submit A Draft tutoring?
- Because tutors have an hour to work on your paper, they might not be able to provide feedback on the entirety of your paper. Instead, they might focus on certain aspects on your paper based on the appointment description. If you'd like additional feedback, we recommend making a second appointment with the same tutor, and let them know what parts to focus on.
