Faculty FAQ

The Learning Assistance Center provides services for Brockport students who wish to receive help with meeting their academic goals. A comprehensive peer tutoring program, study skills workshops, and ample reference materials make the Learning Assistance Center a place that promotes student success. The services offered by the Learning Assistance Center are available to all Brockport students free of charge—no application is necessary.

The Learning Assistance Center provides free support to students through math and writing tutoring, course-specific tutoring, individual consultations with academic coaches, and academic workshops that build college-level learning skills. We also offer supplemental instruction in select courses to help students meet the demands of academic rigor.

Both undergraduate and graduate students from many different disciplines use the tutoring services at the Learning Assistance Center. During the 2020-2021 academic year, the Learning Assistance Center provided assistance to 1,858 students, which is about 25% of the entire student body! Tutoring in math and writing is open to all students. Tutoring for specific courses is designed for students enrolled in those courses.

The Learning Assistance Center tutors are undergraduate or graduate students who are selected based upon faculty recommendations, academic excellence, and a willingness to help others. In addition, six graduate assistants from the Departments of Mathematics and English tutor for 15 hours per week each semester. The Learning Assistance Center employs approximately 180 Brockport students each year. We also have a few professional math tutors and one professional writing tutor on staff.

Tutoring provides students with the opportunity to work with peers on problem-solving, study strategies, writing strategies, and content clarification in an informal setting. To make the most of the tutoring experience, we recommend that students complete all reading assignments, attend classes, attempt to solve homework problems or understand assignments, and have specific questions in mind to discuss with the tutors. Finally, students should always bring their textbook(s), assignment sheet(s), class notes, paper, software, and course syllabi for reference as needed.

While no two tutoring sessions are alike, we provide our tutors with a template for facilitating discussion and problem solving that includes the following components:

• Identification of issues or concerns
• Goal-setting for the session
• Discussion of the material and the assignment
• Explanation or demonstration of problem solving, study strategies, writing strategies
• Closure

In addition, the tutors are trained to ask clarifying questions, to determine what students know and what they do not know. The tutors expect students to actively participate in the tutoring process by arriving prepared and asking questions.

No, tutors are instructed not to assist students with take-home exams without the instructor’s permission. Our experience has shown that some instructors welcome the assistance, while others do not, so we remind our tutors to be aware of these issues. It is a best practice for instructors to send a copy of the take-home exam to a Learning Assistance Center staff member. From here, we can share the exam with the tutors so that they can recognize the exam problems and thus not provide any inappropriate assistance.

Some faculty members make a general announcement about the Learning Assistance Center services; others make recommendations to specific students who are struggling with course material; and others require students to come, particularly for writing issues. Many faculty members find it beneficial to include a brief section in their syllabus about the Learning Assistance Center. It is helpful to remind students that tutoring is a free service that utilizes mostly peer tutors.

Yes. Students need to make an appointment through EagleSUCCESS or if here for drop-in math tutoring, sign in at the kiosk. Faculty members who wish to know which of their students used our services may contact Program Director Mike Dentino at mdentino@brockport.edu.

Student and tutor feedback and quantitative analyses of usage and retention rates are among the many ways we measure the success of our program.

• Tutor Success Survey
• Student Success Survey
• Usage Reports
• Retention Study
• Student Opinion Survey

We have an extensive writing tutoring program staffed with tutors selected by faculty, including three graduate assistants from the department of English. These tutors are trained to help students across the disciplines develop the writing strategies they need to be successful. Faculty who wish to have their students receive more specialized writing tutoring may contact the Learning Assistance Center to discuss discipline or class-specific writing tutoring. The Learning Assistance Center will hire tutors recommended by faculty to provide writing support to students in specific disciplines or classes. Please contact Elisabeth Gonzalez to discuss your needs. Students who are not able to physically get to the Learning Assistance Center may ask for remote writing tutoring services.

1. Go to Course Tools
2. Select Roster
3. From the Add Participants menu, select Add Existing User
4. Search the person in the box beneath Add Existing Users (check your search parameters, e.g. last name, username, etc. I have the best luck when I search by email.)
5. Click on the magnifying glass to search
6. Scroll down and select the person you searched
7. Select the tutor role
8. Click Enroll Selected Users

Note: if the student’s email is pointing to a different institution (from a previous enrollment at another college), you may not be able to enroll the student as a tutor.

Please direct the student to complete the following instructions to convert their email to Brockport.

1. Send an email to SUNYOnlineHelp@suny.edu from your SUNY Brockport email account
2. The Subject should read: “Convert Management of my Brightspace account to Brockport”
3. The text of the email should read – Please transfer my Brightspace account from PREVIOUS CAMPUS NAME (PREVIOUS CAMPUS EMAIL ACCOUNT) to Brockport (USER NETID@Brockport.edu).