To put the following in context, we are a three-person department in a
college with about 1100 students. We have about 60 students in General
Physics each year.
We do not have formal arrangements for tutoring or "help sessions."
Usually the instructor(s) in General Physics hold a "review/homework
session" shortly before a test, but that's about it. Sometimes we have
upperclass physics majors who are capable of and willing to tutor
students, but we leave any payment arrangements up to the tutor and tutee.
We have sometimes been asked by the administration why we don't follow the
model of some of the other departments here. The Math people have nightly
help sessions for trig and calculus, staffed by student assistants and
backed up by a faculty member. The Biology people have weekly review
sessions in the evening for General Biology students. We have responded
that we have only two sections of General Physics lecture, which means
only one or two instructors; and that it is not reasonable to expect them
to commit themselves formally to nightly or even weekly evening sessions.
The Biology and Math departments are larger, and everyone teaches some
sections of the intro courses every semester, so they have a pool of
faculty among which they can rotate evening duties. Also, we have more
course preparations per person than in the other departments.
--
Jon Bell <jtbell@presby.edu> Presbyterian College
Dept. of Physics and Computer Science Clinton, South Carolina USA