Re: Tutoring

[Joel Rauber <Joel_Rauber@SDSTATE.EDU>]

Michael wrote in part:

It sounds as if you have a promblem, impossible solve in principle without a
budget for private tutors; and even with a budget, maybe impossible to solve
because of lack of qualified tutors available.

situation at South Dakota State University Physics Department.

We are a public land grant university of about 8,000 students, we run three
types of inroductory physics courses, the usual two semester algbra based
and calculus based courses; and also a one semester course which is hard to
describe other than being something like a physics for poets class with more
emphasis on math than is customary for those classes.  The tutoring
situation is the same for all versions of introductory physics at our
university.

I am currently teaching the calculus based course, two sections of about 60
students each.  Staff reductions in the last three years has caused our
department to double the section sizes of that course from about 30 students
to 60 students.  (Note: I have other teaching responsibilities as well.)

> Students needing help might imagine several ways of getting it.
>
> (1) See the professor during office hours.

We do this, the efficacy is very limited due to the finite time I have
available for this activity and has gotten worse due to the increase of
section sizes

> (2) Go to a recitation section led by a graduate student or
> upper-level
> student.

We have no recitations sections of this type.  However, we do have a 1-hour
a week session that I lead and use as a help session and test giving time.
This hour crowds together all of the students of the two sections of the
course.

> (3) Go to a "help desk" staffed by a graduate student or upper-level
> student.

We have no such "help desk".

> (4) Get a personal tutor to spend 2-4 hours per week helping one
> student study, solve problems, write lab reports.

We have no funding for such activities.  Our student labor budget goes to
providing lab assistants for the laboratory portion of all the introductory
courses we offer and for limited grading help.

Our department secretary keeps a list of physics major interested in
tutoring and the name of a professor emeritus who tutors gratis as a
retirement activity (this is a god-send, for our department).

Most of our calculus based students are engineering majors (the physics
department here is housed in the engineering college of the university) and
the student organizations of some those departments have some organized
tutoring efforts.

As you can see there is no school (department) money spent on tutoring here;
to the best of my knowledge our department head has not received any
pressure here to start providing that kind of service.

I hope this is of some help.

Joel Rauber