Tutoring can be crucial for a student when in need of assistance in a class and even with the transition to online classes, students can still receive tutoring.

Instructional assistant for math tutoring, Pedro Rubalcava, knew that this transition was going to be difficult but has seen positive results from students when they are being tutored. 

“I was really concerned because one of the things about tutoring is, especially the way I like to do it, is specific personal interaction with people when I’m talking to them because not only am I giving information, but I’m also getting a gauge of how much people are understanding that information,” said Rubalcava. “I’m confident to say it’s been pretty successful.”  

While using a web camera through Zoom, Rubacalva says that he now has to show his work to the camera and point at what he is trying to show a student. Despite this being difficult, students have been adapting well to this new format. 

This is new for a lot of students, so Rubacalva says he needs to be patient when tutoring a student. 

 “Normally when I’m interacting with someone in person, they’re seeing me write down as I’m talking so they are able to keep up with me 100% of the time, with this format I need to make sure to stop and pause to make sure I show them what is important before I move on with other things,” said Rubalcava.

As opposed to the adapting that Rubalcava needed to make to this online transition for math tutoring, a 20-year-old English major, Sierra Hoff, did not have to adapt to a new tutoring format.

“I’ve tutored for hybrid online and fully online classes before so I was a little excited for all of my courses to be online,” said Hoff. “I like tutoring online better because it works with the students’ schedules so they ask me questions around the clock once they’re familiar with emailing or using canvas messaging.”

Although she did not have any personal difficulties for online tutoring, Hoff still had to help with the professor she tutors for. 

“I think the only obstacle has been the professors I tutor for figuring out how they want to structure their classes and how they want me to best serve them in the online format,” said Hoff. 

The feedback from students for online tutoring has been overall positive from the experiences of both Rubalcava and Hoff. 

“The students I’ve talked to enjoy the online tutoring because online classes mean they can sleep in,” said Hoff. “That said, I’ve seen generally the same amount of students asking for help online as in-person.”

Despite the first few days of getting used to the new format, students have been really appreciative that there is still tutoring, said Rubalcava. 

Information to find tutoring is on the Cosumnes River College website, where tutors will be more than welcome to help you, said Rubalcava. 

“I still love helping people, we’re still here to help people, it’s just that we can’t be physically next to you to help you anymore, but we still want to help people,” said Rubalcava.