The TLA Consulting Manual
ANGEL Tutors and Technology Learning Assistants
Consulting Manual
Role Reversal
“Students Tutoring Faculty”
Kamal Aboul-Hosn, Spring 2002
Updated by Christopher McCoy, January 2003
Updated by Thomas Hubbell, January 2005
The Pennsylvania State University
© The Pennsylvania State University, 2002-2005
Contents
1. Introduction
1.1. History of the ANGEL & TLA Programs
1.2. A Brief Personal Experience as a Tutor
1.3. Purpose of the Tutor Consulting Manual
2. Before Starting Consultations
2.1. Evaluating Your Own Skills
2.2. Expectations
2.3. Golden Rules of Consulting
3. The First Meeting
3.1. Starting Off Positively
3.2. Gauging Your Faculty Member's Abilities
3.3. Ending Positively
4. Working with Faculty Over the Semester
4.1. Determining the Right Technology to Use
4.2. Setting Goals
4.3. What is a Productive Meeting?
4.4. What Is Too Much Information?
4.5. Maintaining Your Faculty Member's Interest
4.6. Extra Considerations for ANGEL Tutors
5. Finishing Up as a Tutor
6. The Extra Mile
7. Scenarios
8. Conclusion
A Resources
1 Introduction
In a world where technology continues to find its home in academia, there is a strong demand for people who can teach others about that technology. From the beginning, the computer industry has suffered from a technology gap between the ``have'' and ``have-nots,'' particularly in education. It is no one's fault; some who were good traditional teachers made the choice not to change their techniques-if it wasn't broken, then didn't try to fix it. Others, on the other hand, took the opportunity to try to alter their teaching methods to embrace new technologies.
Continuing advances in education technology have taken over, in some sense. Now a class without a web page or PowerPoint slides is considered inadequate in the eyes of many students. It is that inadequacy, as well as sheer curiosity, that have led many of the ``have-nots'' to integrate technology into their classroom. The problem is that the technology has advanced so much that many faculty members feel overwhelmed by it and need some guidance. This is why the ANGEL Tutors and Technology Learning Assistants programs were created.
1.1 History of the ANGEL &TLA Programs
The Technology Learning Assistant program started in August 2000. The initial group consisted of ten student consultants and ten faculty members. A year and a half later, it grew to twenty-five student consultants and fifty faculty members. Both students and faculty come from all fields of study: engineering, business, and health and human development, just to name a few. Projects have ranged from online class discussion lists to digitizing all class notes for a full multimedia lecture.
The program has had an incredible response. Both faculty and students have learned a great deal. Below are just a few comments from participants in the program:
• ``She is dealing with a slow learner so she has her work cut out for her, but I am very excited about what we are accomplishing and think it will improve my course tremendously.''
• ``It was a great experience for me and I learned just as much as I hope I taught. It helped me to reinforce the knowledge that I already possessed through the explanation and execution with another. It was a great exercise in what can and should be done in mentoring.''
• ``He has been patient and careful in explaining both the terms of the computer, and the ways to produce what it is I want to produce. His feedback to me is always encouraging. I really appreciate being able to learn how to manage more of the technical world.''
• ``I really think the experience helped me to develop and practice my communication and leadership skills as well as patience. Because we have different skills, more effort has to be put into communication.''
2005 Update:
ANGEL tutors can be seen as a specialized subgroup of the Technology Learning Assistants, with an emphasis on providing short term help on using the ANGEL system and the computer skills needed to use ANGEL. It is suggested that faculty will work with an ANGEL tutor for at most 4 sessions during a period of about a month. In comparison, TLAs may meet regularly with a client throughout a semester and work on several topics separate or outside the scope of ANGEL.
Having worked as both a TLA and an ANGEL tutor, I can say that the experiences of both will be very similar for you, the tutor. The main difference is usually how the faculty learned of these tutoring services and what they then expect to learn from the tutoring. Either way, the advice contained in the rest of this manual will be helpful to you with this tutoring, and any time you want to help others learn throughout your life.
1.2 A Brief Personal Experience as a TLA
I have been a Technology Learning Assistant since the program's inception. After a year and a half, I have worked with more than a dozen faculty members in Nutrition, Business, Biology, and many other departments.
During that time, I realized that each faculty member's needs are different and require ``customized'' consulting. Some of the faculty were very ``hands on,'' where I would sit over their shoulder and watch them do everything. On the other hand, some of the faculty members wanted to work on their own time and I would simply review the work they had done and make suggestions. Meeting time also differed. I would meet with some faculty for an hour every week. Others I would go weeks without meeting and then have a two or three hour meeting.
In meeting time, type of interaction, and depth of the consultation, there was no uniform way to treat all of the faculty members with whom I worked. However, there was consistency in that we met in the faculties' offices at their computers, we worked towards a set of goals, and we made sure the faculty member was always in control of the computer.
1.3 Purpose of the Tutor Consulting Manual
One might argue that the lack of any uniform way to consult with faculty means that a manual on the topic would not be a valuable guide. However, there are many skills that are important for success as a consultant. Moreover, I have found it is possible to determine a faculty member's needs without asking many questions, which can be very useful in having a successful consulting experience.
The purpose of this guide is to describe all of those skills. The guide is arranged in chronological order, from before one starts consulting to concluding a project. Overall, the guide is a place for me to present to future tutors what I have learned in my year and half as a TLA.
2 Before Starting Consultations
It is important to be in the proper mind-set before you even have your first meeting with a faculty member. This mindset includes having the correct expectations for yourself and for your faculty member, as well as an understanding of the project you are undertaking. You have a wonderful opportunity to open the technological door for faculty members and teach them skills that will apply even outside of academia.
2.1 Evaluating Your Own Skills
There is no doubt that your skills are advanced in many realms of technology, at least compared to the faculty members with whom you will be working. However, it is important to remember that despite the fact you know more than the faculty member, you do not necessarily know everything the faculty member does not know. It is even possible you will not know about everything the faculty member wants to learn. Remember that nothing is wrong with this.
In fact, your faculty member may know more than you do it certain areas. Perhaps an ANGEL site or a PowerPoint lecture was already created before you started working together. Remember, the consultations should be a learning experience for both of you.
The reason understanding your own limitations is so important is that you do not want to lead your faculty member in the wrong direction. If you come across a question your faculty member has and you are not sure of the answer, you should do some research about or practice the skills and come back with an answer later. If you give an answer you only think might be right and you turn out to be incorrect, you may end up with twice the work. First, you will have to unteach whatever you taught, and then teach the correct way.
2.2 Expectations
Coming into the program, you may have certain expectations about what you will learn, how faculty will react, etc. However, it is important to understand the dynamics of your consulting experience. Perhaps we will start with what not to expect. Do not expect:
1. To advance your skills to the ``next level.'' Remember, you are going to be teaching faculty members the very basics in all likelihood. Consequently, the chances that you will be able to learn Java, CGI, or any sort of programming within the realm of this program are small. If you already have these skills, you may end up applying them on a limited basis, but certainly not be teaching them to your faculty member. The technological skills you already know and you will learn are secondary to the interpersonal skills you will develop.
2. That your faculty member will be excited about the project 100% of the time. There are a few things to remember with regard to this point. First of all, faculty members are likely to be very busy during the semester, which means they may become easily sidetracked. Do not be offended or worried if your faculty member does not always return emails promptly. Another thing to remember is that the tutoring program is most likely a whole new scenario for the faculty member; it is not often that the students teach the faculty. Some faculty might be uneasy in the beginning.
3. To be a TA or work-study. Your job is not to make a webpage for a professor or post grades. Your goal is to teach your faculty member to do such things alone. Granted, sometimes one is best taught through examples. If this is the case, do not be afraid to do some of the work, i.e., create one of the pages for the website or set up the first discussion topic in an online discussion forum, but make sure that the major part of the project entails the faculty member doing such things under your guidance. Otherwise, after the consultation period is over, you faculty member has a web page or online discussion forum for only the semester and class in which you worked, but is without the ability to change it.
Do not be surprised if your faculty member doesn't realize that your job is to teach about the technology, not simply implement it. If you think your faculty member is under the mistaken impression that he will just sit and watch as you do the work, don't be afraid to say, ``Actually, the hope is that you can do this while I watch. That way, once the semester is over, you'll have the skills to do this for every class you teach later.''
We have talked about what you should not expect as a tutor. Equally important are the things you can expect. You can expect:
1. To have to explain things you take for granted. At this point, you probably have the ability to move around the screen with great speed and accuracy. Moreover, you probably do not think about what you are doing step-by-step. However, you will most likely have to explain these steps, such as selecting an item from a program's menu, in detail. Do not be embarrassed if you have to sit and think for a second about how to do something very simple while in a meeting.
2. To have the limits of your patience tested. We will discuss this more in the next section. Basically, you will have to explain some things three or four times, even easy tasks such as finding and clicking on the icon for a program. It can be very easy to find this frustrating and turn that frustration into impatience. The key will always be to remain completely patient.
3. To learn the skills necessary to be a successful technology consultant, even outside of academia. One of the nice features of these tutoring programs is that you will learn very useful interpersonal skills. These skills could help you as a TA, as a volunteer with children, or as a business consultant. As one Technology Learning Assistant said, ``I feel that participating in this program refined my leadership skills, including those of organization, communication, and delegation...skills in great demand in today's workplace.''
2.3 Golden Rules of Consulting
It is true that every consulting situation is different. You will be teaching about different technologies in different ways. However, there are certain universal rules to consulting and specifically when consulting on technology. These rules are as follows:
1. Adapt your consulting strategy as necessary. It is likely that you have a preferred way of teaching. However, it may be that they way you like to teach isn't the way your faculty member learns well. If you find this to be true, adapt your teaching to fit your faculty member; do not try to force your faculty member to learn your way.
2. No matter what, do not get frustrated. You will have times when the faculty member with whom you are working just doesn't understand what you are trying to say. It may even be an incredibly simple concept. However, getting frustrated will only make the situation worse. Perhaps it was said best in the movie Memento: ``you can't bully someone into remembering... the more pressure you're under, the harder it gets.'' The same mentality will hold for your faculty member: the more frustrated you get, the harder it will be to understand. Moreover, it will make the overall consulting experience less rewarding for both of you.
If you find yourself in this situation, there are a few steps you can take to try to make it easier. First of all, try to explain the concept in different terms, something that your faculty member can easily relate to. The more examples that you use to explain a concept, the more likely your faculty member will understand.
If you have rephrased something as best you can and your faculty member still does not understand, you may need to backtrack a bit and perhaps even re-evaluate your goals. Do not worry if you have to repeat steps more slowly than the first time.
3. Never, ever take control of the computer. This rule, which is closely related to the last one, is the most important rule in technology consulting. Sometimes, it may take explaining something three or four times before your faculty member understands and reacts. Yes, it would definitely be quicker for you to just do it yourself, but that would defeat the purpose of the consultation. Furthermore, it could make your faculty feel resentment, or even worse, stupid. The last thing you want to do is make your faculty member feel stupid.
4. Be realistic. The idea of being realistic has three parts: what you can expect from yourself, what you can expect out of your faculty member, and what you can expect out of the project as a whole. First of all, you must be able to determine how much you are going to be able to put into the project. If you agree to undertake more than you can handle, then the project may seem like a failure. The second part regards the faculty member, who is most likely busy and will not be able to devote all of his time to working on the project. The skills you know and using are ones many faculty are just learning. As a result, things that come easy to you might take a while to explain. Do not expect your faculty member to learn more at a time than one person can handle.
The final and most important part is with regard to the project itself. It is important to understand that you might not have time to do everything on the faculty member's wish list in a single semester. Try to undertake only one large-scale project with your faculty member. We will discuss this more in Section 4.2.
5. Listen to what your faculty member is telling you. The best way to determine how the project is going and what you need to work on is to pay attention to what your faculty member is doing and saying. It is very easy to get into a pattern or expect things to proceed in a certain direction. If you get the impression your faculty member is having trouble with something, pause, and ask, ``Does that makes sense to you?''
3 The First Meeting
Perhaps the most important part of your consulting experience will be the first meeting you have with your faculty member. Many things will be running through your mind, and you can rest assured that the same is true of your faculty member. During your first meeting, you will start to gain an understanding of your faculty member's abilities, to set goals for the semester, and to build a personal relationship with your faculty member.
3.1 Starting Off Positively
As hard as it may be to believe, the first few minutes of the first meeting are going to set the tone for the entire semester. Therefore, it is important to make those first few minutes count. The first, and probably most obvious point, is to show up on time. Five minutes early is preferable. Make sure you know the faculty member's name as well. Although that may not seem worth mentioning, it is easy to arrive at the meeting forgetting with whom you are meeting, particularly if you are consulting with more than one faculty member.
To make sure you show up on time or early, make sure to show up at the right place. The Penn State directory, www.psu.edu/ph, is excellent for getting contact information; however, the room listed for the faculty is often where the mailroom is, not their office. A quick email to the faculty beforehand confirming time and location prevents misunderstandings. Try to send the email a few days before the meeting, since some faculty may be slow to respond.
3.2 Gauging Your Faculty Member's Abilities
As I said earlier, every consultation is different. However, you will not know how to ``customize'' your consulting if you do not understand your faculty member's needs. Therefore, you must be on a constant state of alert, looking for little hints that will help you understand what your faculty member does and does not know.
You might say, ``there are hundreds of things I could observe, how am I supposed to catch them all?'' Although it is true that you could observe for days and still not know exactly what your faculty member understands, certain activities will help you understand in general how well your faculty member can use the computer.
1. Listen. The easiest way to learn what your faculty member knows about the computer is to listen to what is said in the first meeting. Your faculty member will probably tell you, ``I don't know how to use my email very well,'' or, ``I can't seem to organize my bookmarks and desktop.'' Using terms like these, indicates your faculty member at least understands the concepts, if not the exact ways to use these technologies.
2. Observe. Most of your knowledge about your faculty member's ability on the computer will come from passive observation. The first thing you may observe is the general speed with which your faculty member can maneuver around the desktop. When you say ``go to the 'Start' menu,'' does he understand what you mean? What about when you mention certain well-know applications, such as Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, PowerPoint, or Word? Does your faculty member immediately go to desktop icons for these programs?
If you answer ``yes'' to these questions, then you can be pretty sure that your faculty member is comfortable around the desktop. However, hesitation around the desktop may indicate you need to spend some additional time on such things. Without these basics, other topics will be too advanced.
3. Internet use. Another sign of proficiency revolves around internet use. Does your faculty member maintain bookmarks? If so, how are they organized? Are they in one gigantic list or organized by topic? You might also take a glance and see what your faculty member has bookmarked. That way, you can see how much exploring he has already done. In particular, you might look for search engines, a course web page, and sites related to the field in which he teaches.
If your project is going to to be internet-related at all (e.g., course web page or online discussion forum), you are going to want to spend some time on these topics. Some of them, such as bookmarks, will be very easy and can be taught within the context of the larger project.
4. Time savers. The final signs for which you can look relate to what we can call ``time savers.'' These include shortcut keys, email filters, and general folder organization. If you ask your faculty member to copy some text, what does he do? You will probably get one of three responses:
1. A quick selection of text and pressing of Ctrl + C (or command-C on a Mac) on the keyboard. In this case, you know your faculty member has spent quite a bit of time working on his computing skills and is familiar with some simple advanced features beyond the basics.
2. A bit of hesitation, then going to the menus for the option to copy. If you get this reaction, then you may want to mention shortcut keys somewhere during one of your meetings, depending on how much your faculty member struggled to find the menu command.
3. A look of confusion and a ``huh?'' If this is the reaction you get, then your faculty member is in for a treat when you talk about cut, copy, and paste. However, you will have to decide if you are going to present the shortcut keys or the menu options. Most likely, the latter is going to be more appropriate. If you present only the shortcut keys, it may seem like magic. This is not your goal, though; you want your faculty member to understand, at least to an extent, what is going on.
Email filters are another ``time saver'' that serve as a sign of your faculty member's abilities. Filters not only demonstrate an understanding of how to organize email, but also exploration beyond simply what appears immediately on the screen. You may not be able to observe the filters in action, but if you notice quite a few mail folders in your faculty member's email program, you can be pretty confident that filtering is understood, if not used. This could be the first thing you observe, too, since many faculty members will have their email programs open as you enter the room.
The most important thing to remember when gauging your faculty member's computer ability is that you do not want to conduct an interrogation. Asking directly about all of these things could have different results, depending on the answers. A very knowledgeable faculty member may insulted by such simple questions. On the other hand, a faculty member who doesn't know the answer to any of the questions may feel overwhelmed, which could make the entire project less successful. However, observing these things from meeting to meeting will help you better understand your faculty member's needs and adjust your consulting accordingly. For many faculty you can make ``general computer familiarity'' one of your primary goals for the project. This could be the most important thing you teach to your faculty member.
3.3 Ending Positively
Now that you've had a good first meeting, you will want to make sure it ends on a positive note. First of all, set up the next meeting unless absolutely impossible. This way your faculty member will be assured that you are going to maintain contact.
It is also a good practice to offer your services outside the realm of the project goals. In the first meeting, I always make the last words out of my mouth ``And if you have any computer questions, even unrelated to the project, by all means, fire off a quick email. I'll be happy to answer any questions I can.'' Often that will surprise a faculty member, yet will provide reassure that you are there to help whenever problems arise.
4 Working with Faculty Over the Semester
Now you have had your first meeting and you are ready to get down to work on the faculty’s needs. It is important to make sure that the time you spend with your faculty member is productive and working towards one or more goals. With goals, you can gauge how well the project is moving along. They also give you the opportunity to point out milestones to your faculty member-times when the difference in ability between the beginning of the semester and that moment are obvious.
For ANGEL tutors, you will probably not be meeting with the faculty over an entire semester. However, they most likely will be using the skills they learn and the courses in ANGEL for the entire semester. Therefore, you may not need all of the following steps, such as determining the right technology to use, but good goal setting and productive meetings may be even more important to your faculty’s success. With the short time span of meetings, ANGEL tutors need to focus more on creating a solid foundation for building and managing courses, rather than a large list of features or time saving measures. While these are certainly useful as well, a faculty member confident in the very basic details of ANGEL will be able to explore the large included help section on their own if given a good base from which to start.
Also, you may inform your faculty clients that if they want the help of a tutor over a longer period, they may send a brief note describing their need to angeltutors@psu.edu.
4.1 Determining the Right Technology to Use
Penn State has a lot of resources for integrating technology into the classroom. Almost anything a faculty member could possibly want to do, you could find a way to make it happen. However, you do not want to present all of the possibilities to your faculty member at once, because that could be overwhelming. Therefore, it is important to recognize early what your faculty member is going to want to do and then present the appropriate Penn State resources at the right time. Figure 1 is a chart of the technologies you may want to consider, depending on the interests and abilities of your faculty member.
Figure 1: Some of Penn State's Technology Resources
Requests Beginner Intermediate Advanced
Class web page ANGEL Netscape Composer
Macromedia Dreamweaver HTML
FrontPage
Online discussion forum ANGEL/CourseTalk ANGEL/CourseTalk ANGEL
Digital lectures PowerPoint PowerPoint PowerPoint
Multimedia (images) Microsoft Photo Editor Paintshop Pro/ Photoshop Elements Photoshop
Online quizzing ANGEL ANGEL ANGEL
Gradebook Excel Excel Excel
Note that these are not the only resources you may use, but it is likely that at least one of the programs listed will be a part of your project. For more ideas, you can see the Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT) page at http://tlt.psu.edu.
Your faculty member may not directly say that the tools are what is needed. Hints about needs may come in statements like, ``I want students to have access to assignments outside of class,'' or ``I don't want to have to use transparencies anymore.'' In the former, you'd probably want to explore creating course web site; the latter case calls for digital lectures through PowerPoint. When trying to determine what your faculty member wants to do, do not be afraid to ask questions. Sometimes the only way to narrow down what your faculty member wants is by determining what he doesn't want.
With so many resources available, it can be easy to go overboard. Make sure you don't try to use a more powerful tool than the faculty needs. While teaching your faculty member HTML may sound appealing to you, it's not likely that it will be necessary if you are working towards a basic class web page. Make sure that together you choose what is best for the project, not what is best for you.
4.2 Setting Goals
As mentioned above, it is vital that you set goals for the semester. Goals will vary in scope and specificity. For instance, one goal might be to create a web page for the professor's class which includes the syllabus and assignments. Another goal may be to improve your faculty member's general familiarity with computers. No matter what goals you set, there are some important things to remember:
1. Make sure your goals are realistic. Within the time constraints of a semester, it is unlikely that you are going to be able to create a web page, manage an online discussion forum, and teach your faculty member to transfer transparencies to PowerPoint. By the same token, it is not going to take an entire semester to learn about email filters. Base your goals on the difficulty you see in a project, as well as on the proficiency you see in your faculty member.
2. Whatever the amount of time you've allocated for a goal, double it. You would be surprised how easily the amount of time a project is taking can quickly exceed the amount you thought it would take. The reason could be one of many: your faculty member isn't as proficient on the computer as you originally thought; you discover that the technology resource you decided to use wasn't the best for the project as it evolved; a meeting or two got sidetracked on a tangent. If any of these things happens, it by no means implies the project is off-task or a failure, it means only that you must be prepared for the unexpected.
3. Do not be afraid to modify your goals. It is entirely possible that your faculty member will not be able to convey exactly what is needed. If this is the case, you may start teaching something thinking it is what your faculty member needs. If you later determine that this is not exactly what your faculty member wanted, try to modify what you are doing to fit. The best way to check if the goals you set match your faculty member's needs, occasionally ask, ``Is this what you want to learn?''
4.3 What is a Productive Meeting?
While you may set up many meetings with your faculty member, this is no guarantee that the meeting will be successful. You want to make sure that every meeting is in some way contributing to the project as a whole so that you will not come to the end of the semester with a lot of the project left undone.
First of all, try to set a goal or two for each meeting. This way you will know in advance what you are trying to accomplish in the hour or so meeting and you can adjust your focus accordingly during the meeting. However, these meeting goals will not be as firm as your project goals, since it is likely some things will take more time or less time than anticipated.
Another important aspect of a productive meeting is to feel a sense of accomplishment at the end. Your faculty member should feel like he learned something and you should feel as though you taught something (and likely learned something as well).
4.4 What Is Too Much Information?
Throughout your project, you will reach points where you want to teach your faculty member about the time savers mentioned before. As you probably know, hundreds of these exist. So which ones do you present to your faculty member without them be overwhelming? You will really have to gauge this yourself, going on “instinct” as to when it's a good time to present things. However there are some appropriate points for presenting time savers such as shortcut keys.
If your faculty member is able to highlight text, to go to the “Edit” menu, and to click on “Copy” in order to copy text very quickly, he already understands the concept. Under normal circumstances, you probably wouldn't even mention the shortcut key. However, if your faculty member asks, “isn't there an easier way to do this?” or is visibly frustrated with having to go the menu every time, you could certainly mention the shortcut keys. The point is, give information on a need-to-know basis.
The same is true for the depth of information you present. If your faculty member asks you a question, only explain what is necessary to understand the concept. For instance, what if your faculty member asks you, “What exactly is the internet?” You could go into a whole discussion about TCP/IP protocol, the grammar specification for HTML, and network hardware interfaces. Would any of that help your faculty member understand the internet? Doubtful. Instead, your answer should be short and sweet, giving enough information to clarify the topic without overwhelming your faculty member.
4.5 Maintaining Your Faculty Member's Interest
Your experiences with faculty members will vary a great deal with regard to how much energy they put into the project: some will spend as much time as they can working on it individually while others may not work on it at all. For the most part, it will be out of your hands how much your faculty member devotes to the project. However, there are steps you can take to promote a productive work environment.
1. Stay interested yourself. Make sure you make clear exactly what you have done to contribute to the project. Granted, you do not want it to sound like you are trying to place guilt on your faculty member for not working on the project. Try not to view the project as something you have to do, but rather something that is contributing to your faculty member's educational experience, both as a learner and as a teacher.
2. Respond. The second way to maintain faculty interest is to reply to emails as promptly as possible. It is easy for the amount of communication between you and your faculty member to dwindle quickly as you both get distracted by other work. Consequently, it is important to maintain contact whenever your faculty member initiates it and to re-initiate contact if a meeting is cancelled. This way, you can keep your faculty member in the proper mindset about the project.
3. Positive reinforcement. Your faculty member has to feel as though the hard work is good work and is worthwhile work. Often during meetings as I am looking over the shoulder of my faculty member, I will use words such as ``exactly'' and ``perfect.'' This positive reinforcement reassures the faculty member that, first of all, I am actually paying attention, and, secondly, that we are advancing. You should even be positive when your faculty member makes a mistake. Phrases like ``everyone does that'' or ``that is the best way to learn'' are indispensable.
4.6 Extra Considerations for ANGEL tutors
Hopefully all of the suggestions so far have you well on your way to being a successful tutor. A TLA may work with a faculty over an entire semester, have plenty of time to learn about their interests and abilities, and may not actually teach anything in the first couple meetings. In my ANGEL tutoring I have found that often the first day is when the most is expected of a tutor. This probably comes from the fact that ANGEL tutors are contacted in much the same way as tech support, leading people to want a solution to their problem right away. With TLAs, often the faculty has been considering a big project for a while and so part of the initial process is them explaining what they have done and what they hope to do. ANGEL faculty are more often of the type where they heard everyone is using ANGEL, so they think they should know too. I’ve felt much more of an expectation of immediate results from this second group.
Because of this immediacy, I feel it is important for ANGEL tutors to go in with slightly more preparation than a TLA tutor. With a TLA, they could end up wanting to do almost anything; usually the TLA can research areas they don’t know about and then get back to the faculty later, since they have many sessions over a whole semester. As an ANGEL tutor, the scope of potential interests is greatly reduced. Here then are some things to know very well before you meet with any faculty wishing to use ANGEL:
1. How to merge course: separate sections, cross-listed courses, and the various ways to move content between courses. The easiest time to do these things is at the very beginning of new course creation. The very first question a faculty member might ask you is why there seem to be so many different course spaces set up when they are only teaching 1 or 2 courses. Being able to explain the divisions by section or why a cross listed course shows up twice will help clear up early confusion, and is relatively easy for you to find out in the help files before you begin tutoring.
2. Be able to give good examples of ANGEL course setups/feature uses that you liked. Many faculty will not know where to begin in using a course management system. By giving them examples of how content was arranged in other courses, you can often help them start planning a similar design and structure for their own course.
3. Get experience making and changing content in an ANGEL course, using both Windows and Macs. There are some subtle differences; for example I couldn’t seem to log into ANGEL when using Internet Explorer on OS X. Firefox, however, worked fine. Finding out these quirks of incompatibility can help save time when working with faculty.
5 Finishing Up as a Tutor
As your consulting experience winds down, you will want to make sure that project has attained all of its goals. If you have worked to make sure you stay on task and set goals, then this should be true without any problem. When you get to the end, you will want to ask yourself these questions:
1. Did we accomplish our goals? Look back at your Work Agreement and see if all of the goals were completed. If not, were there any particular reasons? Perhaps you spent more time on other goals than you had initially planned. Or maybe you and your faculty member undertook too much?
2. Does my faculty member have the ability to do alone everything we did together? There are a couple ways you can test for this. One way is to start with a new application of the software you were using-make a new web page or PowerPoint presentation. Try not to instruct so much this time, but instead just watch. Realistically, your faculty member won't have the ultimate test until the following semester.
I highly recommend that you make a few guides for your faculty member on the projects you undertook. Some simple instructions that go step-by-step could be enough to jog the memory if your faculty member gets stuck when attempting the activities alone.
3. What did I learn about consulting? What kind of techniques work? What didn't work? Even though your faculty member learned about technology, you also did a lot of learning yourself. It is a good idea to reflect on these skills in order that you might improve them as you continue to consult, either as a tutor or in another capacity.
6 The Extra Mile
There is no doubt that if you follow the guidelines in sections 2 through 5, you will have a very successful consulting experience. Yet there are steps you can take that will go above and beyond.
1. Take an interest in the course around which your project is built. In some ways, your consulting experience allows you to take another class without a textbook, assignments or a grade. Do not be afraid to ask your faculty member questions about the course material and class activities. The professor may even invite you to sit in on the class at some point. If not, do not be afraid to ask if you can attend a class.
2. Try to mention personal stories and experiences related to the technology with which you are working. Telling these kinds of stories can be especially helpful when your faculty member is having trouble with something and he is getting discouraged. The story I usually tell is the one about the time my printer stopped working. I spent fifteen or twenty minutes trying to figure out why the thing would not work. I checked the drivers, the program, the modules, everything. Then I looked over at the printer to see a little red light blinking; the thing was out of ink. Such stories reassure your faculty member that their frustrations are perfectly natural.
7 Scenarios
The following are meant to be “exercises” of a sort. The topics range from understanding your faculty's needs to problems that may arise. Before reading my recommended course of action, think about how you would handle the situation. Note that some of these scenarios have many possible answers; these are meant only as a guide.
The Professor Who Can't Find the Icon
You have been working with a certain faculty member for a few weeks. During each meeting, you use Netscape Composer to create a web page. However, it seems to take your faculty member quite a while to find the composer icon, even after working with the software several times. It makes you wonder if your faculty member is even doing any work on the project outside of your meetings.
My Answer The most important thing is not to get frustrated. Often, the faculty member will be frustrated enough, so getting frustrated will only add to the problem. My response would probably be something along the lines of, ``Well, the icon is small, so it can be really hard to find. In the lower right-hand corner...'' At that point, the faculty member may remember where the icon is. If not, don't be afraid to mention it again. Inevitably, repetition will make it easier to remember where the icon is. Even if you think it is indicative of a lack of interest, don't worry about it too much. After all, clicking on the icon is something one only does once, whereas one might add five or ten links to a web page in a session.
The Professor Who Never Contacts You
You have very excitedly been waiting to work with your faculty member and planning out what the project will encompass and what you will teach. So you email your faculty member asking to set up a meeting. A week later, you have still received no response. Did your faculty drop out of the program without letting anyone know? Did you say something wrong in the email that was offensive?
My Answer The most likely answer is your faculty member got busy and forgot to reply. We all have emails we put aside and say, ``I will reply to that later'' and then never get around to doing it. The best thing to do is send another polite email asking if your faculty member received your first email and reiterate that there are great things in store. If you still get no reply, you may have to ask the ANGEL/TLA program coordinator to contact your faculty member. Sometimes there can be some miscommunication that needs to be clarified.
The Professor Who Has Had A Bad Day
When you walk into the office for your meeting, you can just feel the bad vibes in the air. The environment has a great potential to be frustrating for both you and your faculty member. And you know how hard it is not to be frustrated when the person with whom you are working is tense. Would it be best to cancel the meeting or hold it anyway?
My Answer It can almost disappointing at times if your faculty member is in a bad mood as the meeting progresses. Often, it makes it hard to gauge understanding of the work. In this case, the best response is probably not to cancel the meeting, but don't expect to complete your goals either. Instead, you might let your faculty member decide what to do this meeting. Let him decide when he's had enough, even if it is only ten minutes.
The Professor Who Is Very Ambitious
In your first meeting, you realize your faculty member wants to do everything: make a web page, create PowerPoint slides, have students submit assignments electronically, and create digital videos to put on the web page. However, your faculty member only learned how to send an email last semester. How do you approach these wishes while still maintaining realistic goals?
My Answer Sometimes when a faculty member first gets introduced to new technology available, the options can be overwhelming and all very appealing. It could be very hard to convince a faculty member that all of the technologies are not needed and that learning them would take more than a single semester. The most important thing is prioritizing. Take the project in which your faculty member is most interested and focus only on that. If you spread yourself too thin, your faculty member will know a little bit about a lot of technology and not really be able to use any of them. Instead, you want to teach a lot about a select few pieces of software. If your faculty member really wants to try to accomplish all of the goals, simply say the two of you will do them in the order of priority and get to as many of them as you can. Just make sure you do not sacrifice quality for quantity.
The Professor Who Doesn't Understand the Tutoring Program
I alluded early to the situation when your faculty member thinks that you are supposed to be more of a work-study than a tutor. Here is how an interaction between such a faculty member and you may go:
“Hello, I'm your ANGEL/Technology Learning Assistant this semester.”
“Hello, there. Let me tell you some of my ideas. I'd really like to have a web page so that students could find the assignments and I wouldn't have to hand them out over and over again when they lose them. How long do you think that would take?”
“Oh, that shouldn't take long at all. Have you ever made a web page before?”
“No, not really. I've toyed around here and there with Netscape Composer.”
“That's definitely a good start. Netscape Composer is a great program for making simple web pages.”
“So if I give you the information, will you just contact me when it's done?”
One can see very quickly where this session is going. How do you steer your faculty member in the right direction, towards working on the project and not just expecting you to do it?
My Answer This could be one of the hardest scenarios with which to deal because a fundamental misunderstanding exists before the project even starts. My goal would be to put as much positive spin on the faculty member working independently as possible: “Actually, the great thing is that our goal is to make it so you can make a web page for your class. That way, you'll be able to do it for future classes, and even for any other project outside of class.'' The faculty member will give one of two responses, either a very happy one, not having thought you be teaching about how do to these things, or one of surprise, having simply wanted you to do these things. In the latter case, I'd try to set up a meeting or two and see how they go, remaining optimistic that once faculty members start working on their own, they like it much more.
8 Conclusion
Working as a tutor will be one of the most rewarding experiences you have as a Penn State student. The skills you learn will help you in other classes and in many other aspects of your life. In fact, some of you may even turn consulting into a career.
Hopefully, this Consulting Guide has helped you to prepare for your first consultation. From before the first meeting until the end of the semester, you will be presented with some challenges and face problems not even discussed in this manual. Just remember to use common sense, to have fun, to be as patient as you can, and to help your faculty member in every way possible. Remember, the experience will be whatever you make it.
A Resources
Listed here are some online resources you may find helpful. They include Penn State's technology resources.
TLA Homepage
ANGEL Tutors homepage http://tlt.its.psu.edu/support/tla/
http://tlt.its.psu.edu/support/angeltutors/
ANGEL Homepage http://cms.psu.edu
CourseTalk Homepage http://coursetalk.its.psu.edu/
Faculty Multimedia Center http://tlt.its.psu.edu/fmc/
Excel as a Gradebook http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/gradebook/excelgrades.html
Teaching and Learning with Technology http://tlt.psu.edu/
ITS Training Services Homepage http://its.psu.edu/training/
Web-based Training https://wbt.psu.edu/
CLC Technology Classrooms http://clc.its.psu.edu/Classrooms/
UDrive: Connecting from Home or Office http://clc.its.psu.edu/DiskSpace/UDrive/Home/
Virtual Private Network (VPN) http://aset.psu.edu/vpn/about.html
Penn State Listserv http://lists.psu.edu/
SSH http://portfolio.psu.edu/publish/fmanage6.shtml
Penn State Portal https://portal.psu.edu/
Map of Computer Labs on Campus http://clc.its.psu.edu/labs/Locations/maps/
ITS Lab Occupancy https://clc.its.psu.edu/CurrentLabuse.aspx
Lab Software List http://clc.its.psu.edu/Labs/Windows/Software/SoftwareList.aspx