Peer Tutoring Everything you need to know!

What is peer tutoring?

Peer tutors are fellow students who are here to help with practicing the skills you need to succeed in your course. Tutors work through the process with you step-by-step and guide you along the way.

Tutors will never give you the answer, but instead, work with you to help you find the answer yourself by focusing on problem-solving, decision-making, and critical thinking skills.

What courses have peer tutoring?

Peer tutors can help with:

  • Accounting
  • Business Writing
  • Game Development and Design
  • History
  • Humanities
  • IT
  • Math
  • Science
  • Social Sciences
  • Study Skills and Time Management (peer mentoring)

If you have a question about whether a peer tutor can help you, reach out and ask us! E-mail us at academicsupport@snhu.edu

Getting the Most from Your Tutoring Session

Provide context: What have you tried already? What parts of the assignment do you understand well?

Be specific: What are you working on now? What are the parts that don't make sense?

Give us a preview: You can attach a document when you set up a tutoring appointment (see below for instructions on making an appointment); this is helpful for tutors to prepare ahead of time.

Tutoring Policies

Academic Honesty

All students are expected to adhere to the university's academic honesty policy. As a result, tutors cannot help with certain assignments, including:

  • Quizzes and exams: tutors can help in preparing for exams and quizzes, but cannot assist with the content of the quiz/exam itself. Screen-sharing is not allowed for any quizzes or tests.
  • Checking work: tutors will not make corrections to any assignments that are sent via e-mail. Tutors are trained to help students identify underlying thought processes and concepts, and may respond to questions with even more questions to help you work through these concepts.

Policy for Final Projects: as summative assignments, final projects must be the work of the individual student. As such, peer tutors cannot provide examples of final projects or milestones, but they will assist you in interpreting the rubric and your instructor's feedback on milestones. Peer tutors can provide feedback on the final project itself, but only in the course of a live tutoring session.

Setting Up a Tutoring Session

How do I schedule a tutoring session?

Click on the Academic Support scheduling tool; this is embedded in the learning community under "book a tutor," but you can access it directly below as well:

If you haven't used this system before, you'll need to create an account. Use your SNHU e-mail address so that all notifications are sent to your SNHU inbox.

When you book a tutoring session, you'll receive an e-mail notification; this sometimes goes to the spam folder, so if you haven't received confirmation, please make sure you check your spam settings.

Quick tip: You can add the e-mail address that sends out the appointment reminders to your contact list, which should avoid the spam problem. The e-mail is: noreply=appointment-plus.com@mg.appointment-plus.com

What if I can't make it?

Please cancel your tutoring session as you as you know you won't be able to make it. You can cancel your session the same way you scheduled it by going to the scheduling tool. While you're there, you can also reschedule for another time.

If you're having trouble cancelling your session, please e-mail academicsupport@snhu.edu and let your tutor know that you can't make it.

How do I meet with my tutor?

All tutoring sessions are held in Blackboard Collaborate. When you schedule an appointment, you'll receive a link to your tutor's Collaborate room. If you don't receive this, please e-mail academicsupport@snhu.edu and we can send it to you.

How long are tutoring sessions?

Individual tutoring sessions run between 30 and 45 minutes. Small group sessions are one hour.

We limit tutoring sessions to this length to avoid information overload and burnout; taking a break, reflecting, and practicing independently are all important parts of the learning process, and we want you to get the most out of the tutoring session that you can!

What if I just have a quick question?

Post it in the learning community and tag a peer tutor! The full list of learning communities is available here.

Is there a limit to how many tutoring sessions I can book?

Students should not book more than three tutoring sessions in the course of a week. Tutoring is for intensive practice of specific skills, meant to be followed by independent practice. We're happy to help you find other resources if you're still having trouble, but our goal is to help every student become independent, self-directed learners, which is why we limit tutoring times.

Blackboard Collaborate resources

Help! It won't let me into my session!

A number of problems might be causing this. First, make sure you're using Google Chrome. This browser tends to have the best results with Collaborate.

If you get an error message stating "unable to launch application," try these trouble-shooting steps:

1. Your Java cache is probably full or there’s a corrupted file in the cache, so try clearing your cache first. You can find instructions for clearing your cache here.

2. You might also need to clear your internet browser cache, so try that as well; instructions on clearing your browser’s cache are available here.

3. Your Java may be outdated. Check what version of Java you have here. If your Java is out of date, visit this website to download the latest version.

If you get an "Error: Operation Not Permitted" message, your firewall settings are likely blocking Collaborate from running (this usually happens on Macs with Norton Antivirus). You can disable your Norton firewall temporarily by following these instructions.

How to Share Your Screen

Click on the purple tab with arrows on the bottom right side of the screen to open the Collaborate panel:

Click on the third button from the left, the box with an arrow:

Click on “Share Application” and you can share your screen:

When you first start sharing your screen, you’ll probably get “tunnel vision,” where the screen will look a little wacky for a few seconds:

This will go away after a bit so you just see the screen normally.

Audio Troubles

If you don't have a good microphone on your computer or you're experiencing audio issues, you can call in to your tutoring session on your phone. Click on the “Session Menu,” the three bars at the top left side of the screen:

Then, click on “Use your phone for audio”:

You’ll see a phone number and a PIN to enter so you can talk using your phone (note: the PIN will change every time, so the one visible below will not work):

How To Start a Break-Out Group

If you're in a Collaborate room and want to split up into smaller, separate groups, you can start a break-out group in Collaborate.

1. Click on the button on the lower right side of the screen and click on "Share Content"

2. Then, select "Breakout Groups" from the menu:

3. Select "Custom assignment" since you'll be using this for only one student ("random assignment" is only available when you have four or more participants)

4. You have the option to allow participants to switch groups if you want. Select the participant(s) you want for the group by clicking on the three dots on the right side:

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