TRSM Tutoring: Your Success is our Business

I have been attending the TRSM Academic Success Centre since my first year and it is easily my favourite service available to students at Ryerson. It offers tutoring for most of the required courses that Business students have to take such as Statistics, Finance, Accounting and Law. The Tutoring Center has immensely helped raise my grades and confidence as it offers a unique learning opportunity.

The sessions are taught by upper year students who have taken the course and done exceptionally well. It is a wonderful way to learn since they’re familiar with the different professors’ teaching styles and they explain difficult concepts in an easy to understand manner. It’s also a positive learning environment since there’s no pressure to get the answer right on the first try and they work with you to learn from your mistakes.

The TRSM Academic Success Center offers two types of tutoring. The first is located on the third floor of TRSM where students come to the tutors with specific problems to work through. In this format there’s a maximum capacity of five students per tutor to ensure everyone gets enough attention. This is my personal favourite session since I get the chance to tackle a specific question I have been struggling with and can see where I went wrong.

The second format is called “Peer Assisted Study Groups” which is located on the second floor of TRSM. In this section, the tutor gives a lesson to a larger group of students, similar to a crash course of the most recent lecture. This is a great way to review overall concepts and work through the same questions with other students.

Having attended these tutoring sessions every week for over a year, I have noticed some room for improvement with regards to the implementation of technology. I believe the biggest problem they face is that students who sign up will often end up skipping their tutoring session. This is very problematic since there’s a maximum capacity of five students per tutor and drop in students are only allowed if there’s an open spot or if someone who has signed up doesn’t attend.

There have been countless times when I was eager to meet with a tutor but was unable to see them because another student had signed up. Whenever this occurred, I was told to wait for 10 minutes. The spots of students who are late for 10 minutes are given to the next student in line, who is often me.

Ryerson is a commuter school and students will often decide to go home early rather than attend tutoring sessions. Aside from sending an email, there’s no way for students to inform the Academic Success Centre that they will no longer be attending, which means that many students waste their time waiting in line when those who signed up do not come, and there is no consequence for them not showing up.

I believe the integration of technology can drastically improve the situation. Students are constantly on their phone and the integration of a TRSM Academic Success Centre App would greatly ease the process of signing up and canceling tutoring sessions. Whenever I want to sign up for a tutoring session, I have to email trsm.academicsuccess@ryerson.ca. With the integration of the online booking system similar to the one that the Business Career Hub uses, students should be able to see who is tutoring at what time and simply click the slot they want to sign up for. It would also be beneficial to see how many students have already signed up so they know how busy the session will be which determines how much one-on-one time you can get with the tutor. For a commuter, it may not be worth it to come downtown for a tutoring session with four other students and fight for time with the tutor. If they know how busy it will be ahead of time, it can help them determine if it’s worth the subway ride downtown.

Along with signing up for tutoring, students should be able to cancel by declining the Google Calendar invite at any time, similar to how meetings are booked with the Business Career Hub. This would mean that eager students such as myself who constantly max out their tutoring hours can drop in and not have to wait for a spot to open up.

I’m excited to see how the TRSM Academic Success Centre grows in the future. With the integration of technology, the sky’s the limit on how this integral student service can expand. It’s an outstanding program and I look forward to my next tutoring session!