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Dear Colleagues, This is an interesting as well as eternal question to be answered by learning / tutoring centers' staff. I do agree that student satisfaction holds a high place in the answer. Nevertheless, our center uses AccuTrack, which has great capabilities; however, the stats reported indicate the number of appointments scheduled and then the number of sign-ins for an actual appointment. The data does not provide for the students who forget to sign in but do receive tutoring nor for the no-shows for scheduled appointments. My question is how do you accurately "count" the number of students actually using your services? Are you using the number of appointments scheduled (which can be misleading) or those appointments actually kept to get the percentage of total student population usage? Unfortunately, this data analysis is not a perfect science, but we want to get as close to the "real" percentage as possible. Thanks for your responses, Christine Christine T. Flax Director, The Academic Link Tutoring Center and PASS Mentoring Assistant Professor, Developmental Studies Stevenson University 100 Campus Circle, CAVES 249 Owings Mills, MD 21117-7803 443-394-9308 [log in to unmask] ________________________________________ From: Open Forum for Learning Assistance Professionals [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Laurie Hazard [[log in to unmask]] Sent: Tuesday, October 11, 2011 2:22 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: What's a "good" number? Unfortunately, the results are not published, yet...I say yet because we really do intend on getting them published; however, in many ways, the fact that the results are not published feeds the many narratives of our profession: "The work [research] has been carried out by leaders of the field or by individuals at research universities who have particular experiences and particular points of view, not to mention appointments that afford them the luxury of thinking and writing about theory. But it is not clear whether the conversations regarding the theory adequately represents the experiences, perspectives, and needs of those "in the trenches," the front-line practitioners working in the classroom, learning center, advising, or counseling office" (Chung & Higbee, 2005, p. 4-5). -----Original Message----- From: Open Forum for Learning Assistance Professionals [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Benjamin Smith Sent: Tuesday, October 11, 2011 2:03 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: What's a "good" number? First, a big thank you to Laurie for posting the results of your study! Are your results published somewhere that we might cite them for our administrators? Chris; Numbers can be dangerous and misleading if not given a proper context. Our tutoring center focuses primarily on introductory courses, or what we refer to as Gateway Courses, which are primarily populated by freshman and sophomore students. Instead of looking at the proportion of the entire population we are open to, we prefer to report on the percentage of incoming freshmen that we serve, which is consistently around 67% (2/3's.) Many departments at my institution question the sense in offering supplemental academic support to upperclassmen with the belief that Juniors and Seniors ought to be standing on their own by their later academic years. Personal opinion notwithstanding, if that is the response we receive from the academic departments, to report on our success in reaching their students would be in poor taste for interdepartmental relations, as well as disingenuous to the success or efficacy of our program. Another point to consider, as was discussed in a session at the recent NCLCA conference in Indianapolis: Instead of focusing on pure attendance, look instead at satisfaction, or other qualitative measures, of students who utilize your service. If your administrators are like most, they will insist on "hard" numbers, but adding in a qualitative component can often emphasize what it is that you are doing well. Hope this helps! Best, Ben Smith Tutoring Services Coordinator Student Support Services Binghamton University Office: 607-777-6881 Cell: 360-304-9568 On Tue, Oct 11, 2011 at 1:32 PM, Cleveland, Prof. John P. < [log in to unmask]> wrote: > Hi Chris, > > Here at the NYC campus of Pace University, the Tutoring Center serves on > average 15% of the undergraduate population. That percentage has relatively > consistent for a number of years. > > Best, > > John Cleveland > > John P. Cleveland, M.T.S., M.A. > Director, Tutoring Center > Center for Academic Excellence > & Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religious > Studies > Pace University > 41 Park Row, Room 204 > New York, NY 10038 > (212)346-1407 (phone) > (212)346-1520 (fax) > [log in to unmask] > www.pace.edu/tutoring > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Open Forum for Learning Assistance Professionals [mailto: > [log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Chris Glover > Sent: Tuesday, October 11, 2011 1:16 PM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: What's a "good" number? > > Hi all: > > > > I'm curious - what do you consider to be a "good" number in terms of the > percentage of students your tutoring program serves during a regular > semester/quarter? Do any of you set goals as far as a certain number you're > trying to reach? > > Christopher S. Glover > Tutorial Program Coordinator (LAR) > Adjunct Faculty (Reading) > Long Beach City College > Phone: 562.938.4669 > Office: LAC L-203 > Email: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > To access the LRNASST-L archives or User Guide, or to change your > subscription options (including subscribe/unsubscribe), point your web > browser to > http://www.lists.ufl.edu/archives/lrnasst-l.html > > To contact the LRNASST-L owner, email [log in to unmask] > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > To access the LRNASST-L archives or User Guide, or to change your > subscription options (including subscribe/unsubscribe), point your web > browser to > http://www.lists.ufl.edu/archives/lrnasst-l.html > > To contact the LRNASST-L owner, email [log in to unmask] > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To access the LRNASST-L archives or User Guide, or to change your subscription options (including subscribe/unsubscribe), point your web browser to http://www.lists.ufl.edu/archives/lrnasst-l.html To contact the LRNASST-L owner, email [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To access the LRNASST-L archives or User Guide, or to change your subscription options (including subscribe/unsubscribe), point your web browser to http://www.lists.ufl.edu/archives/lrnasst-l.html To contact the LRNASST-L owner, email [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To access the LRNASST-L archives or User Guide, or to change your subscription options (including subscribe/unsubscribe), point your web browser to http://www.lists.ufl.edu/archives/lrnasst-l.html To contact the LRNASST-L owner, email [log in to unmask]