To: Dr.

Heidi Harris, Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Writing at the University of Arkansas
at Little Rock
From: Moise Dukuzimana, Student at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Tutor of Math
and Physics in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Arkansas at
Little Rock
Date: February 8, 2014
RE: Report Proposal Regarding Possible Online Math Tutoring (OMT) at the University of
Arkansas at Little Rock

Proposed Study

In answer to your request for a research report regarding the idea of starting an Online Math
Tutoring Program, I propose to study implementations needed to begin the Online Math Tutoring
on small-scale at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

Statement of the Problem

During my two years as an employee at the Department of Mathematics and Statistics for a
tutoring position, I work with students every day during the academic year. I have been working
for the most part night shifts, I witnessed small number of students using our services during
hours 5:00pm-8:00pm compared to those that use our services during day time. I understand that
there has been attempt to use NetTutor which was expensive. Students would hardly be
motivated to use these services. Therefore, I would like to research tutoring our students online
using tools on a small-scale such synchronous texts (chatting) on Blackboard where students and
tutors would be interacting through chat.

Intended Audience

My intended audience for this research is the Director of the Mathematics Assistance Center
(MAC) at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Denise LeGrand.

Scope of Proposed Study

My study will explore the following issues:
1. Implementations steps for an online tutoring program for Math on a small-scale
2. Interviews with the Online Writing Library (OWL) at UALR to understand key factors for
starting this program and how it affects the actual face-to-face program.
3. Meeting with the Director of the MAC to have a better understanding of an attempted on
NetTutor that was available for UALR students in the past
4. Make a survey on students that come in the math lab for help to get an idea of how this
program on a small scale would be helpful considering the school load throughout the semester.
5. Projection on a long terms effect of this program on Math and related courses enrollment at
UALR in the future.
Data Sources (MLA Format)

Evans, Michael J, and Jeffrey S Moore. "Peer Tutoring With The Aid Of The Internet." British
Journal Of Educational Technology 44.1 (2013): 144-155. Education Research Complete.
Web. 2
Feb. 2014.

This journal contains ways in which tutors and tutees can interact in an efficient manner. This
source will be helpful for my research because I am looking for ways we can get our students
interested in being active about their Math work, therefore using their time wisely to make make
their school work less stressful by knowing how to use services, such as Math Lab, that are
provided to them.

Schwartzman, Roy. "Reviving A Digital Dinosaur: Text-Only Synchronous Online Chats And
Peer Tutoring In Communication Centers." College Student Journal 47.4 (2013): 653-
667.
Professional Development Collection. Web. 8 Feb. 2014

This source explores a qualitative and quantitative content analysis that was conducted of all
text-based synchronous online chats at an oral communication peer tutoring center throughout a
semester. As a comparative benchmark, chats at the same university's main library were
analyzed over the same time period. The library's chats were much more heavily weighted
toward task-oriented research questions. The communication center chats served almost entirely
as a portal for making appointments. Suggestions are offered for more robust incorporation of
chats to diagnose a center's operational issues, improve outreach, triage student needs, build a
sense of personal connection, and reduce attrition. (Abstract from the author). This article is
helpful to my research because it will explore online text-based tutoring can impact the
communication in a tutor-tutee environment.

Lissaman, Richard, Sue De Pomerai, and Sharon Tripconey. "Using Live, Online Tutoring To
Inspire Post 16 Students To Engage With Higher Level Mathematics." Teaching
Mathematics & Its
Applications 28.4 (2009): 216-221. Education Research Complete. Web. 2 Feb. 2014.

In this source I will look the causes of decrease of students who use online tutoring. This source
not only talks about the causes for decrease but also how to improve and encourage small group
of students to use online tutoring program. In using this source also I am interested in doing a
research on how starting a program on its small-scale level can help to get the same program to
the next higher level.


Ventura, Alexandre, and Sunhwa Jang. "Private Tutoring through the Internet: Globalization and
Offshoring - Springer." Private Tutoring through the Internet: Globalization and
Offshoring - Springer, 01 Mar. 2010. Web. 02 Feb. 2014.

This source talks about how private tutoring is need for many students. In using this source, I am
looking to using our online tutoring to help those students that cant easily get on campus or that
constantly need to be assisted through their school work.



Heinrich, Caroly J., Patricia Burch, Annalae Good, Ruddy Acosta, and Huiping Cheng.
"Improving the implementation effectiveness of out-of-school-time tutoring." -
Heinrich. N.p., 15 Jan. 2014.
Web. 02 Feb. 2014.


This source explores out-of-school-time tutoring. In this source I want to show how the growth
of number of online tutoring has been increasing from year it started to the most recent years.
This source is helpful because I am concerned with students that can hardly get on campus due to
issues like security, weather and so on.