Tutoring might soon become another face-to-face interaction replaced by online technology in efforts to enhance student learning and partially offset years of budget cuts for the UNC system.
WebAssign — an online homework grading system used by high schools and universities nationwide — is developing an online tutoring service, which could potentially reduce the need for tutors and teaching assistants.
The new tool will provide instant remedial help 24 hours a day to students as they work on assignments.
Mark Santee, director of marketing for WebAssign, said the online tutoring service could help shrink TA workloads and decrease tutoring fees for UNC-system schools that have absorbed millions in cuts during the last four years.
The service will encourage more self-learning among students, he said.
“We want to help students measure on their own not only what they’re doing, but why,” Santee said.
John Risley, a N.C. State University physics professor and CEO of WebAssign, said one of the company’s original goals was to improve students’ accessibility to tutorial resources.
“If students say they want more help, they should be able to get it easily, instead of having to make the extra effort to contact a TA,” Risley said.
Santee said the company hopes to complete more testing this fall before launching the service.