Starting in Fall 2023, the peer tutoring services at Northeastern University will be offered via Knack – a leading peer tutoring platform enabling our undergraduate students from across the Northeastern global network to learn from one another. Northeastern Peer Tutoring on the Knack platform will offer 1-on-1 and small group tutoring in-person and online for all undergraduate courses offered each semester. All Northeastern peer-to-peer tutoring services offered on the Knack platform will continue to be FREE to undergraduate students currently enrolled in courses seeking tutoring assistance.
Northeastern Peer Tutoring collaborates with faculty and other stakeholders to recruit and hire highly qualified undergraduate students to become peer tutors on the Knack platform. Northeastern Peer Tutors on Knack can only tutor courses they have taken at Northeastern and received an A or an A- as a final grade. We also hire a number of highly qualified undergraduate students who are native language speakers to become peer tutors on Knack in order to support students enrolled in modern Language courses offered by the university. Additionally, all Northeastern peer tutors are trained in accordance with College Reading & Learning Association (CRLA) tutor certification guidelines, and a great number of them are CRLA certified peer tutors.
Mission and Values
The mission of Northeastern Peer Tutoring is to help students reach their academic potential by: promoting peer-to-peer learning, integrating peer tutoring into the curriculum, and reframing peer tutoring as an extension of the classroom experience.
Our goal is to empower our students by engaging them with the curriculum in order to enhance their learning experience and improve their academic performance. We also assist our students with the learning process in order to help them become self-directed, strategic, mindful and reflective learners.
Director’s Message
I would like to welcome you to Northeastern Peer Tutoring.
Our goal is to offer free peer tutoring services that have a positive IMPACT on our students learning experience by:
- Informing students’ about the FREE tutoring resources available at Northeastern
- Motivating students to succeed by overcoming obstacles and become more resilient
- Promoting self-directed, strategic, mindful, and reflective learning
- Assessing students’ needs and advocating for them
- Collaborating with Knack, faculty, and other student services to provide a holistic approach to student learning
- Transforming the students learning experience through the type of tutoring services, the quality of services, and the delivery of services we provide
The Many Ways We Can Help
The following are the types of tutoring services offered by Northeastern Peer Tutoring.
One-on-one Tutoring by appointment (in-person and online)
One-on-one tutoring appointments are individual tutoring sessions that must be scheduled in advance via the Knack platform. These sessions can be in-person (when available) or online, specified in advance by the student requesting the appointment. Generally, one-on-one tutoring sessions are 30 or 45 or 60 minutes long.
Small Group Tutoring (in-person and online)
Small group tutoring occurs when a tutor leads a single session with a group of up to 3 students on the Knack platform. Students must be enrolled in the same course with the same instructor and must need assistance with the same material. Generally, students schedule a group tutoring session together. However, individual students can schedule a group session with the understanding that other students from the same course may be added to it.
Small group tutoring is based on collaborative learning principles where all members, guided by a tutor, are responsible for sharing their knowledge. Generally, group tutoring sessions are 60-90 minutes long.
Modern Language Conversations (in-person and online)
These conversation sessions can be 1-on-1 or small group tutoring sessions scheduled on the Knack platform, in selected modern language courses and are sanctioned by the Faculty. Conversation sessions are run by peer tutors under the supervision of the faculty member responsible for the course(s). The Peer Tutors are native language speakers in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. Students who are interested in practice speaking in a modern language need to be enrolled in the respective courses in order to participate. Generally conversation sessions are 60 minutes long. Here is how the process works:
For Language Coordinators (recommending native language speakers to become Northeastern peer tutors on Knack)
- Faculty submits a Faculty Recommendation Form via this Link: https://knacktutoring.typeform.com/to/njv8edxB
- Faculty ask the prospective peer tutors to creates a Knack account and complete tutor onboarding
- Language Coordinator must email Knack with approval, listing the specific courses the tutors has been approved to tutor via this Link: support@joinknack.com
- Knack Student Success accepts approvals and coordinates getting courses added to the tutor’s profile
For prospective peer tutors (native language speakers)
- Tutor creates Knack account and completes tutor onboarding via this Link: https://www.joinknack.com/school/northeastern-university
- Tutor reaches out to Knack Student Success to get the name of the Language Coordinator — or search the Northeastern website under World Language Center for their respective Language Coordinator’s name and NU email
- Tutor seeks approval from the appropriate NU Language Coordinator
- Language Coordinator emails Knack with approval, listing the specific courses the tutor can offer peer tutoring
- Knack Student Success accepts approvals and coordinates getting courses added to the tutor’s profile
Designated Tutoring (in-person and online)
This service is designed to assist Northeastern undergraduate students who have been identified by their instructors or their academic advisors as potentially at risk of failing one or more courses. The early warning system “FACT” (the Faculty Advisor Communication Tool) is also used to identify students who are potentially at risk academically.
This service provides a holistic approach to learning where students will be matched with a CRLA certified peer tutor to assist them with both the “what” they need to learn as well as with the “how” they can learn best. Designated tutoring sessions are one-on-one tutoring sessions scheduled on the Knack platform after a consultation with a learning specialist from Northeastern Peer Tutoring. To request a peer tutoring consultation please see information about this service below.
Workshops
Northeastern Peer Tutoring sponsors 2 workshops during the academic year. These workshops are open to all undergraduate students, however are catered to students who plan to become CRLA Certified peer tutors. Topics include; Test Preparation and Test Taking Strategies, Universal Design for Learning, Implicit Bias, Coping with Test Anxiety, as well as Cultural Awareness and Diversity.
Referrals
During tutoring sessions, students may present information or exhibit behavior indicating that they may be facing personal problems that seem to be consistently interfering with learning. In such cases, the tutors should not attempt to solve the problem, but rather refer the student to the appropriate office or service at the University, and discuss it with their supervisor on a timely fashion.
The Northeastern Peer Tutors are familiar with a range of professional services available at the University and will refer the student to the appropriate office for assistance.
Consultations
Students can request a consultation with Tina Kondopoulos, the Director to discuss any issues related to the learning process or any concerns they have regarding Northeastern Peer Tutoring. Students interested in setting up a consultation can contact the Director via email at t.kondopoulos@northeastern.edu