ACC Learning Labs - Tutoring Policies

Click here for Links to View the Learning Lab Guidelines in American Sign Language

The resources in the Learning Lab are available to all ACC students to help in their academic pursuits. The Learning Lab has solution manuals, current textbooks, other supporting books, supplemental handouts, a computer lab, and tutors available to assist you. The tutors are one of the most popular resources.

Guidelines for Mathematics Tutoring

What Can the Tutors Do for You?

Understand your homework assignments
Understand what you missed on tests and homework
Develop organizational skills and strategies for working mathematics problems
Use graphing calculators and other mathematical computer applications

How to Best Utilize the Learning Lab

Come Prepared. Try your assignment first on your own. Be sure to look at the example problems in your book. When you come to the lab to see a tutor, bring your book, assignment, pencils, eraser, paper, and a calculator (if needed).
Come see us at the first hint of trouble or confusion. Don't wait until the last minute. Visit a tutor as soon as you begin having difficulties with your math to stay on the path to academic success.
Have your questions ready before you sign up for a tutor so you can best utilize your time. For instance, mark the problems where you are having difficulties, making notes defining where you were stuck or confused. When other students are waiting, tutoring is limited to 30 minutes per session and students who have not had a session are given precedence over those who have already been helped that day.
Work with other students from your mathematics class. Explaining a problem to someone else or discussing strategies, methods, and solutions with classmates is a great way to learn and review.
Practice more problems on your own. Working extra problems will not only help you learn but also build up your confidence. For every hour in class, you should expect to spend 2-3 hours outside of class.
Math is a big picture, not a series of little steps. You have to spend some time
thinking about what you just learned and fitting it in with what you already know. Math is a foreign language with a structure and vocabulary all its own.
Tutoring cannot substitute for going to class. Tutors are there to help you further understand the material but not to teach you the subject from scratch. If you do miss a class, read the material in your textbook and attempt to work the example problems before signing up for tutoring.

Hints for Doing Homework

Try to keep your work neat. Just like an English paper, what you put on your math paper is intended to convey information to a reader. You may be the reader if you use your homework for review. Errors often occur due to sloppy writing - minus signs are lost, numbers are misread. The result is the wrong answer.
Don't try to take shortcuts or do too much in your head. Write down each step.
Remember, on a test you will not receive partial credit for what is in your head, only what is on the paper.
Sign up for study time. Many students come into the lab and sign up for study time. They work on their assignments, away from the distractions of home. When they hit a snag, then they sign in and work with a tutor.
Learn to use your calculator correctly. Practice with problems where you know the answer. Carry your instructions with you for reference. Use parentheses generously. Learn to use the memory and storage functions.
Start early. Give yourself the chance to talk to your instructor or classmates or the Learning Lab when problems arise.

Guidelines for English Composition, Literature, and Writing Tutoring

Student in English (ENG) courses are invited to use the Learning Labs to get help for their writing. However, they should first review the following guidelines:

Tutors may use graded English assignments as evidence of student's skill levels and as teaching tools in tutoring sessions.
Tutors may diagnose problem areas in students' graded or ungraded writing, providing students with supplementary materials and information that will help them make their own writing choices and become independent writers.
Tutors may provide students help with general writing skills (choosing topics, inventing and organizing content, using good composing methods, etc.) and with conventions (punctuation, grammatical correctness, spelling, etc.). However, the English instructor is the proper resource for questions about the intention of specific assignments.
Tutors may answer student's general questions about the organization and content of their ungraded English papers. Tutors will not proofread papers for technical errors before their submission to English classes, nor will they make corrections on any English paper before submission. However, the TA may use an ungraded paper as the basis for a teaching session, stating that a student has made certain types of errors and then showing the student how he/she may identify and correct those errors.
Tutors will respond in writing to written English instructors' request for tutoring; Tutors may correspond with English teachers about students who drop by the lab for help but are not required to do so.
Tutors will recommend writing skills courses (DVW 0403, 1403, and 1413) to students whose skill level indicates that they need extensive classroom instruction rather than intermittent periods for brief tutoring.
In all instances, Tutors will help students learn by motivating them, by giving them general instructions, by providing them with good models of writing, and by attempting to get students to transfer learning from exercises to writing assignments - all with the aim of enabling students to become independent writers

Instructor Solutions Manual Policies

Please note that the policies for use of solution manuals are determined by the academic departments and it is the responsibility of each and every Learning Lab staff member to comply with these policies. Additionally, we appreciate your assistance in maintaining these policies:

Instructor Solution Manuals for developmental math, college-level math, physics, English Composition I and II, and Writing Skills are available for tutor reference only. These manuals are clearly labeled with a "For Tutor Use Only" sticker. Students are not allowed to see these manuals. Under no circumstances may these be checked out to students.
All Solution manuals for Accounting may be checked out to students for use in the learning labs.
Student Solutions Manuals, regardless of the subject, may be checked our for student use in the Learning Lab.

Videos on the Learning Lab Guidelines in American Sign Language

Introduction

What Can the Tutors Do for You?

How to Best Utilize the Learning Lab

Hints for Doing Homework

Guidelines for English Composition, Literature & Writing Tutoring

Instructor Solutions Manual Policies