Students will no longer have to brave a line of more than 1,000 others to snag a coveted spot in one of Covel’s most popular tutoring programs.
They can simply go online.
Beginning today, students will be able to sign up through their MyUCLA account for an Academics in the Commons Math/Science Peer Learning session. The registration tool can be accessed by clicking on the “Peer Learning” tab on MyUCLA.
The electronic system will also be used for the Academic Advancement Program tutoring service in Campbell Hall, which caters to students who have experienced “social and environmental barriers that may impact academic experience and performance,” according to the UCLA AAP website.
Now, students attempting to register for a session with either AITC or AAP will be given an enrollment time, much like registering for classes on URSA. AITC tutoring first passes will begin today at noon and end at noon on Friday. Students are then allowed to sign up for additional sessions during their second pass, from noon to 4 p.m. Friday.
Paper registration for these sessions, which operated on a first-come first-serve basis until now, was difficult to organize because of the sheer volume of students who showed up, said Bruce Barbee, the director for AITC.
Online registration through the Peer Learning Manager tool on MyUCLA was first proposed about four years ago, said Ming-Huei Lam, the associate director of AITC.
The program, which costs more than $62,000, was funded primarily by the Division of Undergraduate Education, Lam said. Covel learning labs, the athletics offices and AAP also contributed to the cost.
“I think in a way it’s fairer, because not everyone can make it to Covel on time,” said Katherine Liu, a second-year microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics student. “For the last three quarters, I had class at 12 every time, so I was always late.”
Students will be able to see whether their desired sections have already filled up by their enrollment appointment in real time as well.
“Getting in is going to really depend on the popularity of the sessions,” said Casey Van Dyck, the program representative and office manager of AITC. “Last year, we had issues of ambiguity, and the (paper) system had a lot more overhead.”
Several students would come in late, and AITC administrators had difficulty accommodating them, Van Dyck said.
“With 2,500 people trying to sign up for the Math/Science labs, there were massive amounts of paperwork before,” Barbee said.
Van Dyck also said he hoped students would have an equal opportunity to register for the sessions they want with the new system.
“Before, sign-up started at noon, and people came at 7 (a.m.),” Van Dyck said. “But not everyone had that flexibility.”
AAP offers tutoring mainly in lower division math, science, social science and humanities courses, according to Emmanuel Owaka, coordinator of the AAP Math/Science Peer Learning labs.
The Covel Math/Science Peer Learning program, hosted by AITC, is geared toward all students in the introductory math, chemistry, physics and life science courses.
In all programs, student facilitators lead small groups in completing problems and understanding concepts taught in lecture that week.
Van Dyck said the goal of the new process is to make it easier for a greater number of students to sign up for peer learning sessions.
He added that AITC tested out the online registration tool during summer quarter with successful results.
Alexandra Rudolf-Dib, a Peer Learning facilitator for the Composition and English as a Second Language lab, expressed a similar hope.
“I think it will definitely make it easier, but also more rewarding, because I think a lot more people will sign up because they won’t need to hike all the way over to Covel,” said Rudolf-Dib, a second-year English and French student.
Covel Commons also hosts drop-in hours four days a week, during which students can walk in for help without an appointment.