Hooooo
Hi, this is Heather from the Purdue Writing Lab and in this video I'm going
to be showing you some basic tenets of online tutoring sessions. Online sessions
are synchronous appointments that allow tutors and clients to chat together in
real time. To be able to give you a better idea of how to get started with
your online sessions I'm going to be showing you parts of two different
online appointments. To get started I'm gonna take a look at my WCO online
schedule. I can tell that I have an online appointment because my
appointment box appears as a dark red color. If I go ahead and click in on the
appointment I can see my client's report form and again, I can tell that I have an
online appointment because it's indicated at the top of the client
report form. From here I have the option to start or join the online chat where I
can talk to my client in real-time but I'll do that in a second. First, I'm going
to make sure that I know my client's preferred name and I'm also going to get
a sense of what my client hopes to achieve during the session. I can also
see in the client report form that my client has gone ahead and uploaded a
document for us to look at together during our session. It's important to
note that sometimes during online sessions clients will choose not to
share a document with the tutor before the session actually begins and that's
totally okay. The client will have the option to share the document once the
actual session begins. To join the conversation with my client, I'm going to
scroll up to the top of my client report form and I'm going to click on the "start
or join online consultation" link. As you can see, online appointments are broken
into two main sections: the text feature and the shared whiteboard space. On the
right-hand side of the screen we have the chat feature where tutors and
clients can exchange brief messages with one another. As a default this chat
offers real-time updates meaning that whenever a client or a tutor types
here, everyone in the chat will be able to see what you're typing as you're
typing it. If you want to turn off this feature and to allow users to only see
your messages once you've chosen to send them into the chat, you're welcome to do
so by unchecking this send real-time chat updates box. You will be able to see
who is in the chat by viewing the icon on the upper right hand corner of your
screen. Because I am the only person in this chat right now I can see a number
one next to the icon. If two people were in the chat I would see a number two and
so on. If I go ahead and click on the user icon I can see everyone who's in
the chat. I also have the option of adjusting the way that my name appears
in the chat and I can also change the color assigned to me. Shifting our
attention to the shared whiteboard space, this feature offers a way for clients
and tutors to upload files and to copy and paste their documents. Here we can
also type together to pose suggestions ask questions and brainstorm ideas.
Everything we type here will be shared in real time and each comment will be
color-coded for each user. For example, my assigned color in this chat is blue so
my comments will appear in blue both in the chat and in the shared whiteboard
space. In order to share a document, clients and tutors can use the arrow
icon. Here we can import a file to begin the session and at the end of the
session we can also export a version of our conversation to save onto our own
individual computers. In my experience, many clients will opt to simply copy and
paste their document directly onto the shared whiteboard space. This is what it
looks like when they do so. As you can, see the amount of highlighted text is a
little bit overwhelming to the eye. We can easily remedy this by selecting
the text and clearing the highlight. We can do this by pressing the
clear authorship colors icon. From here we have a clean document to work from
and all of our comments will appear with fresh highlighting. So you all can be
able to see a session happening in real time you can see that I'm in a session
with one of my clients. My name appears here and all of my comments are coated
in blue. Her name appears here and all of her comments will appear in purple. So as
you can see we've been talking back and forth in the shared white space as well
in the text box and we've also gone ahead and uploaded some of her document.
We're working on a rough draft together and right now we're in the brainstorming
phase. If you would like to revisit your session after it ends, you will be able
to access your work by re-entering the chat via WCO. You can also see a playback
recording of the session by clicking on the time slider icon. The time slider
icon will allow you to see the comments exchanged during the session in the
order that they appeared. I also find it helpful to encourage my clients to save
a version of our session by clicking on the arrows icon and exporting a version
of our session on to their computer. To return to the regular session page, click
the "return to pad" icon. If you are new to online sessions, please consider checking
out the toolbar icon. This will take you to a page full of troubleshooting tips
and tricks. Don't despair and hang in there. I'm
wishing you all the best of luck on your sessions.
Take care.
Hooooo