Resources for Instructors

Book a Class Presentation or Workshop

The Learning Centre tutors, staff and faculty can visit your classes for 15-minute information sessions to tell your students about our services and how to access writing, course content, study skills, and English Language help from the Learning Centre including:

• developing study skills to improve oral presentations, note-taking, study strategies, test preparation, and time management,

• preparing written assignments for all courses, including help with thesis statements, creating arguments, organizing paragraphs, and in-text citations

• gaining better understanding of basic course concepts
  
  Please request a class visit or slide deck of information for your class or contact [email protected] for information about booking a class visit.

Academic Integrity

Tutors in the Learning Centre are available to work one-on-one with students in three newly-focused tutoring sessions to support them in understanding academic integrity at Douglas and in building skills to avoid plagiarism. 

These appointments are meant to be a resource for students who identify their own gaps in knowledge and for instructors and administrators to recommend when they identify students who may need one-on-one support to learn and practice these concepts. The first is available from peer tutors for all subject-areas, and the other two from peer writing tutors only. 

Please let us know if we can provide any additional information. If you are interested in seeing how students can access these appointments, you can also register at douglas.mywconline.com using your Douglas College CNA login.  

Academic Integrity and Plagiarism Sessions 

Students can now choose the following appointments from the drop-down menu when making an appointment at douglas.mywconline.com

Academic Integrity: Understanding and Awareness 

• To increase awareness of the principles and concepts behind academic integrity, plagiarism, and intellectual property. 
• In this appointment, you’ll build on your understanding of academic integrity. The tutor will also introduce you to Douglas College resources available, as well as help you come up with a plan to keep learning the skills needed.  

Academic Integrity: Using Sources in Your Writing 

• To learn how to paraphrase and quote effectively, without plagiarizing. 
• In this appointment, you’ll focus on developing your paraphrasing and ability to use sources as evidence in your writing assignments. The tutor will introduce you to Douglas College Learning Centre resources available.  
• If you have a writing assignment you are currently working on where you are integrating sources as evidence, please bring it to this session.  A graded assignment will also work to review concepts with the tutor.  

Academic Integrity: Style and Formatting Guidelines

• To learn how to access and follow guides and manuals to follow APA, MLA and other citation styles to format your writing assignments, as well as how to connect with a librarian for support with citation formatting.
• In this appointment, you’ll learn how to find the formatting and style rules needed for your assignments, as well as what aspects of the style and formatting are important in most college assignments. The tutor will introduce you to resources available, as well as help you come up with a plan to keep learning the skills needed.

Referring Students to the Learning Centre

The information above is available on the Learning Centre website. The link to share with students for additional information about these sessions is: https://guides.douglascollege.ca/thelearningcentre/writingtutoring. You can also let students know that their use of the service is confidential, and we do not report use or attendance in these sessions to instructors or administrators.

Referring Students to Learning Centre Services

When grading assignments and meeting with students, you may become aware that the student could use some additional guided practice or knowledge. Peer tutors in the Learning Centre may be able to help.   

STUDY SKILLS

• Support with learning skills 
• Taking class notes  
• Reading a textbook  
• Strategies for taking exams  
• Understanding academic integrity

WRITING SKILLS

• Working on basic writing skills (paraphrasing, integrating research, forming a strong thesis statement)  
• Reviewing a draft for feedback on organization, adherence to assignment instructions, strength of thesis and other global concerns.  
• "Our tutors will help students improve their writing skills, but the emphasis is still on the student to improve the paper. Tutors will not do the fixing, correcting, or editing for the student." 

HELP WITH COURSE CONCEPTS

Learning basic concepts for many first-year courses. Check the current schedule to see what is available.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE SKILLS

• Identify and improve English language reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills.
• These sessions are with professional Learning Resources staff who are TESL-certified.

How to Refer?

• Provide links to the Learning Centre website and/or resources.
• Tell the student to sign up for a "Consultation appointment" with a tutor. The tutor will explain the services and help them navigate the Learning Centre resources.
• You can also support the student by having them share their screen and walk them through how to find the Learning Centre website, find resources, and how to register for tutoring

The Learning Centre treats the access to tutoring confidentially and cannot provide proof that a student has used the services.

If you are unsure if the Learning Centre is the right place to refer, or if you have questions, please contact us at [email protected] with your questions.

Note: The Learning Centre does not provide invigilation or space for students writing make-up exams.

Learning Centre Guides and Resources

The Learning Centre produces and curates resources that you are welcome to distribute to your classes. These resources can all be accessed from our Resource Hub, where they are organized into categories including:

• Course content - Resources for particular subjects, ranging from biology to computer science to modern languages
• English language learning - Common grammar errors, introduction to academic writing, and tools for English language support
• Online Learning - Strategies for learning, communication and staying motivated
• Study skills and strategies - Note-taking, procrastination, reading your text book, taking tests
• Writing and editing - Prewriting, outlining, drafting, revising and integrating sources in APA, MLA, editing for grammar errors

Please contact us if you would like recommendations for additional resources.

Information for your Course Outline

Please consider adding information about the Learning Centre to your syllabus and/or online course space. See below for examples:

Peer tutoring, as well as self-help materials, like tutorials and handouts, are available through the Douglas College Learning Centre. 

Meeting with a peer tutor is free for students currently enrolled in Douglas College credit courses. 

Tutors provide feedback for your writing assignments to help you improve your academic writing skills, including essay organization, in-text citation, understanding plagiarism and following assignment instructions.​

Struggling with online learning? Schedule a Consultation appointment with a Learning Centre tutor to share strategies for online learning success.​

Need help understanding what academic integrity means at Douglas? Writing tutors can provide a series of appointments to help you understand and avoid plagiarism in your assignments.

Links for Your Blackboard Course

Students have also indicated that being reminded about the services at the time they need to use them increases the likelihood of using the service. Please consider adding a quick link to the Learning Centre services as part of your assignments. For example, you can add information about meeting with a writing tutor when posting information about an upcoming writing assignment.

• Information about the Learning Centre
• Make an appointment or submit a paper
• Learn about writing support for all classes
• Study skills and online learning resources
• English Language support

Instructional Support

Faculty from the Learning Centre are available for:

• informational and instructional sessions at departmental and divisional meetings
• coordinating in-class study and learning skills workshops
• speaking individually with instructors to discuss integrating foundational study and writing skills into course assignments
• developing peer-led Exam Jam and study groups for your courses

We would always love to know how we can best help students in your courses. Please contact Nancy Squair, Learning Centre Instructor and Acting Coordinator, with any questions.​

Working with Multilingual Writers
Resource from Purdue University with instructional support for academic integrity, addressing global and local writing concerns, and scaffolding assignments.

Four Feathers Writing Guide
The Four Feathers Writing Guide respectfully presents traditional Coast Salish teachings and approaches to learning to support Indigenous students develop as academic writers.

Antiracist Writing Assessment Ecologies: Teaching and Assessing Writing for a Socially Just Future
Inoue helps teachers understand the unintended racism that often occurs when teachers do not have explicit antiracist agendas in their assessments.

Reviewing Writing Assignments

Writing Tutors in the Learning Centre can review your writing assignment guidelines and provide feedback.  The crux of supporting student writing as a peer tutor is understanding the assignment instructions; writing tutors see hundreds of different assignment guidelines.

To have a tutor provide a response to your assignment guidelines:

1. Email your assignment guidelines to Nancy Squair, Learning Centre Instructor and Acting Coordinator
2. Include questions that you have about the assignment guidelines. ​

A peer tutor will review your assignment. You will receive the written response by email. ​

IMPORTANT NOTES:

• Student requests always take priority. Time for review will depend on the time of the semester.  
• Writing tutors are students. Their response will be from an informed student (i.e not instructional) perspective. 

Supporting Students to Develop as Tutors

Another type of referral you can make as an instructor is to a student who you think would be a good peer tutor. 

Who are the peer tutors?

Peer Tutors are engaged, independent learners who are rewarded by seeing others do well too. You might see this person taking the lead in group assignments and supporting other students who have questions.

Let your students know you've noticed their potential

We've created an eSticker that you can use to attach to student assignments.  Right-click on the image to copy or save this to attach to graded student assignments. 

File Link: 

QR Code and LC recommendation.jpg

Referral form

You can also refer a student directly to us by submitting their name to us. We will contact them, let them know they were recommended by an instructor,  and invite them to apply. 

More information about criteria and the application process

See the Become a Tutor page.