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Another way in which technology enhances education at Baruch—and is driven by the
special needs of Baruch students—is the system of e-tutoring, which uses software developed by Gerard Dalgish, ESL director and acting writing director.
With e-tutoring, students can have their papers marked up for grammar and
content via e-mail, usually within 48 hours.
"It's very useful to sit with a tutor—in fact, it's invaluable," says Dalgish. "But because Baruch is a commuter college, there often isn't time for in-person tutoring. In that situation, e-tutoring is a valuable substitute."
Dalgish emphasizes that the e-tutor doesn't correct the essay for the student. He or she merely marks a problem, such as subject-verb agreement or the wrong verb tense, or offers general commentary on content or style, and then the student-writer is referred to a specific section of Baruch's official style handbook, Keys for Writers. In other words, the student is told the general kind of error but must figure out the correct change.
Here's how it works: Students submit their papers online, and an e-tutor uses a program called Essay Marker and Analyzer Tool, or EMAT, to tag errors or to make comments on the content and style. The original paper and the marked-up version are returned as an HTML document, which contains links to an online version of Keys for Writers for reference.
Additionally, there is a table of errors that tabulates the numbers of each kind of error and a bar chart that graphically conveys the student's errors as well. Lest this seem like overkill, Dalgish says that the table and graph vividly convey consistent errors and prod the student to make improvements in that area. "Sometimes, frankly, a student needs a kick in the pants," Dalgish says. "It can say to them, 'Do you realize that your paper is sprinkled with 20 mistakes of a certain kind?' With a table or graph, a student may start to pay more attention. Couched as a computer analysis, students begin to take the whole thing more seriously."
Informal surveys have found the e-tutoring program, which began four years ago, to be
successful in helping students improve their
composition skills, Dalgish says. And the Psychology Department's Glenn Albright has begun a formal study examining how much progress students actually make in their writing skills using e-tutoring, which means that there will soon be hard information about the benefits (or not) of this technology. It also means that Baruch's own technological innovations are
driving some new research.
Tech Chief Downing is right—this is a whole new world for learning, for teaching, for scholarship, and for assessment. Whether it's brave or not we can't say—but it's here.
Above: A recent survey revealed that 95 percent of students at Baruch
have a computer at home, the highest percentage of any CUNY college.
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