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Dear colleagues,

I have read this discussion with great interest and some dismay, and would like to clarify what appear to be some misconceptions about how our organisation functions, and how we collaborate and partner with academic support teams within Australian and UK universities.

Firstly, I make reference to the document previously posted on this forum titled ‘Analysis of YourTutor’ and authored by colleagues from Victoria University (VU) in Melbourne, Australia. This document purported to be an academically rigorous evaluation, yet it was, in fact far from objective, and contained numerous misquotations and factual errors. This document did not receive ethics approval and has been withdrawn by VU from this forum. VU have advised that the document is the subject of an internal investigation.

While we are still awaiting a formal statement from VU to correct the public record, we wish to address the various misunderstandings the document contained.

YourTutor’s mission is to support universities to meet the learning support needs of their students. We work alongside existing academic learning support departments, and complement their work, primarily by providing supplemental learning experiences at times when they are not available - evenings and weekends. We do this via digital platforms and technology that contemporary students are increasingly using as a preferred mode of course delivery.

Some egregious misstatements contained in the aforementioned document include the following:

• Myth: We employ undergraduates to support students at our partner universities.
• Fact: Every professional we employ to support our university partners is at least degree (Bachelor’s) qualified. Many have advanced degrees, including PhD’s, as well as other academic qualifications. Although we do employ some undergraduate tutors, they work exclusively with students at the 200+ high schools we support nationwide.

• Myth: Our service is more like “peer support” than academic learning support.
• Fact: Students use our service to gain assistance from subject matter and writing professionals who are rigorously screened, trained, background-checked, mentored and monitored to ensure they provide professional, consistent and high quality learning experiences that conform to our best practice expectations and standards.

• Myth: There is no evidence YourTutor has a measurable impact on learning outcomes.
• Fact: James Cook University recently presented the ethics-approved findings of their 2016 pilot study of our service at a UK conference (see attached presentation), which found statistically significant indicators that YourTutor positively impacted engagement and grade point average, and that this impact was increased for students who were less well prepared for tertiary study (i.e. lower entrance scores).

• Myth: All YourTutor interactions are anonymous, so there’s no way to know who’s getting helped.
• Fact: We integrate our service with each university’s LMS, so even though the tutor and student do not know each other (and this is highly beneficial from a learning perspective), we are able to provide specific data around students who access the service for assistance, including frequency, subject areas and impact of the learning experience.

• Myth: YourTutor offers “quick fixes” and “scrubs” essays, which don’t deliver lasting results.
• Fact: Our Writing Feedback service is fully transparent, continuously monitored and delivered via a bespoke platform that has a number of inbuilt tools to ensure the integrity and quality of the feedback provided. Our trained writing feedback specialists provide best practice feedback in relation to academic writing only, that is specific, detailed, understandable and ‘feed-forward.’ We do not review content (this is left to the experts within each institution). Our constructivist methodology ensures every interaction results in a sound educational outcome enabling students to use the feedback to amend current and improve future work. Examples of reviewed documents are available on request.

• Myth: Providing YourTutor to students will reduce demand for campus-based support.
• Fact: Provision of online support has no impact on demand for on-campus support. The James Cook University data conclusively demonstrates this and in fact, was considered to have supported JCU’s commitment to provide equity of access to essential learning support for all their students, including those living in regional or remote locations, online students, as well as other non-traditional student groups. For these learners, who could not access conventional on campus support, an online alternative is often the only choice and fills an important support gap.

……."Using HEPPP funding, many universities are providing academic support through online learning tools. For example, the YourTutor online tool is being used by 11 universities under the HEPPP to provide tutoring support to students after hours. The online tool supports flexibility around work schedules and family commitments, particularly enabling low SES and mature age students to access academic support"

- Source: Acil & Allen Consulting, Evaluation of the Higher Education Participation & Partnerships Program. 2017.

In JCU’s case 28% of YourTutor users did not use any other university learning support service, and at other universities the proportion is much larger.

There are many errors and claims in the VU document, yet it is extremely disappointing that the authors made no attempt to contact our organisation to address their concerns, or fact-check their assertions.

YourTutor has been providing support to students from universities, libraries, high schools and technical colleges for the past 14 years. We have built trust and respect from the academic community with which we partner. I therefore want to close with an open invitation for anyone to contact me directly regarding any concerns you may have about our organisation and the services we provide. You can reach me at [log in to unmask]

Yours faithfully,

Michael Larsen
CEO, YourTutor