SMARTHINKING | The leader in on-demand student support

Saint Leo University (SLU) serves over 15,500 traditional and adult continuing education students on its Saint Leo campus as well as through its Continuing Education Centers in 7 states and its Center for Online Learning. Although SLU provides on-campus students with academic support services through the Learning Resource Center, it was not able to provide tutorial services to the 88% of students who were off campus. SLU chose Smarthinking to provide online tutoring, based largely on an administrator’s previous positive experience at an educational institution in New Mexico.

In 2006, SLU piloted Smarthinking to support its online developmental math and English courses. With the successful launch of Smarthinking with this select group of students, SLU opened access to Smarthinking to all undergraduate and graduate students in their online programs and later to students at their Continuing Education Centers.

SLU makes a concerted effort to raise student awareness of Smarthinking’s online tutoring service. As part of their orientation course through the Center for Online Learning, students are required to log on to Smarthinking and use the Online Writing Lab for assistance in a written assignment. The University’s Learning Resource Center also promotes the use of Smarthinking.

In two years (2009-2011), the number of SLU students using Smarthinking has grown 5 times over, with the number of Smarthinking hours used by students increasing by 141%.

Student feedback on Smarthinking has been overwhelmingly positive.

"Within an online environment, all communications are based on the written word. That said, writing skills are critical within online courses. Although our students also use Smarthinking in other areas, the service plays a particularly important role in assisting our students to improve their writing skills."
Diane Johnson, EdD, Assistant Director, Faculty Services