Resources for Instructors

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 me know if I 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 the Learning Centre  

When do you refer?  

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 online learning skills 
• Taking class notes  
• Reading a textbook  
• Strategies for taking exams  

Writing skills  

• Understanding plagiarism  
• 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.

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 learningcentre@douglascollege.ca 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 handouts for writing and study skills that you are welcome to distribute to your classes. Please contact us if you would like recommendations for additional resources.

• Online Learning NEW! - Strategies for learning, communication and staying motivated
• Writing and editing - Prewriting, outlining, drafting, revising and integrating sources in APA, MLA, editing for grammar errors
• English language learning - Article use, editing for language errors, ESL learning
• Study skills and strategies - Note-taking, procrastination, reading your text book, taking tests
• Course content - Statistics, biology, pharmacology, math, computer science

Information for your Course Syllabus

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.

Add Learning Centre Modules to your course in Blackboard. 

1. Go to your courses Home page in edit mode and select "add course module."
   You can also create a Modules page by choosing Module page in the "add a menu item" drop down in the left column. Additional help with this step is available in the Faculty Resources tab in Bb.


2. In the "Browse by Category" menu, choose Student Services to see the Learning Centre modules. Click the "Add" button to add the modules to your page.


3. Check your module page for placement. Additional information about how to move the modules on the page is available though the Faculty Resources tab.
   

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 Holly Salmon, Learning Centre 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.

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 Holly Salmon, Learning Centre Coordinator and Instructor
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.  You can usually submit during the first three weeks of the semester for a faster response)
• Writing tutors are students. Their reponse will be from an informed student (i.e not instructional) perspective.