Synopsis
For a significant portion of my time in college I was an academic tutor. I started tutoring Computer Science when that was my major.
For one semester I also was a Supplemental Instruction Leader for a Computer Science class, requiring me to lead weekly discussions for about six students on average each week.
After I switched to Interaction and Design I became a Digital Media Tutor. I tutored students one-on-one in the Digital Media lab.
Time Frame: 2015 - 2018
Challenges
The biggest challenge was helping students that were really struggling with the design tools or the ones that were feeling overwhelmed by the project and didn’t know where to begin.
Making Complicated Software Understandable
When it came to students struggling to understand tools it required me to have a lot of patience. I would often have to show a student how to do something several times. However, it was rewarding to see when they were able to complete the task by themselves on future projects and to see their progress.
Encouraging Overwhelmed Students
When a student was feeling overwhelmed, I would help them break the project into manageable chunks and start with the easier steps to help them build their confidence.
Solution — Breaking a Problem Down into Chunks
What I Learned
Interpersonal Communication
Throughout my time tutoring, I picked up some valuable experience. I had to clearly explain ideas to other students and guide them to be able to discover solutions on their own. This greatly improved my interpersonal communication skills.
Practice with Information Architecture
I was also tasked with designing and updating the digital media tutoring poster each semester. This was an exercise in information architecture because I had to clearly show a lot of information on a single page.
Every semester I would revisit the poster and I would make improvements to it. This allowed me to practice iterative design.
Iterations of Tutoring Poster