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Mark your Calendars!
Live Homework Help v.2
Launch: July
19
For more information and technical requirements click the link
to the left or go to: http://clients.tutor.com/libraries/lhhv2/lhh.asp.
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Guest Writer:
Ruth Sinker
Youth Services
Technology Coordinator
Skokie Public Library
Skokie, IL |
Back to School with
Live Homework HelpTM @ Skokie Public
Library
While students are enjoying a leisurely summer in the library and around
town, Skokie Public Library staff is busy preparing our computer labs, online resources, Web site, and print publications so that they will be ready
for use before the first day of school. In early June, we field-tested Live Homework Help Version 2.0 on our public access
computers to make sure that they have the software and user permissions necessary to ensure that our patrons have uninterrupted access to the
service. Over the next several weeks, we'll update our Web site and print publications with information about the upgrade and in late August we'll
host a "Back-to-School" rally. We'll kick off the new school year with music, stories, and a real-time, big-screen introduction to Live Homework
Help. This will be a great opportunity to not only show the students how easy (and fun!) it is to use Live Homework Help, but to also let parents and
teachers know that Live Homework Help offers free online tutoring at the Library and from home for Skokie Public Library cardholders.
Summer is also a time of transition for young patrons who will "graduate"
from the Youth Computer Lab to the Adult Computer Lab when they begin high school in the fall. By this time, 8th grade graduates are seasoned Live
Homework Help users and appreciate the value of the service to their academic success. They've learned how to use Live Homework
Help as young students and know that it remains available to them as young adults. Since late May, our Youth Computer Lab staff has been chatting
casually with the grads about this transition and encouraging them to visit the Adult Computer Lab, meet its staff, get acquainted with the
surroundings, and upgrade their library cards from juvenile to adult status. This transition is a lifelong learning milestone and our goal is to
ensure that the students feel welcomed in the Library's adult environment and that their access to adult services, including computers networked to
Live Homework Help, is uninterrupted when the new school year begins.
Skokie Public Library began its Live Homework Help service in September
2003, four months into the fiscal year. In three fiscal years, Live Homework Help usage has increased more than 150 percent! Additionally, our
statistics for FY2005-2006 show a 55 percent increase in Live Homework Help sessions from the 8th to 9th grade. This trend suggests that students are
using Live Homework Help, they value the service enough to take it with them to high school, and that the tutors really are
helping students to complete their assignments and improve their grades!
If you're a new Live Homework Help client, or if your promotion just needs
a little punch, try these tips for connecting your student community with Live Homework Help in preparation for the new school year:
Get ready...
- Meet with your technology support staff to make sure computers in your library meet the
system requirements necessary to support Live Homework Help Version 2.0.
- Test your public access computers to make sure that they can connect to Live Homework Help
and all of its features. If your library offers remote access to Live Homework Help, test that connection, too.
- Place the Live Homework Help logo and hyperlinks prominently throughout your Web site,
especially on homework help content pages and other pages that students often visit. Consider placing a hyperlink in a page header or footer to
provide ready access to Live Homework Help from every page of your Web site (see kids.skokielibrary.info and teens.skokielibrary.info for
examples).
- Create a Live Homework Help portal page on your Web site. Here you can provide information
about Live Homework Help, troubleshooting tips, and specific details about the implementation of Live Homework Help at your library (see lhh.skokielibrary.info for an example).
Get set...
- Download promotional materials and templates from the Tutor.com Client Web site and customize them with your Live Homework Help URL and service hours. Posters and bookmarks
are a big hit with teachers and students!
- If your library uses plasma screens to promote library programs and activities, schedule some
time to run the Live Homework Help PowerPoint presentation available on the Tutor.com promotions Web page. No plasma screens? No problem! Run the
presentation as a screensaver on your public Internet computers.
- Contact Tutor.com to arrange remote assistance for a real-time Live Homework Help
demonstration at your library. Ask a young patron to act as "student" and let him or her sit at the keyboard, log in to the service, and challenge
the tutor with a realistic homework question. Be sure the demonstration includes the same navigational steps that patrons will take to get to Live
Homework Help from your Web site.
- Use your Live Homework Help usage statistics and client quotes in print materials to let the
community see how Live Homework Help is being used and what students are saying about the service. Those quotes can be downright entertaining!
- Provide a "Tutor FAQ" that answers questions about tutor qualifications, background checks, and safety in the online classroom. Parents and
teachers will be naturally concerned about students "chatting" online with adults who they don't know personally.
Go!
- Invite yourself to visit schools, classrooms, PTA meetings, and homeschool groups to talk
about and demonstrate Live Homework Help for students, teachers, and parents. Arrange remote assistance or use the demonstration classroom, whichever
best fits your plans and schedule. Have a student help with the demonstration so that teachers and parents can see for themselves how easy it is to
use Live Homework Help. Bring posters, bookmarks, and flyers!
- Plan a Live Homework Help demonstration especially for new 4th grade students. This group is
(finally!) old enough to begin using the service. Shower them with attention... they are the future of Live Homework Help!
- When students approach the reference desk for help with dreaded math problems, encourage them
to log in to Live Homework Help for assistance from a real tutor. Be sure to tell them that the service is available for free at the library (and from
home if your library provides remote access). Have those bookmarks handy!
- If students need help with worksheets that require detailed explanation, use a scanner to
import the worksheet into Microsoft Word. Then use the Live Homework Help "send file" feature to upload the file to the tutor so that s/he can see
exactly what the student is working with. This will save time and allow the tutor and student to work "virtually" side-by-side.
- Share your Live Homework Help usage statistics and patron comments with management and Board
members.
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Henderson County Public Library
Henderson, KY |
Innovator of the Month
Tutor.com is pleased to present the Live Homework Help Innovator Award to Henderson County Public
Library in Henderson, Kentucky.
Henderson County Public Library, a participant in the Kentucky Department of Libraries and
Archives Live Homework Help program, has developed highly effective splash pages to communicate and promote Live Homework Help to their in-library
patrons. The result is that Henderson County Public Library has the highest in-library use in Kentucky!
Henderson County Public Library has created two separate splash pages to prominently place
Live Homework Help on the desktops of their in-library computers. On the Internet computers in the Adult and Children's computer labs, the splash
page http://www.hcpl.org/homework/ displays as the "home page" for the browser and for
Internet Explorer as the first page that patrons see. This page is also on HCPL's Web site to provide home users with the same
information as in-library patrons. A separate page appears on PCs devoted to the online catalog and research databases: http://www.hcpl.org/ipacdesktop.htm. This page serves to direct people to the
catalog and also to featured online resources such as Live Homework Help. The PAC computers are programmed so that the browser cannot be closed and
the browser will always default back to this page.
Pam Vincent, Assistant Director at Henderson County Public Library reports:
"Our in-house use has more than doubled since we launched the splash page. I find that we have
more repeat customers using the service inside the library. My favorite story is of a 7th grade girl who used Live Homework Help at the
library almost daily for a 2-week period. She didn't have a computer at home and was able to walk to the library from her home. She and her mother
reported that her math grade increased from an F to an A as a direct result of Live Homework Help. The young girl was so excited as she shared this
with our children's librarian. She had never received an A in math before!
Overall, we've been happy with the success of Live Homework Help in Henderson County. We're
getting great support from the school system and the local media (radio, newspaper). We're looking forward to another great year of Live Homework
Help and are hoping to reach even more students in Henderson County."
With the majority of Live Homework Help usage coming from remote users in most libraries, we found
Henderson County's successful effort to reach in-library patrons to be compelling. Reaching in-library patrons, especially those who may not have
access to a home computer, should be a top goal for all of us. The upgrade to Live Homework Help V2 this summer suggests a good
opportunity to review your Web site and implement a splash page strategy before school starts. Congratulations and thank you again to our Innovators
at Henderson County Public Library!
Henderson County Public Library will receive a $50 American Express gift certificate. To submit your
idea for the Innovator of the Month Award, please email lhwhsupport@tutor.com.
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New Classroom + New School Year = New Marketing Materials for Live
Homework Help!
Summer is underway, but at Tutor.com we are already thinking about the next school
year!
This year our "Back-to-School" materials will include a variety of new and eye-catching
materials in flexible formats to help you spread the word about your innovative program.
Mailed to You in July/August 2006
- New, eye-catching "You've got homework. We've got help." posters to be used in your library, at local schools
and around your community.
- A "Best Practices" piece that highlights all the innovative ideas to promote Live Homework Help.
- Mousepads that have the URL for our client Web site so that http:/clients.tutor.com/, "Your Online Home for Program Resources", will always be just a click
away!
E-mailed to You in July/August 2006
- An electronic file of our newly designed Program (business) Cards, customized with your Live Homework Help
program information. This file is provided to you so that you can reproduce these popular cards at your convenience in house or with local vendors.
New Marketing Materials (available on http://clients.tutor.com/ by July 19, 2006)
- Teacher Handout
- New Bookmarks
- New Online Classroom Handout
- New Posters/Flyers
- Updated Press Release and Newsletter templates
Coming in the Fall of
2006
- Materials to help you promote Live Homework Help to teen audiences
and during Heritage Months (black history, women's history, etc).
It is going to be an awesome school year as we
partner together to spread the word about Live Homework Help. As always, we are grateful for all your efforts in promoting this important
program.
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Promotional Tip of the Month
Summertime is a great time to tune up your library's Web site!
As you prepare for the launch of LHH V.2 on July 19 and gear up for
back-to-school, don't neglect the online portal to your library: your Web site. Here a few tips for ensuring your patrons can
easily find and access Live Homework Help.
Placement:
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Prominently display the LHH logo and hours on your library homepage.
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Highlight LHH on the kids and teen pages.
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Include LHH with your electronic databases and online resources.
Access:
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Check the links to LHH both in the library AND from outside the library.
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Have your IP addresses changed? Have you added links to LHH on new pages? Don't forget
to let your Tutor.com client services manager know about changes to IP addresses and referring URLs.
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On the library card authentication page for Live Homework
Help, add a link on how to obtain a library card. If you do not have a current Your Library Here card, you can either access this
resource from any library location, or you can apply for a card (include a hyplerlink to instructions).
Content:
- Be sure to update any Live Homework Help information on your site to reflect LHH v.2. For example,
update your technical requirements and any screenshots of the classroom.
Keep Live Homework Help running this upcoming school year by scheduling regular
maintenance for your Web site.
The LHH logo is available for download from the client Web site at http://clients.tutor.com/libraries/promotions/print.asp.
Sweepstakes "Final"
Finale!
Tutor.com's last sweepstakes of the school year, "Got Finals," had librarians across
the country vying for every last student to try Live Homework Help before summer began. Yes, even in the midst of preparing for busy Summer Reading
Programs to launch, many librarians took the opportunity to introduce students to Live Homework Help. There were a record number of sessions for the
month resulting in an increase of 40% over last year. And the winner of our "Got Finals" sweepstakes is (drum roll please)...Alaska State
Library!
Congratulations and thanks to everyone for doing such a great job getting
the word out about Live Homework Help!
Meet our Tutor of
the Month
John A has been with Tutor.com since September 2005. John lives in Cabot, AR where
in the past year he earned his BA in Secondary Education. John tutors Algebra, Algebra II, Calculus, and Trigonometry.
Here are some quotes from some of the people John has helped:
My tutor was extremely helpful and patiently guided me step by step in helping
me understand the equation. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
John A. really made the tutor.com a pleasurable experience. I hope he
continues to assist all that he can in trigonometry.
John A was awesome he helped me so much!!! Possibly the best tutor I've worked
with!! Great program!
Perfect, perfect,and perfect tutor. Don't change a bit!
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