How To Schedule Online Appointments

Hello everyone, it’s me (Annie)! I hope you are staying warm during the winter storm this week! The Writing Center always tries to be as adaptable as we can, so we quickly made adjustments when MC cancelled in-person classes for the first half of the week. Even though we can't offer face-to-face tutoring sessions at the moment, we still want to be available to help you with your writing assignments! We are continuing to offer two types of online appointments for your convenience.

Since our online appointments are a newer edition to the Writing Center, some students may want to learn more about these appointments. So, I thought it would be beneficial to do a “Fast Facts About The Writing Center” series about online appointment options!

What To Expect From An Online Chat Appointment:

If you choose to schedule an online chat appointment, you should log back into the scheduling website a few minutes before your appointment is scheduled to begin. Then, you should open your appointment slot and click “Start or Join Online Consultation” to be taken to an online chat room where your tutor will be waiting to start your appointment!

Click on “Start or Join Online Consultation” a few minutes before your appointment begins!

You should be taken to an online chat!

Once your tutoring session begins, the tutor will talk to you over the chat. They may ask you to upload your paper in the document portion of the chat, which will allow you to work through your paper together. Sometimes the chat format can interfere with the formatting of your paper, so the tutor may also ask you to switch over to a Zoom meeting. You will be able to share screens and revise your paper together on Zoom.

What To Expect From A Correspondence Appointment:

If you choose a correspondence appointment, you should upload your paper and any supporting documents, such as the rubric or assignment sheet, when you make the appointment. You should also provide a description of what area of your assignment you would like the tutor to help you with. You could, for instance, ask the tutor to evaluate the organization of your essay or the strength of your thesis.

Instead of interacting with the tutor like you would during an online chat, the tutor will add comments to your essay within 24 hours of your appointment. They will upload the revised document with their comments onto your appointment information on our scheduling website. You should receive an email on your MC account notifying you that your appointment has been modified and a tutor responded to your paper.

How To Schedule An Online Appointment:

1. Go to our scheduling website. If you scheduled an appointment with us before, you can log in to our scheduling assignment. If this is your first time scheduling an appointment, you will need to register for an account.

Go to our scheduling website and log in!

2. View the appointment availability. Once you log in, you can see the name of the tutors and their available time slots. You will probably want to first find tutors who are working during the times you are available to have a tutoring session.

View the appointment availability!

3. Find a tutor who works best for you! After finding the tutors that work when you are available, you can click on a white box under the name of a tutor you would be interested in working with. You will be able to view their major and writing specialities and, in turn, choose a tutor that best fits your needs.

Click on a white box under a tutor’s name to learn more about their writing specialites!

4. Select an appointment. Once you decide what tutor you would like to schedule your appointment with, you can click on the white box again to schedule an appointment.

Once you pick the appointment you want, you can begin scheduling!

5. Decide between an online chat and correspondence appointment. You will be prompted to choose between the two online appointments you would like to schedule. Based on the description of these appointments I provided above, you can pick the appointment that suits your needs.

Decide between an online chat and correspondence appointment!

6. Tell us about your assignment. To help the tutor have a better understanding of your assignment, you can provide some context for them, such as a basic description of your assignment and what you would like help on during the tutoring session.

Provide some context about your writing assignment!

7. Upload your draft and rubrics. If you already have a draft written of your assignment, you can upload it! You can also upload any rubrics or relevant documents.

Upload any supporting documents!

8. Create your appointment! When you finish providing all the necessary information, press the blue button at the bottom of the screen and create your appointment!

Create your appointment!

Now that you know a little bit more about online chat and correspondence appointments, you should schedule an appointment this week! We hope to see you soon!