This year, Middlebury’s Center for Teaching, Learning and Research (CTLR) launched a new scheduling system, QuadC. The platform allows students to more easily request one-on-one meetings with specific tutors than previous systems and enables CTLR staff to track student engagement.
According to Interim Writing Center Director Melissa Hammerle, student traffic in the Writing Center has been high so far this semester, especially among first years. Before QuadC, it was rare for students to request a tutoring session. The new platform has spiked the number of one-on-one meetings, adding more personal appointments to the usual drop-in hours tutors are assigned.
“I’ve been a writing tutor for two years and this year, without a doubt, has been the busiest,” Maddy Russell ’26, a Writing Peer Tutor, said. Russell also tutors the first year seminar “Anything That Ticks” and works during drop-in hours.
Hammerle also noted that the CTLR has consolidated into one space in Davis Family Library, streamlining tutoring and making it easier for students to locate writing help. The number of drop-in hours has also increased from last year. The center boasts nearly 50 student tutors as well as two professional tutors, who have all been kept busy by the bustle of midterms and eager first years.
By meeting with peer tutors, especially those engaged with certain first year seminars, the Writing Center offers first years an opportunity to adjust to the demands of college-level writing. Student tutors participate in a year-long training process that prepares them to provide compassionate, as well as academic feedback. Working with a peer makes the often daunting task of asking for help more manageable.
“I think [the first years] feel that it’s more approachable,” Russell said.
Russell observed that writing tutoring can also serve as a space to ask for broader academic support. Students with questions about certain courses a tutor might have taken could use a one-on-one appointment or a conversation during drop-in hours to discuss any concerns.
“Writing is pretty personal, so it ends up kind of branching out into a lot of different spaces,” Russell said. “It’s more of a mentorship outside of just writing.”
Writing Center tutors are equipped to help students in every stage of the writing process. Some students attend one-on-ones or drop-in hours simply to brainstorm, while others bring in a finished draft for a thorough lookover. Wherever students are in their work, tutors are there to help them along, and students are taking advantage of that resource.
Although the CTLR is currently seeing a lot of traffic, student participation is hard to predict. Due dates are not uniform across classes and student tutors often experience lulls and peaks in usage as the semester progresses. Hammerle hopes that the data collected from QuadC will help the center better anticipate demand.
The added complexity of artificial intelligence (AI) use in student writing makes the Writing Center’s future hazy. As incoming classes are increasingly familiar with the use of AI in academic writing, student tutors may have to shift their approach. Professors each have their own preferences surrounding generative AI, requiring student tutors to become familiar with particular policies.
As the year goes on, QuadC will generate more data to aid Hammerle and other CTLR staff in structuring peer-to-peer tutoring. Students are also able to write reflections about their experience with the center on the platform, offering a qualitative layer to analyze. For now, the CTLR remains in the back of Davis with open arms, welcoming any student with questions about their writing.
