| It’s 11 p.m. on the night before a
test that is worth 15 percent of your students’ course grades. In
preparation for the test, one of your students has spent the evening plowing
through the chapter text and examples. He has read, thought about, and
understood the material, and so he decides to work through some end-of-chapter
problems. Assignment one: piece of cake. Assignment two: equally workable.
Assignment three: there is a problem. He is stuck. And he’s worried a
similar question will be on the test tomorrow. It’s too late for him to
call a classmate and the test is at 8 a.m. Worse yet, he is losing
concentration. He considers giving up. After all, where can he get help at this
hour? Houghton Mifflin Company has partnered with SmarThinking.com, the
premiere online tutoring service, to provide free, on-demand tutoring . This
service would solve this student’s problem. From his dorm-room computer,
he could visit Houghton Mifflin’s accounting resource site, where
he’d find a link to SmarThinking tutors—actual accounting tutors
ready to guide him through the difficult material. For free!
The Tutors
The SmarThinking accounting tutors available to students are either active
accounting educators, well acquainted with the learning process, or accounting
professionals who have been given additional training in one-on-one
instruction. They coach students using the discovery approach, rather than
provide solutions to assignments. Tutors might refer students to resources that
can provide further reinforcement, but they never help with problems that are
not in the textbook, study guide, or related ancillaries. They also never
disclose any student-specific information, speculate about grades, criticize
instructors’ grading, or make negative comments about a student,
professor, or school.
How It Works
Students normally pay for their online tutoring using a credit card, but the
Houghton Mifflin/SmarThinking partnership provides a number of pre-paid hours
to students at schools that have adopted Houghton Mifflin texts. Students may
access the service seven days a week (excepting major holidays) during hours
when you, their instructor, and other resources may not available to them:
Sundays through Thursdays from 4 p.m. to 1a.m. EST, and Fridays and Saturdays
from 12 Noon to 6 p.m. EST. These times are useful to students in all U.S. time
zones. If students need further help outside of the hours pre-paid by Houghton
Mifflin, students may establish a pay-by-use account, the charges of which are
based each tutor’s individual rate. These paid sessions are still much
less costly than in-person tutoring, and possibly more effective because they
are supplied on demand, exactly when the student needs help.
To learn about the service firsthand, activate an account at
http://www.college.hmco.com/accounting/instructors
(free to Houghton Mifflin adopters) and click on SmarThinking. Here you’ll
find a demonstration of how the service works.
SmarThinking
SmarThinking, based in Washington, DC, provides people, technology, and
training so post-secondary institutions can offer students outstanding online
tutoring and academic support. Schools, colleges, universities, government
agencies, textbook publishers, and other education providers work with
SmarThinking to increase student achievement and enhance learning by connecting
people to qualified educators anytime, anywhere, via the Internet. SmarThinking
currently works with over 100 school and business clients, including the U. S.
Army, Kentucky Virtual University, California Virtual College, and Houghton
Mifflin Company. Its unique standing in the e-learning market has allowed it to
attract an outstanding management team and staff of over 100 professionals and
educators.
HM Web Tutor powered by SmarThinking:
http://www.college.hmco.com/Accounting/instructors/
Houghton Mifflin Books Supported
- Managerial Accounting, Needles/Crosson 2002e,
0-618-10230-2
- Principles of Accounting, Needles/Powers/Crosson
2002e, 0-618-12424-1
- Principles of Financial Accounting, Needles/Powers,
2002e, 0-618-12423-3
- Financial and Managerial Accounting,
Needles/Powers/Crosson, 2002e, 0-618-10231-0
- Financial Accounting, Needles/Powers, 7e,
0-618-02335-6
- College Accounting, McQuaig/Bille, Complete, 7e,
0-618-02279-1
- College Accounting, McQuaig/Bille, Chapters 1 –
14, 0-618-02281-3
- College Accounting, McQuaig/Bille, Chapters 1–
9, 0-618-02282-1
Tutors provide support for all problems, examples, and
exercises in the texts and their related supplements.
Availability
4 p.m. to 1a.m. EST, (Sunday–Thursday), except major holidays; 12 Noon to
6 p.m., (Friday–Saturday), except major holidays.
Contact: Steven_Mikels@hmco.com
To learn more about HM Web Tutor or texts published by
Houghton Mifflin, please visit us online at:
http://www.college.hmco.com, or call
our faculty services center at 1-800-733-1717.
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