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THE MATH CENTER

Deb Moore-Russo is the First Year Math Director at the University of Oklahoma

  1. Name of center: The Math Center

  2. University/College: University of Oklahoma

  3. Number of undergraduates at university: ~21,000

  4. Is your center math specific or part of a more centralized tutoring center?  Math specific/

  5. Tell us about your physical space. Where are you located on campus? How big is your center? We are located in the Physical Science building, which is home of the Math Department and where many math classes are offered. The Math Center is 4,723 square feet and is divided up into 6 areas Each area is related to certain course areas, for example, one area is for the math classes taken by business, life, and social science majors. The areas for STEM math classes are  according to level of the math class. It seats around 200 students.

  6. What courses do you tutor? (e.g., Algebra, Trigonometry, Calculus I, II, III, Differential Equations) All first-year math courses, up through Calculus, Linear Algebra, and Differential Equations. Specifically, Math for Critical Thinking, College Algebra, Precalculus and Trigonometry, Functions & Modeling, Business Calculus 1-2, STEM Calculus 1-4, Linear Algebra, Intro to Differential Equations, and Physical Math 1.

  7. What services do you offer? (e.g., drop-in tutoring, online drop-in, appointments, study groups, exam reviews, supplemental instruction) The Math Center is open M-Th 9 am - 5 pm and Friday for drop in, in person tutoring and M - Th 5 - 11 pm we offer virtual tutoring.  Before large uniform exam the math center offers review sessions and After Dark (in person evening tutoring with snacks located near the dorms)

  8. What is your favorite training topic? Why? How do you train on the topic? Strategies for tutoring - variety of tutoring techniques

  9. Describe one change you’ve made in your center that you’re most proud of: We have added graduate student area supervisors to help make sure the center runs smoothly, but to also observe the undergraduate tutors and serve as a mentor for them. This has been working really well!

  10. Describe the best part of your job: Working with students and seeing improvements in their understanding

  11. What is one piece of advice you’d give to someone who is new to leading a math learning center? Work with what space you are able to, but what is crucial is having great staffing. 

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