CREDIT: EMMA BUTLER
Marilyn Henry, the Peer Tutor Coordinator, is the one students need to talk to in the Library Learning Commons about Homeroom.

Fanshawe college and the Fanshawe Student Union (FSU) have partnered together to create a platform that allows students to easily access tutoring. Homeroom, which is powered by TutorOcean, is an online platform that lets students connect with their tutors and help them with their studies.

The FSU and the college had many discussions about how students need help and how to make it simple and easy to access for anyone in need. The platform also provides a fun visual for students to look at profiles of tutors and find the best match to help them with their academic work outside of the classroom. Peer tutoring students can also login to Homeroom using their username and password and immediately start signing up for a tutor. Tutors are available for many subjects, and are available a number of hours and days of the week. Tutors also have their availability published on Homerooms main page. If anyone is having trouble signing up for a tutor, they can go to F1006 in the main building or they can email peertutoring@nullfanshawec.ca or use their live chat service at chatllc.fanshawec.ca.

Jessica Bugorski, the Director of the Library Learning Commons, shared how this will benefit students in helping them find the right tutor for their needs.


“This will make it easier for students to look for a peer tutor when they need help. They do not have to contact anyone, and they can simply login and sign up to receive help, even the same day!” Bugorski said.

The college has not used a platform like this before, but other colleges have used this platform calling it by a different name and have received great feedback from students. The pandemic, with the many issues it brought, helped encourage this platform to go virtual. It allows students from anywhere to access tutors and to be able to utilize resources created by the college and the FSU. Homeroom is for all students part-time and full-time regardless of location and is completely free to use.

Students are tutored by their peers but Bugorski stated that they are looking to add full-time staff to the services. Sessions can range from 15 minutes to an hour, and all students are eligible for two hours of tutoring per week with peer tutors.

“We let students need to drive the tutors we hire and the subjects for the term. For example, we have a number of math, accounting, science, and writing tutors available right now. Subjects will cover anything that we offer across the college, if students need it and we can find available and interested tutors,” Bugorski said.

Each semester, new tutors are hired to the platform and every day they add more tutors to fill the needs of students in need of help.

Students can go to fanshawelibrary.com for more information.