Student Demographics
The data in this section refers to number of individual students. Similar to increases in appointments, number of individual students scheduling online appointments has consistently increased per semester (see Figure 3). The highest number of students in one semester was 78 in Summer 2016, and Fall 2016 came just 3 students shy of that number at 75. Fall 2016 saw 35 more students than Fall 2015.
Image Description. Figure 3 is an infographic with a vertical bar graph to the left of a pie graph. The bar graph shows 75 students for Fall 2016, 78 students for Summer 2016, 58 students for Spring 2016, 11 students for Winter 2016, and 40 students for Fall 2015. The pie graph shows that 40% of students are returning from 2015-16 while 60% of students are new to the writing center.
Fall 2016 saw 30 students (40%) return from the 2015-16 academic year. Of the total students we worked with this semester, the majority were domestic, graduate, and/or full-time, as shown in Figure 4.
Image Description. Figure 4 is an infographic with 3 icons beside student statistics. The icons have white clip-art on an orange background. The data is as follows:
- Home Country (globe icon)
- Domestic: 58 students (77%)
- International: 17 students (23%)
- Rank (graduation cap icon)
- Masters: 40 students (53%)
- Undergraduate: 32 students (43%)
- Doctoral: 3 students (4%)
- Enrollment Status (clock icon)
- Full-Time: 44 students (59%)
- Part-Time: 20 students (39%)
- Not Enrolled: 1 student (1%)
- Unknown: 1 student (1%)
Course Information
In Fall 2016, students almost equally associated with the Oxford or Online campus, with only a 3-student difference (see Figure 5). Although Oxford is the top associated campus, most students scheduled online appointments for online courses. The majority of students are from Project Dragonfly (44%).
Image Description. Figure 5 is an infographic with 6 icons beside student statistics. The icons have white clip-art on an orange background. The data is as follows:
- Associated Campus (building icon)
- Oxford: 37 students (49%)
- Online: 34 students (45%)
- Regionals: 4 students (5%)
- Type of Course (laptop icon)
- Online: 34 students (43%)
- On-Campus (Oxford): 30 students (38%)
- Not Applicable: 11 students (14%)
- Partially Online: 2 students (3%)
- On-Campus (Regionals): 2 students (3%)
- Most Common Course Subjects
- Project Dragonfly (dragonfly icon): 33 students (44%)
- English (pen icon): 16 students (20%)
- Educational Psychology (brain icon): 3 students (4%)
- Gerontology (hourglass icon): 3 students (4%)
- Not for Course (“x” icon): 12 students (15%)
- Other (ellipsis icon): 13 students (16%)
Appointment Preferences
Student preferences for synchronous-only or asynchronous-only appointments are now almost equal at 43% and 45% respectively (see Figure 6). Preference for synchronous-only appointments has gone up 26% since 2015-16. The percentage of students scheduling both types of online appointments is also up 2%.
Image Description. Figure 6 is an infographic with 3 icons beside statistics for student appointment preferences. The data is as follows:
- Both Mediums (icon that is half red with overlapping chat bubbles and half green with comment bubble)
- Fall 2016: 9 students (12%)
- 2015-16: 17 students (10%)
- Synchronous Only (red icon with overlapping chat bubbles)
- Fall 2016: 32 students (43%)
- 2015-16: 29 students (17%)
- Asynchronous Only (green icon with comment bubble)
- Fall 2016: 34 students (45%)
- 2015-16: 120 students (72%)
I will now focus in on the demographics of students who scheduled asynchronous appointments specifically. Most students (61%) scheduled asynchronous appointments for online or partially online courses, as shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Students Who Scheduled Asynchronous Appointments, According to Their Type of Course.
| Type of Course | Students* |
| Online | 26 |
| On-Campus (Oxford) | 9 |
| Not Applicable | 8 |
| Partially Online | 2 |
| On-Campus (Regionals) | 1 |
*3 students scheduled for more than one type of course.
Of the 9 students who scheduled asynchronous appointments for on-campus courses on the Oxford campus,
- 3 misunderstood that they scheduled synchronous appointments; the asynchronous appointment was a back-up (see explanation below)
- 2 usually take online courses
- 1 associated with Miami Regionals as their main campus
- 1 worked full-time and was located 1 hour away
- 1 was a former consultant and was located 40 minutes away
- 1 couldn’t get the Google Hangouts plug-in to work and fell asleep at his computer; asynchronous was a back-up (see explanation below)
In the case of 4 students, they originally scheduled synchronous appointments but did not appear in Google Hangouts. In this scenario, consultants who are trained in asynchronous consulting will usually change the appointment to asynchronous, provided that the student has already sent their paper: this way, the student still receives help, and the consultant still spends their work hour helping a student. However, in these scenarios, I follow-up with the student to explain our policies and expectations, and no student has made this mistake more than once.
Of the 8 students who scheduled asynchronous appointments for “Not Applicable” courses (e.g., resumes, personal statements, etc.),
- 2 were graduate students associated with the Online campus
- 2 associated with the Oxford campus but usually take online courses
- 2 were consultants
- 1 had a disability
- 1 was a graduate student
In short, the data does not show that asynchronous appointments were intentionally abused by students taking on-campus courses, as was a previous concern.
Student Locations
Online consulting has brought the writing center to 15 other states and 3 other countries, as seen in Figure 7.
Image Description. Figure 7 features 4 sets of data on student locations for online appointments. In the top left is a red outline of Ohio, beside a list of the 11 Ohio cities: Amelia, Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton, Fairfield, Hamilton, Miamisburg, New Richmond, Oxford, Sheffield Village, and West Chester. In the bottom left is a grey outline of the United States, with 16 states colored in according to their time zones. In the top right are 4 country flags: United States, Canada, Galapages, and China. In the bottom right are 5 boxes stacked vertically for each time zone: China, Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific.
In total, the majority of students we work with online (59%) are outside of Oxford in other cities, states, or countries:
- 44 students in Ohio: 31 in Oxford and 12 in other cities
- 29 students in 15 other states
- 3 students in 3 other countries
Students who are located in other Ohio cities are between 20 minutes and 4 hours away from Oxford, as seen in Figure 8. Even students located in Hamilton or Fairfield may find it difficult to drive to Oxford just for a face-to-face appointment, pending weather, parking, work, etc.
Image Description. Figure 8 is a series of orange arrows pointing right that form a horizontal line. Each arrow lists a city distance from Oxford and the student cities within that distance. The data is as follows:
- 20 minutes: Hamilton
- 30 minutes: Fairfield
- 40 minutes: West Chester
- 50 minutes: Cincinnati, Miamisburg
- 1 hour: Dayton
- 1 hour, 10 minutes: Amelia, New Richmond
- 2 hours: Columbus
- 4 hours: Sheffield Village
Lastly, we have reached students in all 4 time zones within the United States and an additional time zone in China. Figure 9 shows the time differences compared to the latest appointment time we offer at 8pm EST. The majority of students are still within the Eastern time zone (69%); however, students with full-time jobs in the Mountain or Pacific time zones may still be working or commuting home during our 8pm appointment slot. Thus, students in some areas may only ever be able to schedule asynchronous appointments.
Image Description. Figure 9 has 5 boxes in a row that show the time differences between different time zones and list the number of students we have worked with from each time zone. The data from left to right is as follows:
- Pacific time zone (blue box): 5 pm, 10 students
- Mountain time zone (green box): 6pm, 4 students
- Central time zone (orange box): 7pm, 5 students
- Eastern time zone (red box): 8pm, 41 students
- China time zone (transparent box with red outline): 9am, 1 student
J. M. Dembsey 