What tutoring services are available?

The ASC’s primary focus is to provide services to support the academic success of MSU-B students.  Tutors are available for developmental math classes (Math 085, Math 101 and Math 105) and upper-level math and statistics classes. Tutors are available in other courses such as biology, chemistry and psychology depending upon tutor availability.

The writing lab is available for all MSU-B students who have writing questions, whether it’s an assignment for an academic course, a scholarship application, a resume or a thesis.

Please see the schedule for times and tutor availability.

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The ASC is staffed by instructors who teach Math 085, Math 101, Math 105 and English 100 and by student tutors who are pursuing degrees in English or math.  Tutors in other courses such as biology, chemistry and psychology are either graduate students or upper-division majors in these disciplines.

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The services of the Academic Support Center are available free of charge to all currently enrolled MSU-Billings students.

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We currently have 40 PCs and 1 Mac in the Open Lab for student use.  Wireless access is available in the ASC.  All laptops must be registered with IT in COE 158 before access is enabled. 

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Our only Mac is a G4 with a 3 1/2” floppy drive, CD-ROM  and a 100 zipdrive.

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First login to AccuTrack for writing or for math.  After you login, find a comfortable spot and ask any of our helpful tutors to assist you.

Students who need help with writing should bring a typed, double-spaced copy of their draft, as well as any assignment instructions they have received.

Students who need help with their math should bring their text and assignment materials with them.  Students should bring their calculator manual if they have questions about using their calculator.

Appointments are not necessary, but students who wish to work with a particular tutor may want to make arrangements ahead of time.

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Tutors are available from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday.  See the tutor schedule for times when tutors will be available for specific courses.  Summer hours are from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday.

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The ASC building is south of the Student Union Building, east of McMullen Hall, and west of the Tennis Court Bubble.  (See map.)

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Microsoft Office 2007 (Word, Access, Excel, Front Page, Power Point, Internet Explorer), Mathematica and all of the necessary software to access the online courses offered by MSUB are installed on the computers in the ASC. 

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We can help troubleshoot some issues, especially those related to the MathXL software.  If you are taking online classes, questions should be referred to the eCollege Help Desk at helpdesk@msubonline.org or at 1-888-786-1115. 

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The ASC is open from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday.  Click here to see the tutor schedule.

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Yes.  Ask at the front desk for assistance.  Copies are $.10 each.

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All ASC instructors are available in the lab at least one hour for every hour they teach in the classroom.  Click here to find your instructor’s schedule.  Other times can also be arranged by appointment.

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Enrollment caps are set at 30 students for math courses and 25 students for English courses.

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The building is open from 8:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. on Friday.  You can leave the paper with the person at the front desk, who will put it in your instructor’s mailbox.

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Students enrolled in MSU-B online courses through eCollege may email papers for review to the writing lab at writelab@msubillings.edu.  Our tutors will read through the papers and offer help and suggestions as needed.  Try to allow some extra time for this as there may be a 24-hour delay in getting your paper back.

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Follow this link to student employment opportunities at the ASC.

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Most of the tutors are familiar with the Texas Instrument model calculators.  If you have a different model, bring your manual with you.

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The ASC has a limited number of calculators that students may check out to use in the Lab.  Ask at the front desk.  You will be asked to leave your campus ID card with the staff at the front desk while you are using the calculator.  The calculators may not be taken home.  

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You should visit with your advisor about this question.  You want to be sure the next course fulfills the requirements for your major.  The advising worksheets are helpful and the math course guidelines will answer some questions about which courses you should take for your major.

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Equation Editor allows you to easily enter math equations and symbols and is a part of most Microsoft products, but it does not automatically install when you do a typical installation.  To find out more about Equation Editor, click here.  

There is another good explanation and tutorial on using Equation Editor at http://ist.uwaterloo.ca/ec/equations/equation.html

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Writing tutors will help students with any writing assignments or concerns.  The best way to help your writing tutor help you is to communicate your teacher’s instructions to the tutor and be ready with your text and one or two specific questions.  Writing tutors are teachers; they will not correct or edit your paper for you, but they will help you with your questions.

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When you save a document, a dialogue box opens where you give the file a name. Usually, MS Word documents are saved with a .doc extension, MS Excel with .xls, and MS Works with .wps .  The symbol .rtf stands for rich text format. If a file is saved as an .rtf file, most word processing programs can open it, so it's easier to share files.  If you have a different version of a program at home than is available at school, you can work on the file in either place if you have saved the file in rich text format.

At the bottom of the Save As screen, below where you type the name of the file, is another box with a drop-down arrow beside it. There are several choices there, and you need to pick .rtf.

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You should visit with your advisor about this question.  You want to be sure the next course fulfills the requirements for your major.  The advising worksheets are helpful and the English course descriptions will answer some questions about which courses you should take for your major.

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Updated 06/25/08 .   For broken links or comments, please email  vzabrocki@msubillings.edu