Enhancing Academic Success: Tutoring Services at RIT Croatia

The comprehensive academic support system available to students throughout their studies at RIT Croatia serves to achieve academic excellence. The academic support system includes a vast array of services such as faculty mentors, academic advisors, college ombudsperson, peer mentoring, and tutoring services. Tutoring services is a learning support service that is included in the tuition fee and available on the campuses of RIT Croatia in Dubrovnik and Zagreb. This unique initiative reflects the institution's commitment to nurturing progress and emphasizes the collaborative spirit that defines the RIT Croatia community. Tutoring for specific courses is led by higher-year-level students who have excelled in those same courses and are selected by faculty members to become tutors. Tutoring is also a fantastic opportunity for earning an additional income as it is a paid hourly position.

To delve deeper into this story, we spoke with tutors, students who have used this service, and members of the faculty who play a key role in recognizing and appointing demonstrators based on their outstanding performance in teaching.

The advantages of using tutoring services

The benefits of using learning assistance are multiple. Tutoring, available every week during the semester, primarily provides the opportunity for additional clarification of course material, and working in small groups increases the chances of understanding the material. Students who use tutoring services also improve their confidence by further developing their study habits, therefore strengthening their academic success.

Gea Korać, a fourth-year student in the Hospitality and Tourism Management program in Dubrovnik, gladly shared her experience using tutoring services. "I learned about tutoring at the beginning of my first year of study through conversations with other students, and then in class from professors. I was motivated to seek help after certain material was unclear to me, and I wanted to understand it so I could continue with regular work." Gea emphasizes how tutoring is especially beneficial before the final exams when students want to achieve the best possible results. She advises students not to hesitate to use the help available during their studies. "It's normal not to excel in everything, that's why we're all different. Seeking help won't harm anyone; it can only contribute to their well-being and further development of our knowledge," Gea concluded.

Gea’s colleague Jana Krstić has only words of praise for her experience using learning assistance. She emphasized that regular lectures at RIT Croatia are very informative and useful, however, an additional advantage is having someone from her generation who will further explain and clarify the material in a slightly more informal way. "Tutoring support can be compared to a group studying with friends; the atmosphere is always relaxed, there is no sense of discomfort, and we are all here to help each other with potential obstacles," Jana adds.

Becoming tutors: students empowering peers at RIT Croatia

Since the faculty selects students who will become tutors, we asked Dr. Domagoj Tolić, a faculty member at the Web and Mobile Computing program in Dubrovnik, how he recognizes talent and the answer is simple, "when I see students who help others during lectures and are often approached by fellow students for help, it is usually a sign that these students have both the knowledge and the ability to convey it. I dare say that tutors are extremely important for some courses because they can more easily reach their peers."

Good communication between the faculty and tutors is also important to ensure quality support, Dr. Tolić emphasized. He added that he recommends everyone to regularly use learning assistance for better academic progress with less stress.

Tutors highlight how tutoring allows them to gain additional work experience and the opportunity to help their peers. Balša Bazović, a third-year student at the Web and Mobile Computing program in Dubrovnik, explains how this position allows him to refresh his knowledge of the material and help someone with less experience in the field of IT to acquire the necessary knowledge. "I had to work on myself to be able to better explain the assigned topic to lower-year-level students. In the end, besides complementing me socially and intellectually, this position is also a nice opportunity for additional earnings since RIT Croatia pays us for conducting tutoring services," said Balša.

Tutors put much effort into preparing and delivering their weekly tutoring sessions. Vernon Agušaj, a Global Business Management/IB student at the Zagreb campus, who tutors for  Principles of Microeconomics and Financial Management courses, adjusts his tutoring sessions depending on the level of knowledge students have. Students who don’t know much about the coursework have to go over the basics, and then Vernon demonstrates how he would solve the first couple of problems. If a student is relatively knowledgeable about the coursework, he lets them do the problems by themselves and then they jointly discuss the results and go over any questions that come up.

Magdalena Gojčeta is currently a senior year student at the Global Business Management/IB program in Zagreb and she tutors students in Management Accounting and Financial Management. She was approached by a faculty member, Dr. Vanja Vejzagić, with an offer to become a tutor, and she immediately recognized this as a great opportunity to get to know more people and learn new things. “Tutoring turned out to be a much more valuable experience than I expected. It is a wonderful feeling to see students succeed. I learned to communicate, articulate course material concisely, be patient, and open my eyes to many solutions to one problem. The best part of being a tutor is that students who come to tutoring become your friends, some are even among my closest friends”, says Magdalena. “My advice to all students looking into using the tutoring services is not to be scared - tutors were in your shoes once. Tutors are also students and we go through the same struggles and worries that other students go through, that is the beauty of tutoring! We know how to talk to you and you can ask us anything.”