Smarthinking

Smarthinking is an online tutoring service offered by Globe Education Network and is easily accessible via the red Tools link in Blackboard. Smarthinking provides academic resources and tutors to assist students in a variety of subject areas: Writing, Accounting, Economics, Finance, Math, Statistics, Science, and Spanish. With Smarthinking, students can:

• Connect With an e-structor and interact with a live tutor.
• Submit Writing for any class to the Online Writing Lab.
• Submit a Question and receive a reply from a tutor.

While all instructors can direct students to Smarthinking, as a course developer, you can implement Smarthinking into course curriculum in a variety of ways, one of which is to have students submit assignments to the Online Writing Lab for feedback from a Smarthinking e-structor. Here’s an example of how this might be done in a course… 

Let’s say students submit a research paper in Unit 11 of their course and you want them to submit a draft of that paper to Smarthinking for feedback before turning in their final draft. In Unit 10, add this external link to the Additional Resources folder:

• Title: Smarthinking Tutorial for Students
• URL: http://www.screencast.com/users/MSB-Globe/folders/Jing/media/32f50399-e869-47ca-87ea-059e255f7871

Then, also in Unit 10, create an assignment where students submit a draft of their paper to Smarthinking. Below are some sample instructions:

Unit 10 Assignment

Smarthinking Paper Submission

To receive additional feedback on your research paper that is due in Unit 11, please submit a draft of your paper to the Online Writing Center at Smarthinking. You can access Smarthinking by clicking on the red Tools link on the left side of your Blackboard Screen. From there you will see the option to submit your writing. Smarthinking provides an excellent opportunity to have your writing reviewed by an expert and obtain valuable feedback you can use as you complete your final draft next week. The more eyes that review your paper, the stronger your final product will be!

For more information about how to use Smarthinking, please view the Smarthinking Tutorial in this unit’s Additional Resources folder.

You will need to allow a 24-hour turn-around time before getting your critiqued paper back, so be sure to plan your time accordingly. Please submit your tutor/e-structor's feedback to me for credit by using the below view/complete assignment link.

As a developer, feel free to revise/refine the approach outlined above to appropriately fit the content of your course(s) and the assignments that would benefit from Smarthinking. If you would like some individualized feedback from me on how Smarthinking can work beneficially for your course(s), please let me know!