In traditional education, tutoring is an article of faith – of course it should be offered to students who are struggling with lessons or programs, or who want to get ahead in their studies.
But how effective is tutoring in an online, self-paced, environment? And who can offer it effectively to students who range in education experiences? Not only working-age adults returning to education but also those who have little to no prior higher education background, parents and caregivers, and people facing recent job losses.
The question needs to be asked because online education is not just “putting a lesson on the internet.” Online education is its own modality, with its own set of best practices and unique impacts. And it turns out that whether tutoring is as effective in an online, self-paced, program – especially “peer tutoring” – has never really been asked.
“There is substantial literature on tutoring in traditional settings, but almost nothing that combines all four elements of Calbright’s model: fully virtual, asynchronous, competency-based, and deadline-free,” said Bryan Queme, a Data Analysis faculty member at Calbright.
As Calbright College has become one of the state and national leaders in online, competency-based, higher education designed for adults, the College’s faculty and research teams have been researching questions like these. The College’s faculty and staff are working directly with students to study the impacts of different kinds of interventions for struggling students, the use of timelines to keep students on track, and the effective generation of community for mutual support and improvement – all in an online, self-paced, environment.
Recently Queme and Masae Wen, a student intern in Calbright’s Data Analysis program, examined the data from student outcomes and submitted a research paper on this issue to the Online Learning Journal (OLJ). Their research has clearly shown that “virtual tutoring,” offered by peers and applied well, does have a significant positive impact on student outcomes in a virtual, asynchronous, competency-based, flexibly-paced environment.
“Our study appears to be one of the first to quantitatively examine tutoring effectiveness in that specific combination,” Queme said.
Stunning Results
“Using institutional data from 1,344 students enrolled in Calbright College’s Data Analysis program, we examined whether participation in virtual tutoring was associated with the number of competencies mastered,” Queme and Wen wrote.
The results are staggering. “Students who attended tutoring at least once during the first half of 2025 had about double the mastery rate as those who did not, even after adjusting for prior course engagement history and active days enrolled. These findings demonstrate that tutoring remains effective under fully online, asynchronous, deadline-free conditions. Even brief participation is associated with a higher mastery rate, consistent with theories of self-regulated learning in autonomous environments. Therefore, institutions should prioritize visible, early access to tutoring across modalities.”
Not only does tutoring still work, Queme said, it still works “even when you strip away almost everything that is traditionally thought to make it work. No fixed classroom, no term deadlines, no mandatory sessions.” Furthermore, “Tutoring is not a nice-to-have or a remedial safety net. It is a critical component of student success, and that holds true even when students are adults managing busy lives and choosing to show up entirely on their own terms.”
Queme and Wen’s paper, “How Tutoring Supports Progress in Fully Online, Self-Paced Learning: Evidence from a Competency-Based Community College,” used the aggregated results of students in Calbright’s Data Analysis program, which comprises two sequential courses in which students had voluntary access to one-to-one peer tutoring opportunities as well as “drop-in” peer tutoring sessions. Both are led by “near-peer” program graduates who achieved at least 80% on all summative assessments.
In addition to reviewing academic content, tutors often provide “academic, motivational, and procedural assistance, often guiding students on goal setting, time management, and final-module summatives rather than focusing solely on remedial content,” the paper notes.
Based on outcome data, students who utilized tutoring opportunities, even minimally, “mastered substantially more competencies than untutored peers.” In fact: “On average, tutored students completed 3.1 modules per quarter compared to 1.1 modules for untutored peers.”
Student Learning Was The Inspiration
The research was inspired by Wen, who had been confident that the tutoring she offered while a Data Analysis student at Calbright had significantly improved the program experience for her peers – but had no way to measure how.
“As part of my Experiential Learning and Leadership (ExLL) internship, I served as a Data Analysis Peer Tutor, supporting over 240 students through 1:1 sessions, drop-in hours, workshops, and asynchronous communication via Slack and email. It was a deeply fulfilling experience,” Wen said.
In that process, “I noticed that while we were excellent at tracking ‘engagement metrics’, like how many students attended a session, there was a significant research gap in understanding the functional impact of those sessions on student progress. In a traditional school, deadlines force progress. But at Calbright, students set their own pace. I wanted to know: Does tutoring actually help a student move faster through the curriculum when there are no deadlines?”
If the research hadn’t been done, why not do it?
“Masae came to me with the core idea: can we rigorously measure whether tutoring helps students pass more competencies?” Queme said. “We spent a lot of time working through the design challenge. Calbright uses continuous, rolling admissions, meaning students enroll at any point during the year and have no fixed end date. That means two students in the same observation window might have had 30 days to make progress or 90 days. You cannot just compare raw completion counts; a student with 90 days has an inherently greater opportunity than one with 30. So we had to find a way to level the playing field.”
Wen said that based on her experience, “I expected a positive correlation,” but “the magnitude of the results was truly impressive. This project allowed us to take a value that was previously ‘buried in the dark’ and make it visible and defensible. It provides the empirical evidence needed to justify the ROI of these support programs and confirms that our data-driven approach can effectively highlight the significant merit of tutoring for student outcomes.”
Turning Data Into Best Practice
These findings show that tutoring designed to use the flexibility available in online environments, emphasizing user autonomy, is a best-practice strategy for adult learners. It is possible to offer significant academic support that prioritizes students’ schedules without sacrificing effectiveness.
“These findings also inform the instructional design of online tutoring systems by highlighting the value of early visibility, proactive framing, and tutor training that emphasizes both metacognitive and academic support,” Queme and Wen note. Just as importantly, the results highlight that effective tutoring can introduce structure and motivation into autonomous learning, and have that effect last through a course of study.
This paper, which is currently under consideration at the Online Learning Journal (OLJ), will be used to iterate and make ongoing improvements in Calbright’s programs and student support services. A pre-print of the paper is available here.
