With the aim of providing students with feedback on their essays and tutoring on new concepts, CCSD has invested in the 24/7 tutoring resource, Paper.

“The partnership will provide free and equitable access to academic support for CCSD students of all socioeconomic backgrounds,” a recent CCSD press release said. “Students can get help in any subject or feedback on their written work from highly qualified educators through Paper’s secure online classroom, which is available via any device.”

Students find that Paper assistance through this first quarter has changed their learning experience for the better.

“I think it’s really helpful,” freshman Joy Ryan said. “I think it is [worth it] for CCSD to provide it for students. Me and a couple of my journalism friends use it, also some from English.”

One of the features of the Paper Tutor is the Live Chat. Some students find it to be more beneficial to their learning compared to the other tools provided.

“I started noticing Paper on my Canvas sidebar,” sophomore Natalie Lara said. “I use it to talk with live chat tutors for most of my assignments, just for some reassurance, and that seems to help my grades improve.”

English 101 teacher Laura Penrod has seen similar results through her students’ work.

“I definitely have seen students feel more secure about their writing in the sense that they are getting so much feedback and no longer rely on me so much,” Penrod said. “The only problem is that PAPER tutors don’t have a personal connection with these students. It is causing problems as they write personal narratives, making the tutors think there’s something wrong, when they are really writing about past events.”

Other teachers, such as science teacher Patrick Waddington, have little to no intention of using Paper with their students.

“I find that if my students were to use something digitally, they could just as easily ask me for help through email and I could respond back to their personal work since I check my email every hour or two,” Waddington said. “Paper doesn’t know how the teachers are going to grade them, so if a student wants to know how the teacher is going to grade or what the teacher is emphasizing, ask them.”

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While some teachers agree that Paper can be too general, others have incorporated it into their classroom submission process and grading rubric.

“We write one page essays to send to Paper for feedback and then send a screenshot of it to our teachers,” freshman Hayden Hunt said. “My work is coming out more successful than before [using Paper] and I can tell they are really trying to push me to do better work.”

Recently though, complaints have spread about the time students have had to wait for feedback from the tutors.

“It’ll say 12 hours [waiting time], and then when you come back to check it in 12 hours, it will say that you have to wait another 24 hours for a review,” freshman Saska Glisic said. “I wouldn’t recommend using it; I just have to use it for a grade.”

A portion of the students that have used Paper have reported to have problematic experiences with their tutors as well.

“It felt like the tutors were just busy and not giving me good instruction,” freshman Chinelo Umeh said. “It seemed like they were trying to move on as fast as possible and the conversation only lasted a few minutes.”

According to Paper, the want for students to move forward too quickly in a chat session can be a problem.

“Some students are looking for the final answer right away, but it’s against our policy at Paper to give them the answer,” Paper tutor Alireza said. “We need to talk it through, so some students may close the session and leave.”

While sometimes chat sessions are unsuccessful, the convenience of Paper is a key feature for many students.

“It is much more efficient because it allows you to work with a tutor from home at any time of the day that you want and as long as you want,” Alireza said. “You can change your tutor if you want and it is also more cost efficient.”