By Amy Sexton

For online adult learners balancing multiple responsibilities, seeking writing support can heighten feelings of vulnerability and imposter syndrome, especially when students misperceive tutoring as remedial. This blog post explores how faculty can break down these barriers by positioning academic support services as professional development tools.  By exploring adult learning demographics and writing across the curriculum (WAC) principles, the post provides faculty with actionable strategies for partnering with tutoring centers. By framing writing instruction and support as a collaborative “team sport” between faculty and tutors, institutions like Purdue Global can improve student writing outcomes while reducing instructor burnout.

At Purdue University Global, 62% of the student population is over 30, 83% work while attending school, and 78% are caregivers (Purdue University Global, 2025). For learners balancing multiple, often competing, responsibilities, seeking help with writing can trigger feelings of vulnerability and imposter syndrome, especially if past academic experiences have not been positive. When students are overwhelmed and vulnerable, asking for writing support may feel like a weakness. However, when faculty and staff reframe tutoring as a professional development tool, comparable to an executive or leader using peer-review or editing services, they can help dismantle that anxiety.   

Fortunately, faculty do not have to bear the burden of writing instruction alone. The Purdue Global Academic Success Center (ASC), particularly the Writing Center, is a strategic partner in WAC. This collaborative partnership fosters a culture of help-seeking behaviors and elevates student learning across all disciplines (Cuseo, 2003.). Ultimately, faculty can transform the adult learning experience and create a stronger culture of writing by actively partnering with the ASC to normalize help-seeking and reframe tutoring as a professional service.  

The Academic Success Center

The Purdue Global ASC consists of six focused, constituent academic support centers: Learning for Success, Writing, Business, Math, Science, and Technology. The peer tutors in the Learning for Success Center are the first stop for student success, available to help students identify where they need support and navigate to the appropriate center before they feel overwhelmed. These peer tutors can then help students access professional tutors who teach and write in their fields. Tutors in the Writing Center support students with any writing task, including discourse strategies, thesis development and organization, flow, synthesis, clarity, and more. The other centers, Business, Math, Science, and Technology, specialize in discipline-specific writing, or writing in the disciplines (WID). Students can visit those centers for help with discipline-specific writing forms, including website coding, lab reports, executive summaries, or technical writing.  

Practical Ways to Partner

Faculty endorsement is the strongest predictor of tutoring program effectiveness (Primary Research Group, 2020), whereas the lack of faculty engagement can hurt student success interventions, limiting their reach and overall impact (Sperry et al., 2025). Faculty can leverage the digital structure of their courses by drawing students’ attention to the embedded ASC portal available in all PG courses. Additionally, the first few weeks of a student’s college career are pivotal (Xavier et al., 2022). Faculty can capitalize on this crucial timeframe by posting encouraging announcements about academic and writing support early in the course. Describing their own help-seeking behaviors can also help students feel less vulnerable and open to feedback. 

Additionally, when referring students to the Writing Center (or any of the centers), faculty can flip vague and unclear feedback into a warm, friendly handoff to tutors. For example, instead of stating “Your thesis is weak, and your citations are not correct,” faculty can share, “You have a strong core idea here. I’d love to see you work with a Writing Center tutor to streamline the thesis; their tutors are experts at helping students flesh out their main argument and supporting it with valid research.” Faculty can also consider posting “just in time” targeted messages to connect students with each center by including ASC contact information in their courses or seminars, making it easier for students to connect with tutors. For example, instructors may post announcements similar to this one at the beginning of units that include writing-intensive assignments:  

The assignment in Unit X asks you to synthesize two complex topics. If you are feeling stuck on your outline, remember that you do not have to figure it out on your own. Drop by the Writing Center with your ideas, even if they’re only bullet points, and ask a writing tutor to help you organize your plan.  

WAC is not a solo endeavor; it is a team sport. When faculty collaborate with the ASC tutors, staff, and team leads, student writing improves, and faculty may experience less burnout. Faculty don’t have to bear the burden of writing instruction alone. At Purdue Global, faculty can invite the ASC into their digital classrooms by embedding a direct ASC link in their virtual office, posting a quick navigation guide, or asking a lead tutor to drop into their course announcements. If you are reading this post at another institution, reach out to your tutoring teams! However you choose to partner with academic support services, your tutoring team can help all faculty support WAC!   

References 

Cuseo, J. (2003). Academic advisement and student retention: Empirical connections and systemic interventions. Shawnee State University. https://www.shawnee.edu/sites/default/files/2019-01/Academic-advisementv-and-student-retention.pdf

Primary Research Group. (2020). College tutoring programs benchmarks, 2020 edition. 

Purdue University Global. (2025, December). Purdue Global facts: World-class education online. https://www.purdueglobal.edu/about/fast-facts/

Sperry, R., Martin, E., Jenkins, E., & Tilbury, J. (2025). “We’re a piece of the puzzle:” Using Social Validity Theory to examine faculty perceptions of student success collaborative technology. Journal of the National Organization for Student Success, 2(2), 27-44. https://doi.org/10.61617/jnoss.55

Xavier, M., Meneses, J., & Fiuza, P. (2022, December 20). Dropout, stopout, and time challenges in open online education: A qualitative study of the first-year student experience. Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance, and E-Learning, 41(1), 24-40. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02680513.2022.2160236

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About the Author

Amy Sexton is an educator and student success advocate at Purdue University Global, where she helps bridge faculty instruction and academic support services as the manager of the Academic Success Center. Dedicated to equipping non-traditional learners for learning success, Sexton focuses on helping adult students prosper in online higher education.