The Online Tutor as
Cross-Curricular Double Agent

DSU OWL Operations

The DSU OWL operates via electronic mail only. Students (on campus or off) send email requests for OWL assistance and OWL tutors respond within 15 minutes to 24 hours depending upon the time of day the request arrives and the number of requests in the mail queue.

OWL tutors are on duty about 40 hours per week, so most requests are fulfilled quickly, but just like any other university resource, the OWL experiences that same kind of feast or famine that the academic calendar seems to promote. Students will receive nearly immediate responses during much of the semester, but can expect a slight delay when midterms and finals loom.

Because the variety of email programs and word processors still makes extracting a fully formatted attachment a cumbersome and often dicey operation, the DSU OWL asks that all requests be in the form of plain text within the email message, not in the form of attachments.

More detailed information on how students access the OWL is available at the DSU OWL Web site.