What Tutoring Data Can Reveal About a Campus That Surveys Cannot
For years, colleges have relied heavily on surveys to understand the student experience, yet surveys inevitably provide an incomplete picture. They depend on student memory, motivation, and willingness to participate, which leads to low response rates and surface-level insights that arrive too late to act on meaningfully. In contrast, tutoring data reflects real behaviors that occur in real time. It shows what students do when they are confused, overwhelmed, or seeking help, rather than what they later remember or choose to report. As a result, tutoring behavior has become one of the most accurate and immediate indicators of student needs, engagement, and well-being.