About OLA

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About Us

The Online Learning Academy (OLA) provides tutoring and mentorship to students in underrepresented groups to promote higher education. To succeed in college, students must be academically ready. OLA provides one-on-one English, Math, and Science tutoring by college tutors for all SEED programs. We offer tutoring in the following subjects: basic math, pre-algebra, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus, environmental science, writing, language arts, and introductory college level biology, chemistry, and physics.

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Our Mission

The Online Learning Academy strives to deliver high-quality, engaging and academically rich tutoring and college readiness programs, providing students opportunities for academic development, success and goal completion. Through mentorship and partnership with GEAR-UP and Talent Search programs, we combine efforts in creating ways of reaching students to 1) increase academic success, 2) build college aspirations, and 3) help close the educational gap among groups traditionally underrepresented in higher education by providing program-specific tutoring. We strive to advance our priorities by employing exceptional tutors and peer mentors.

Current Programs

Math & Science Tutoring

Writing Tutoring

EdReady

Learn about our past programs

OLA is currently involved in critical high school to college student readiness and preparation efforts between Hawaii DOE, UH System campuses, and GEAR UP/P20, including:

Working with community college instructors across multiple campuses to implement NROC’s EdReady as an effective self study, remediation, and placement tool in math and English
Helping early college programs across multiple DOE campuses to use EdReady to ensure that students are fully prepared to maximize their efforts in early college courses
Partnering with Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs both in the DOE and UH System to make sure that students have adequate preparation in math and English for their specific technical career paths
Building a partnership with Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) organizations to support students in order to improve the percentage of students who matriculate through the “pipeline” successfully into STEM careers

Our Work at a Glance

Math & Science Tutoring Sessions
(2007-2017)

HI DOE K-12 71% 71%
UH Community Colleges 19% 19%
UH Mānoa, West Oahu, Hilo 9% 9%
Other 1% 1%

Minutes

Writing Tutoring Sessions
(2014-2017)

Undergraduate 54% 54%
Graduate 26% 26%
High School 15% 15%
Elementary & Middle School 5% 5%

Minutes

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OLA History

Since its inception in July 2007, the OLA has fulfilled a vital role in helping Hawai’i’s students to get to, matriculate, and graduate from our UH campuses. The original Report To Hawaii State Legislature Act 275, SLH 2007 gave life to OLA as a key component in Student Support Infrastructure. The Online Learning Task Force’s mission was to develop a systematic plan to expand opportunities for online learning and develop a phased plan with desirable outcomes to enhance the learning experiences of students across the state. Specifically, the task force designated that: The DOE should establish partnerships, including the University of Hawaii, to create an online and in-person tutoring and mentoring program where qualified people should be hired to provide online tutoring and academic support to DOE students throughout the state. Since OLA started in July 2007, students have logged over 1.5 million minutes of free tutoring!

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