E-tutoring

Draft

See also: tutoring.

Definition

E-tutoring refers to online-tutoring. The word ‘tutor’ is most frequently used “to include, amongst others, academics, faculty, instructors, corporate trainers, animateurs, facilitators, moderators, subject specialist and learning support staff. The term online tutor includes any person undertaking a role to support and enable students to learn online effectively” (Higgison, 2000). Communication is an important mainstay of e-tutoring: technology enables people to learn new things because it gives a range of different ways of communicating to students. There are several software tools that enable e-learning, e.g blog, wiki, social bookmarking, podcasting, etc. A teacher who directs the studies of a number of students helps them to come up with new strategies for developing learning and studying skilful plannings.

E-tutoring requires special demands on both tutor and students.

What tutors do

Tutor’s roles and activities are slightly different from those required in a face-to-face class. “In a telematics-based environment the teacher is more or less just another participant, though very active one and the teachers role as an organiser is greatly emphasised. So in this way it is much more efficient to learn to communicate, and learning is not just a one-way street" (cited from Maija Tammelin).

Berge’s classification (1995) of the roles of an online tutor underlines four main aspects:

• technical – which involves the technological support;

• managerial – tutors should arouse learners’ participation and autonomy providing clearly tasks and deadlines of the e-tivities;

• pedagogical – it aims at the educational experience involving students in an active collaboration and it goads them into a deep reflection;

• social – it’s linked to a learning community.

Moreover, tutoring tecniques provides for the use of web based resources and electronic conferencing, such as audio, video, blog, wiki, etc.

What learners do

The changed role of tutors necessarily implies a different participation of learners: they are more involved in the matter, they play an active part in the process of learning and they have to better organize their time in order to respect e-tivitity deadlines. Tutors demand for comments, posts on blogs, assessments, etc. and learners always have to be ready to face them.

Links

• Cornelius, S. (2000). Learning Online. In Carol A. Higgison (ed.)Online Tutoring e-book Retrieved December 11, 2006 from http://otis.scotcit.ac.uk/onlinebook/. Excellent resource for starting. Includes a large collection of case studies.

• Maija Tammelin, Exploring the roles of the tutor in a mixed mode course for university students [1]