E-tutorial

E-tutorial

Christopher Warren, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Definitions and background

An E-tutor (or an automated tutor) as a software tool that offers “students guidance in undertaking specific tasks” (Albert & Thomas, 2000, p. 141). Curilem, Barbosa and Azevedo (2007) determined three different approaches to e-tutor design; the first approach uses the e-tutor as a guide where the software has control of the lesson; the second approach has the student in control of where the lesson will lead, and the third approach has a mixture of the first two, where the system will determine the level of intervention based on student responses (p. 548). Some tutorials will simply guide the user through a set a resources to help complete a specific assignment (Albert & Thomas, 2000). Resources such as videos are becoming a popular resource in these tutorial programs (van der Meij & van der Meij, 2014). Other e-tutors can be much more complex and interactive. Many e-tutors are interactive, can adjust for skill level, and will offer random content to challenge the learner (Adams, Yin, Vargas, Luis, & Mullen, 2014). Other programs will offer “scaffolding”, which attempts to mimic a human tutor by assisting the learner (Albert & Thomas, 2000, p.143). This assistance can be enhanced by smart ‘learning’ e-tutors, that build on previous data to improve suggestions in the future (Barnes & Stamper, 2010, p.11). Whetstone, Clark, and Flake (2014) noted that e-tutors are often used to assist a human teacher to adjust their instruction based on the data collected by the e-tutor.