Online tutoring

Tutor Instructor Facilitator Moderator Subject specialist – Undertaking a role to support and enable students to learn online effectively

Challenges facing online learners Isolation Communication break-down – among themselves and with tutors Inadequate interaction Failure to do group work

The students ideal online tutor Facilitate and nurture learning community Facilitate online communication including and offline methods Monitor attendance and contributions Support process related activities including learning skills Provide access to administrative and other support Guide students through their curriculum

What an online tutor must do Expert in subject matter, pedagogical issues, technical skills Welcome learners Encouraging and motivation Monitor progress Ensure learners are working at the right pace Ensure success of conferences Facilitate learning community Technical advice and support Ending the course – give activity at the end of the course

Tutors guidelines Be supportive in tone Demonstrate adequate knowledge of the course Provide guiding presence in the conference Answer direct request for information Follow discussion Provide summaries and feedback Weave comments at appropriate points Monitor participation of all students in their allocated groups

Roles of an online tutor Technical – make participants comfortable with technology and ultimately make technology transparent Managerial – setting agenda, objectives, procedures and rules of the educational activities Pedagogical – designing and delivering an appropriate educational experience, encouraging participation and fostering deep learning and reflection Social – creating learning community that supports and encourages students, monitoring progress and participation – Staff need to be flexible in their roles

Text based tutoring Benefit of online learning is anywhere anytime This presentations offers useful tips and techniques for tutoring online in real-time text based environments Ref: computer based collaborative group-work project

Prepare script Try and get students slow down so that they can listen to each other Students should have scripts prepared so that they can copy and paste responses

Brief participant on aim and objectives Brief everyone before hand to overcome initial anxiety Guide to working in an online environment should be prepared and circulated for people to experiment before session

Use initial sense of chaos as learning opportunity First let participants come to terms with awkwardness Then introduce some order and structure

Introduce some conventions for working together online Everyone to type a single question mark when they wish to speak and wait until this is acknowledged by the moderator before typing to avoid a single participant dominating End statement with a series of dots to indicate one has not finished contributing. This avoids concern that can arise in the minds of participants if no messages are coming on the screen

Strategies and techniques Vary according to the context of the learning experience, pedagogy and needs of students Selection of these may include: