What are tutors' experiences with online teaching? A phenomenographic study (original) (raw)
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Education Sciences, 2020
This paper explores the practices of higher education tutors in blended learning contexts. Significantly, the influence of their perceptions on practice was considered by investigating previous teaching and learning experiences, and their views of the affordances blended learning offers adult learners. The analysis was undertaken in relation to these learners' perceptions of their tutors whilst studying part-time, vocationally relevant degrees, at a distance. A mixed methods approach was adopted to conduct a detailed exploration of eight tutors' practice. Data analysis suggested that all tutors had negative experiences of online learning as students with these perceptions appearing to influence their practice. They generally avoided online pedagogies and adopted alternative approaches to their practice, namely a focus on face-to-face delivery with enhanced learner support, which was found to align with their described pedagogical beliefs. These tutors considered online teaching and learning as a deficit in this context.
The role of the tutor in the university context and in distance learning: an exploratory research
2020
The contribution focuses on the role of the tutor in online courses also in relationship to recent Italian regulation Ministerial Decree n. 6/2019 ("Auto-evaluation, evaluation, initial and periodic accreditation of the venues and courses of study"), that has introduced concrete indications on the presence of tutors in distance learning courses. In the first part, the study examines the evolution and skills of the tutor, with relation to the international debate on the spreading of distance learning. The second part concerns an exploratory survey conducted with the aim of collect the opinions and satisfaction levels of instructors and tutors on the tools used to monitor learning and support students in online courses (MOOCs) on EduOpen portal (https://learn.eduopen.org/). The need to strengthen and rethink the role of the tutor (greater professional recognition) has increased, particularly in the context of distance learning; in many cases the tutor is the main interlocutor of the students and as a support figure for the team of instructors is at the core of processes of didactic innovation.
The Role of the Tutor in Blended E-Learning
2009
This chapter reports on an implementation of blended e-learning within three modules in the School of Health and Social Care at Oxford Brookes University. All preregistration students within the school are required to take an interprofessional education module in each year of their study. These three modules have undergone a radical redesign, prompted by the school and university strategies for e-learning and the European and UK National Health Service IT skills agenda. The redesign resulted in a blended-learning strategy that combined face-to-face teaching with online work of increasing sophistication during each of the three modules. In each module, there was an emphasis on collaborative, interprofessional learning. Interviews were conducted with seven members of the course teams to ask them about their perceptions of their roles as tutors in this blended environment. Analysis of the interview transcripts revealed five elements of the tutors' roles: relationships with students, supporting group work, supporting professional learning, managing the blend, and developing new tutoring skills. The implications are discussed for improving staff development for tutors in this case study and for our understanding of blended learning more generally.
ReCALL, 2011
A key role in the successful implementation of any learning approach is played by teachers, so how well blended learning works will depend largely on how well teachers make the transition from their traditional face-to-face classroom roles to the wider more complex role that blended learning requires. The additional skills and the forging of a new professional identity might not come easily to all practitioners.This paper evaluates the impact that the introduction of blended learning in a distance language learning course has had on teachers. It presents and discusses findings from a small-scale evaluation study which compared quantitative and qualitative data gathered through a survey and a small number of interviews with participant observations from the researcher and the institutional end-of-course debriefing report.The paper argues that whilst technological challenges and the sheer amount of change that teachers were faced with were largely responsible for some of the negative ...
Blended learning in online teaching. Design strategies and future developments
2021
The contribution intends to look at blended learning from an unusual point of view, beyond its being an increasingly widespread option for face-to-face teaching, to consider it as a constitutive element of a completely online educational path. There are reasons to believe that blended activities, within a predominantly online educational path, acquire a specific meaning in relation to areas such as the presence of the educator in online contexts, the interactions between students, teachers and contents, the motivation to learn, etc. The research question is as follow: the blended activities in an online learning course can be designed in the same way as with students following face to face teaching? The contribution proposes a research design, to answer the research question expressed above, with the participation of teachers and students involved in face to face activities during their online degree courses of a Italian telematic university.
Interaction in distance learning pedagogy: the views of tutors and students
Revista Eletrônica de Educação, 2016
This study shares the results of a survey that sought to analyze the process of interaction in a Virtual Learning Environment-VLE from the perspective of students and tutors of a distance learning course of Pedagogy offered by a Brazilian public university. Based on a critical paradigm and a qualitative methodology, this article presents a discussion on the role of interaction in distance learning courses, from the viewpoints of students and tutors. The participants´ concepts of interaction were analyzed from the dialectic and socio-historical perspective, according to which interaction is established in the social relations and mediated by the educator to promote learning. The results suggest that interaction is characterized as a form of communication that occurs especially in the virtual setting and it is strongly unidirectional and little interactional, as it occurs in only one direction, in this case, from students towards tutors as far as schoolwork is concerned. We conclude that both tutors and students need to reframe the concept of interaction, considered in the study as a process of 'wholeness'. Within the concept of 'wholeness', communication occurs so that the Interacting participant is wholly involved in the communication. Their perception of communication is twofold, simultaneous, that is, they see themselves as whole, both in interaction and in the wholeness process. The dialogs in this process occur in a historical, social and dialectical way. Therefore, we support a process that goes beyond interaction, that is, wholeness to promote effective learning in DE-Distance Education.
Teaching and Learning in Distance Education : A Study in A Tutorial Practice Perspective
2016
Distance Education (DE) constitutes a teaching modality rapidly expanding worldwide. It counts with a polyteaching team, often composed of a course content teacher, trainer, instructor and several tutors who work face-to-face at a Distance Education On-site Center or online in the Virtual Learning Environments (VLE). This research aims to propose principles, which guide the many different tutorial practices in DE. It is a descriptive exploratory study, with a qualitative approach, using as data collection procedures an online survey and a participatory research, carried out in two higher education institutions located in Brazil. Among the findings, it is observed that in the sample of 60 surveyed tutors there is a modal age of 26.7 years of age, with 3.2 years of experience as weighted average; 71.7% (43) have postgraduate degrees (specialization level); 61.7% (37) had participated more than two continuing education courses in the last two years. The surveyed tutors have a weighted ...
The personal experience of online learning: An interpretative phenomenological analysis
Student interaction is critical to online social cohesion and collaborative learning. However, online learners need to adjust to the computer mediated communication (CMC) medium of the online environment. This study explores online learners’ experiences of asynchronous text-based CMC using an interpretative phenomenological analysis of interviews with six online students. The analysis revealed that the constraints of written communication and lack of human interaction causes difficulties in adjusting and coping with the online learning environment. Four major themes were identified: the inability to express one’s self fully; difficulties establishing relationships; comparing one’s self to others and the written word as an ineffective learning medium. The study’s findings highlight a need for better student and tutor collaboration to facilitate a safe and interactive environment. Effective academic and social support can enhance online learning, improve student satisfaction and encourage students to persist with their learning.
Going blended: new challenges for second generation L2 tutors
Computer Assisted Language Learning, 2012
This study explores how second generation tutors within blended learning courses link the face-to-face and online course modalities-in their representations as well as through their pedagogical activities-and which aspects help them to feel involved in the course. The methodology used is a qualitative analysis of interviews with seven tutors of three different blended learning courses. The results show that most tutors indeed had difficulties gaining a deeper insight into the course design: they considered the face-toface modality to be the central one, just as in a traditional L2 course (whereas course design was centred on the online modality), and therefore rarely played their role as online tutors. Moreover, their understanding of the courses' taskbased approach appeared to be limited. Nevertheless, the majority of the tutors managed to feel involved in the course, which shows the importance of additional factors in defining their relationship to the course. We identified eight other factors, which are partly due to the intense use of ICT within the course (as shown by a comparison with two additional interviews with elearning-tutors), and partly depend specifically on the blended learning mode. This study furthers our understanding of difficulties tutors can have and what support they require within blended language learning settings, although further research will be needed in order to permit greater generalisation.