The changing role of tutors: forming a community of practice in a distributed learning environment (original) (raw)
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Tutors' Forum: engaging distributed communities of practice
Open Learning, 2009
The need to engage students studying at a distance in order to reduce isolation, foster a sense of belonging, and enhance learning has received significant attention over the past few years. Conversely, very little research has focused on teachers working in this type of environment. In fact, we argue, they appear to be the forgotten dimension in "communities" of distance learning. In this paper we identify some of the problems generated by teaching university subjects simultaneously across a network of campuses: a practice known as multilocation teaching. We examine strategies for engaging multi-location teachers as key contributors to a quality learning experience for students and provide an analysis of how identified teaching needs and professional development are addressed within one particular teaching team by a small but powerful micro-practice called the "Tutors" Forum". Drawing on data collected through a survey and interviews conducted over 2006 / 07, we discuss the benefits and critical success factors of the Tutors" Forum in facilitating engagement and professional development for teachers working at a distance from the subject coordinator and other members of the teaching team. These factors include a specific style of leadership which fosters an inclusive, dialogic space where the patterns of interaction are characterized by reciprocity, collegiality and professional care. We discuss the implications of this practice for the further engagement of university teachers in an increasingly casualised and fragmented higher education sector.
Tutors as learners: overcoming barriers to learning ICT skills
2002
This paper explores the use of ICT to provide distance training for UK Open University (OU) Associate lecturers (ALs) and identifies the range of outcomes and issues which emerged. There is an increasing demand from many of our students for the University to provide more facilities and functions (both administrative or course-related) online or by electronic mail. To this end the University has attempted to increase the awareness of these computing-related issues with ALs by offering various methods of increasing ICT skills. One programme involved a contingent of ALs participating in an online short course. This paper will summarise some of the qualitative feedback along with the quantitative results in order to establish whether this course did indeed assist in tutors gaining some new computing skills. Furthermore, tutors made many additional comments about the process of learning and the experience of being a learner. Many of the issues raised were found to be important when designing a programme of study for those who take courses as a form of staff development.
Journal of Education and Training, 2014
Understanding the importance of the changing role of tutors about the skills needed to achieve an effective online teaching and learning is paramount to a successful online course and programme at large. This paper explores the new roles and responsibilities of some faculty members of the University of Education, Winneba (UEW), who have been engaging in online tutoring activities for two years. There is an increasing quest to bring everyone on board for the growing interest in e-learning at UEW. However much is not known about the experiences of e-tutors regarding the roles they have been playing in online facilitation. The successful stories, the challenges and what mechanisms exist for improving the practice are very key. In the paper, we discuss the success factors and challenges and approaches required to support lecturers. A qualitative approach using a semi-structured interview guide was employed in collecting data from ten (10) purposively sampled lecturers who teach different courses at UEW. Among the key findings are that it is the tutors' role to initiate the learning processes, moderate students' participation and lead students in discovery mode of learning. Further, as managers and leaders in the learning process they bring students together through 96 group work and other forms of social interaction. However, it emerged that special support and communication systems should be established for both tutors and students to enable them interact effectively. There is the need to provide tutors with continuous professional training and counseling as most of them are new to this mode of education delivery. Again, it emerged that there is ample opportunity to give diverse materials to students to read before any interaction either face-to-face or online. It was proposed that potential tutors should be IT savvy, sharpen their skills and think within an IT context. It is recommended that there should be motivation and recognition for lecturers who tutor online since this mode of teaching is time consuming and very demanding.
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.
Creating partnerships in a distributed learning environment: some lessons learned
2001
Abstract The process of forming the necessary partnerships for the design of a flexibly delivered, interdisciplinary Bachelor of Arts (BA) in a distributed learning environment over three separate sites proved an interesting challenge for Faculty and support units at the University of Wollongong. The exercise provided an opportunity to look at the organisation of teaching and learning from the outside and demonstrated where partnerships should be further developed to enhance both student and organisational learning.
Approaches for analysing tutor's role in a networked inquiry discourse
2001
The purpose of the present study was to find new approaches for evaluating the tutor's contribution to students' knowledge building discourse in a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment. Most recent studies in CSCL concentrate on students' processes, whereas the teacher's or tutor's role has not been analyzed closely. Guidance, however, is known to be crucial in promoting students' higher-level learning. The study was based on an analysis of database material from one university course using the web-based tool, Future Learning Environment (FLE). First, written messages in FLE's database were analyzed to compare tutors' and students' contributions as participants in inquiry discourse. Second, methods of social network analysis were applied to study interaction structures between tutors and students. Third, tutors' messages were re-analyzed qualitatively to evaluate tutors' guidance techniques. The results indicated tha...
Tutor Training Procedures in Higher Education: Creating a Community of Lifelong Learners
In an effort to showcase the value of helping a professional educational setting to transform to a learning organization, a solid instructional initiative must be developed. Tutors’ knowledge and skill base is strengthened through systematic and purposeful training procedures that are designed to enhance tutorial methodology and foster social interaction. The benefits of fostering ongoing peer-interaction among tutorial personnel significantly benefit the stakeholders of an academic assistance program in higher education. The development of learning communities through the incorporation of collaborative as well as self-paced strategies that are appropriate for the traditional face-to-face and the online setting foster a culture of learning agility in an academic support program in an institution of higher education.
Tutoring in Distance Education: New Proposals, Challenges and Reflections
2015
Distance Education has expanded in the world, due to the democratization of knowledge mediated by technologies for accessing different levels of education. Online and classroom tutoring systems have been a source of research and discussion on redefining roles in distance education. It's understood that the role of the tutor must be intrinsically linked to the political-pedagogical project of the course, regardless of their nature: graduation, specialization, etc. The mentoring held in the fifth Specialization Course in Distance and Continuing Education (University of Brasilia, Brazil) had its assumptions and guidelines, grounded in the CTAR-Community Work and Learning Network, which advocates a proactive tutoring, with engaging and emancipatory character, valuing collaborative knowledge construction. It was essential to ensure the basic and continuing training of selected tutors to favor the formation of networks in the realization of the activities and actions that promote lear...