A Case Study of E-tutors’ Teaching Practice: Does Technology Drive Pedagogy? (original) (raw)
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An examination of the role of the e-tutor
Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 2010
As online learning environments continue to evolve, both teachers and students need to adapt to make the most of opportunities afforded by these environments for teaching and learning. The focus of this paper is on the changing role undertaken by tutors in online learning environments. We present a brief review of the current perspectives on the roles and responsibilities suggested for the e-tutor for effective teaching, and then report on a study where roles of e-tutors in a large wholly online unit were examined. The study supports the view that although the role of the e-tutor is similar to that of the face to face tutor in some respects, there are sufficient differences to make e-tutoring challenging to those who have not undertaken such online activities previously. Ongoing professional development is required to meet the changing demands of the technological environment, as well as the changing needs of students.
… Technologies, 2008. ICALT' …, 2008
This study explores essential processes for developing a pedagogically meaningful e-tutor training program for online synchronous language teaching. The pedagogical values of synchronous cyber classroom for language teaching are addressed and detailed descriptions of an online training program conducted for language teachers in a synchronous classroom teaching environment are presented. Forum postings regarding how teacher participants engaged with these processes and reflections on their own experience are categorized and analyzed to provide evidences for their professional development and competence acquirement. Findings suggest that following the e-tutor training program, all the participants were able to apply the online classroom management skills and online pedagogy learnt to real online teaching practices. Furthermore, they expressed a positive attitude towards the promising future of online synchronous language teaching.
The Strategic Role of the E-Tutor in New Learning Contexts
2020
Digital media have opened up new opportunities to review e-learning. The three ages of media describe a shift from technology for distance education, to technology-supported groups and, currently, technology for Community development. Reflecting on the profile of the e-tutor in the third phase of e-learning, our research was guided by three key-questions: what functions does the e-tutor fulfill? What tools does the e-tutor need? What actions should the e-tutor take care of, in term of communication? The research plan, carried out on 9 online courses, is based on quanti-qualitative method (a pre-course survey, a post-course survey, learning analytics, content analysis of tutor's interactions and self-report). The results highlight the strategic role of the e-tutor in new contexts of learning.
Shifting in the emphasis from teaching to learning has created a more interactive learning environment for teachers and learners. These new environments have changed the roles of teachers and students. The role of a teacher/tutor changes from a knowledge giver to that of a facilitator in a virtual classroom. The changing roles do not reduce the importance of a teacher but requires new e-tutoring skills. The tutors must be aware of pedagogical, social, managerial and technical areas during the planning and implementation of the materials and the course. These areas are interlinked leading to the competencies of e-tutors. An experimental study was conducted by offering two online courses of MA TEFL programme of Allama Iqbal Open University. The feedback of the students on tutors' role in a virtual classroom was sought through mid-term and end-term questionnaires which supported the idea of more interactive and learner-centred environment.
Interaction is one of the important aspects of effective learning environment. Interaction can take place in different forms. It may be between a student and course materials, student and learning activities, student and teacher and among students. Computer-mediated communication (CMC) offers a type of interaction which is different from the traditional teacher-based classroom as it provides the learners multiple opportunities to explore alternative means to interact with teachers, peers, course material and activities. The present study focuses on feedback of the students who attended online courses of MA Teaching of English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) offered by the Department of English Language and Applied Linguistics of Allama Iqbal Open Univerisy (AIOU). In this experimental study, two groups of students were selected randomly for CMC-based instructions in 2007 and 2008. The results of the experimentation suggested that the use of CMC in the existing distance education system...
CELTA tutors’ beliefs about online tutoring practices
ELT Journal
Although a number of studies have explored the experiences of remote English language teaching in response to COVID-19, yet to be addressed is English language teacher-educators’ beliefs regarding their online tutoring practices. This article reports on the finding of a study which attempted to identify tutors’ beliefs about the differences between face-to-face (F2F) and online tutoring and the knowledge and skills required for online tutoring. Data collected through a questionnaire and follow-up interviews reveal that instructional strategies were regarded as a main difference between F2F and online tutoring, followed by the use of technology. However, knowledge about technology and how to use it was believed to be most important for tutoring in an online environment. Implications of the study include creating structured professional learning opportunities for online tutors, incorporating a focus on managing well-being, and developing awareness of the trainees’ sociocultural context.
Abstract The aim of this research is to describe tutoring practices of two different populations of online teachers: trainee tutors (second year students in the Master of Arts in Teaching French as a Foreign Language at the university Lumière- Lyon 2) and experienced teachers based in different locations (France, Spain and Finland). They participated in a project using a desktop videoconferencing platform designed for delivering online language courses. They taught French as a Foreign Language to a group of students from UC Berkeley in 2010. This paper introduces the related research questions of instructional online practices in a synchronous environment: how the two populations of teachers introduce the learning tasks, and by which means the information is provided to the students. We will emphasize the role of different communication tools (written chat facility, oral chat facility and webcam) used by the two populations of tutors in order to convey the meaning of the task to be done. We discuss the qualitative findings of the study conducted on this multimodal corpus in order to highlight the semio-pedagogical competences of the two populations of online tutors. © 2011 EUROCALL All rights reserved Key words: Computer-Mediated Discourse Analysis, Desktop Videoconferencing, Multimodality, Online Tutoring, Interaction Analysis
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2012
This paper describes tutoring practices of two different populations of online teachers: trainee tutors (second year students in the Master of Arts in Teaching French as a Foreign Language at the Université Lumière-Lyon 2) and experienced teachers based in different locations (France, Spain and Finland). They participated in a project using a desktop videoconferencing platform designed for delivering online language courses. They taught French as a Foreign Language to a group of students from UC Berkeley in 2010. The paper introduces the related research questions of instructional online practices in a synchronous environment: how the two populations of teachers introduce the learning tasks, and by which means the information is provided to the students. We will emphasize the role of different communication tools (written chat facility, oral chat facility and webcam) used by the two populations of tutors in order to convey the meaning of the task to be carried out. We discuss the qualitative findings of the study conducted on this multimodal corpus in order to highlight the semio-pedagogical competences of the two populations of online tutors.
TEACHING ENGLISH VIA SKYPE: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
During the past few years, the wide introduction of technology in the educational process teaching in general and the study of foreign languages in particular, has gone beyond the classroom. Nowadays there are a lot of information and communication tools for learning English, like online resources, author blogs, vlogs, mobile applications, educational platforms. The most modern teachers express the opinion that online teaching opens up new levels of creativity and opportunities for teachers. As for students, they are so-called digital natives, and they deserve to be taught with 21st-century technology. Among these methods, a notable place is occupied by teaching the language with the use of instant messengers with the function of chat and video communication. Such classes offer a combination of communication with a real teacher in real time, like in a usual lesson, and using various distance learning aids. One of the most widely used and available instant messengers used for e-learning is SKYPE, a Web 2.0 tool developed for communication, which has become a popular and effective tool for learning foreign languages by millions of people around the world every day. This article explores the specifics of teaching English via SKYPE and discusses its advantages and disadvantages for both teachers and students. These include methodological, technological, geographical, psychological, and physiological aspects.The article studies these aspects in detail, provides a comparative analysis between learning via SKYPE and face-to-face classroom, mobile applications and online platforms for self-studying of the English language, and discusses the prospects for e-learning 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.