What is Online Tutoring
Online tutoring is the process of tutoring in an online, virtual environment or networked environment in which teachers and learners are separated by time and space. Online tutoring, as a reflection of the diversity of the wider Internet, is practiced using many different approaches and is addressed to distinct sets of users. The distinctions are in online content and interface, as well as in tutoring and tutor-training methodologies. Definitions associated with online tutoring vary widely, reflecting the ongoing evolution of the technology, the refinement and variation in online learning methodology, and the interactions of the organizations that deliver online tutoring services with the institutions, individuals, and learners that employ the services. This form of Internet service is a classical micropublishing situation.
Background and definitions
Online environments applied in education usually involve the use of learning management systems or Virtual Learning Environments such as Moodle, Sakai, WebCT, Blackboard. Online tutoring may be offered either directly through the virtual learning environment of a tutoring service or via a link in a learning management system (LMS). In the first case, the learner or his or her parents may be required to pay for tutoring time before the delivery of service, whereas many educational institutions and major textbook publishers sponsor a certain amount of tutoring without a direct charge to the learner.
The tutoring may take the form of a group of learners simultaneously logged in and receiving instruction from a single tutor, also known as many-to-one tutoring. This is often known as e-moderation, defined as the facilitation of the achievement of goals of independent learning, learner autonomy, self-reflection, knowledge construction, collaborative or group-based learning, online discussion, transformative learning and communities of practice. These functions of moderation are based on constructivist or social-constructivist principles of learning.
Another form of tutoring, called peer tutoring, involves peers (i.e., fellow-students) within a course or subject tutoring each other, and this may also be conducted as online tutoring over an online conferencing interface.
Most commonly, however, individual learners or their parents either purchase tutoring time with a private vendor of online tutoring service. Such time may also be made available through the purchase of a book, access to a library, a textbook publisher, or enrollment in a particular school or school system. This is known as one-on-one tutoring.
Critical success factors in online tutoring
Training and development
Staff who are inexperienced online will inevitably try to transfer into online tutoring what has worked for them in the past or what they believe is the only valid method for their discipline. Further, the values embedded in many commonly used VLEs contribute to counterproductive behaviors for online tutoring.
The key competencies needed by tutors are the abilities to:
support group learning within the technology without the need for face-to-face meetings or pictures;
provide scaffolding (see above)
perceive and interpret online behavior
Summarize, which includes:
Acknowledging the variety of ideas expressed in contributions
Refocusing discussion, particularly where there are many contributions that stray from a central point
Signaling closure
Providing fresh starting points
Reinforcing important contributions or ideas
Providing an archive give feedback;
Classify participants’ knowledge;
Add knowledge and correct misconceptions in a timely manner where necessary; and close discussions and move on.
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The key features for staff development are online and face-to-face in character:
1.Online training
Gain facility with the medium of online communication and with the specific user interface to be used
Model the online communication behavior expected of learner participants and students
Focus efforts on tutoring and moderating processes and methods and away from details of the technology
Use scaffolding (supporting ideas) that facilitates collaborative learning in preference to providing direct instruction
2.Face-to-face
Focus on peer dialogue around models that are applicable in many settings
Provide authentic situations for tutors to practice weaving, summarizing, and giving feedback
Use fellow tutors as a resource when online development hits an obstacle
Dealing with characteristics of online environments
Online interaction is essentially verbal, so that nonverbal cues often considered essential to the tutoring process, are not present.
The learner, too, may more consciously prepare a message in advance and may choose to log in to “meet” with the tutor according to his or her own schedule. Both synchronous (life) and asynchronous online tutoring typically preserve an online record of tutor remarks or a tutoring session. The learner can use this record for future reference.
Self-led teams
As students become more experienced at working together online, some of the online facilitation roles can be delegated to the students. However, the students will need advice and training in order to become successful collaborators.
Advice and training for self-led teams should include:
Establishing ground rules
Developing a shared sense of vision and purpose
Allocating roles, task, and responsibilities
Communicating openly and frequently
Offering support
Meeting deadlines
Reviewing team performance and reflecting on contributions
