The tutor/facilitator role in student retention

Open and distance learning provide particular (and sometimes overlapping) contexts for discussions of student retention. This paper argues that the environment for learning created by distance learning tutors is a key factor in student retention, whether retention is taken to refer to student completion of a single course or student persistence through a programme of study. Discussion of tutors' roles in retaining students is stimulated by the recent symposium on student retention and draws on a new analysis of three linked empirical inquiries located within the UK Open University. A fruitful integration of questionnaire surveys, project evaluation and practitioner action inquiries suggest that, where questions of retention focus on the student and their learning experience, tutors' facilitative roles are complex and valuable. Institutional policies and course design practices need to support tutors in their retention roles by using and sharing appropriate pedagogies, systems, student information and integrated professional development opportunities.     

Improving student learning in distance education: Theory,research and practice

The aim of this paper is to examine how project-based learning in distance education can be seen to make a distinctive contribution to “improving student learning”. How has this approach to course design and assessment been put into practice in an Open University (OU) course and what assumptions about teaching and learning are involved in this course development process. The paper also looks briefly at how this project component has been evaluated by describing students’ and tutors’ experiences of learning and teaching in the form of “action research” so to reflect critically on practice and so initiate change.     

Tutoring online tutors: Using digital badges to encourage the development of online tutoring skills

Online tutors play a critical role in e‐learning and need to have an appropriate set of skills in addition to subject matter expertise. This paper explores how digital badges can be used to encourage the development of online tutoring skills. Based on previous research, we defined three digital badges, which are examples of essential tutoring skills. These skills were self‐assessed during two weeks by online tutors in K‐12 mathematics, who also wrote a self‐reflection based on their experience. The digital badges motivated tutors to reflect on online tutoring practices. The tutors described that they gained a more detailed understanding of the tutoring process when continuously analyzing ongoing conversations. However, it was a challenge for the tutors to balance the private activity, reflection on tutoring skills, and the social activity, communication with the K‐12 students. It is essential to take into account when tutors will have time to reflect, for example, by scheduling time for reflection or enabling opportunities for reflection that is flexible in time. A challenge for further research is to better understand the potential benefits of different types of badges.     

Teaching web technologies: understanding the tutor’s perspective

Abstract

This paper describes an Open University eSTEeM project that gathered the experiences of computing and information technology tutors who teach an undergraduate module called Web Technologies with the intention of understanding more about how they and their students can be best supported. Twelve distance learning tutors were interviewed by two interviewers. The interviews were transcribed and then thematically analysed. It was discovered that some tutors hold the view that some of their students struggle to understand aspects of the technologies that are being taught. It was also apparent that tutors have very different approaches when using certain tools to teach web technologies to students. The paper concludes by summarising key findings, presenting potential enhancements and suggesting further research directions.     

Situated learning,reflective practice and conceptual expansion: effective peer observation for tutor development

Despite tutors' importance, they often encounter inadequate professional development and support. This study describes the impact of peer observation of teaching activities on tutors' professional development using multiple data-sets over a three-year period. The data was analysed according to three themes: situated learning, reflective practice and conceptual expansion, in order to identify changes to teaching practice. Tutors reported that peer observation of teaching is an effective development activity that encouraged reflection on teaching and, for some, resulted in conceptual expansion and lasting change to teaching. Tutors found the situated aspect of the peer observation activity was an important factor, as it enabled them to observe how other tutors supported their students' engagement with the discipline-specific curriculum. Recommendations for future research and for the professional development of tutors in practice are provided.     

应用技术培养反思性学习者

本文首先介绍了什么是反思性学习——它的优点以及如何改变教师和学生的角色,接着阐述了这种方法应用于网上学习所需的三种技术,即学习内容、博客、即时信息。论文以英国开放大学的硕士课程为例,分析了这些技术的应用。评价表明,学生们认为这种学习尽管费力,但很刺激。让学生自己决定学习内容也受到一些学习能力强的学习者的欢迎。所有学习者在体会到反思性学习方法的优点之前,都需要获到一些支持,也需要经过一段时间的适应。博客是一种常用的反思载体,即时信息也常被用于社会的交往联系。尽管这些课程的教学完全是通过网络进行的,但随时可以获得在线教师的辅导也是学生们取得良好学习成效的必要条件。     

教师远程培训在线辅导策略的质性分析

远程培训是教师培训的重要方式,也是建设高素质专业化教师队伍的重要途径。但教师远程培训的理论研究明显滞后于实践的快速发展。在线辅导教师作为教师远程培训中学习支持服务的主要实施者,其辅导行为直接影响学员的学习行为,进而影响教师远程培训的整体质量。在线辅导教师的自我角色定位可以概括为导学者、设计者、促学者、评价者和建议者5种角色。不同的角色定位所需的在线辅导策略不尽相同,但在线辅导者需要具备引导策略、交互策略、监控策略、反思与迁移策略、反馈策略等五大基本策略。这五大策略包含16个子策略和32种具体的在线辅导行为,可以作为教师在线辅导的借鉴和参考。     

Open Learning,Electronic Communications and Beginning Teachers

The largest post graduate initial teacher education course in the UK was introduced by the Open University in February 1994. The course is innovative in a number of ways: it is the first large scale distance taught pre‐service course in the UK; all students are loaned a computer for the duration of the course; and computer conferencing is used extensively for communication between students, part‐time tutors and the course team. In this paper the use of the computer conferencing element is described and evaluated, and ways in which electronic communications can be developed for this to be a truly effective medium for supporting the development of beginning teachers’ competence and confidence are discussed.     

Who am I as a distance tutor? An investigation of distance tutors’ professional identity in China

Much research has been conducted in the area of teacher professional identity in the past decades. Nonetheless, very little attention has been paid to the professional identity of tutors in distance education. Using interviews, this study set out to investigate distance tutors’ claimed and assigned professional identities, their actual, ought and ideal responsibilities, as well as job satisfaction and expected institutional support. The study involved 155 tutors from Chinese open universities. As indicated by the findings, Chinese distance tutors claimed to be inferior to their counterparts at conventional universities in research facilities and resources, social status, professional development, teaching facilities and resources, and income. Their assigned identity further confirms their professional vulnerability as a disadvantaged cohort of higher education academics. Discrepancies also exist between their actual, ought and ideal roles and much needs to be done to enhance their professional identity. Implications are discussed at the sociocultural, institutional, and personal levels.     

The dynamics of teaching at a distance in Tanzania: reflections from the field

In this paper, pedagogical issues drawn from a study to examine the nature and quality of correspondence tuition are analysed. The paper observes that effective correspondence tuition depends on a number of factors ranging from the tutors’ academic competence to their professional experience, values and assumptions about distance learning. Given the novelty of the distance mode of delivery at university level in Tanzania, there is a need for an induction programme for newly recruited tutors to provide them with the core skills and techniques of distance teaching. Recruitment of additional tutors, as well as continued professional development, is crucial for the enhancement of student feedback and quality of correspondence tuition.     

The use of a custom-built online environment for communication with and support of student-teachers during school placement

School Placement is recognised as a central component of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes for the professional development and personal growth of student-teachers. It is also acknowledged to be a particularly challenging time for students during which they require support and guidance from their ITE tutors. In this regard, online environments hold much potential to facilitate greater communication between student-teachers and tutors during school placements. This paper considers the communicative features of a custom-built online environment for teacher education in the context of a concurrent ITE degree. It identifies a number of positive outcomes from the use of this system with regard to communication between student-teachers and their tutors. These include a more sustained and dialogical engagement between student-teacher and tutor throughout the duration of the placement, enhanced levels and quality of support that tutors can extend to student-teachers while on placement and more productive face-to-face communication between tutors and students.     

What do distance language tutors say about teacher motivation?

Research into motivation in education mainly centres on students’ learning motivation. This article reports on an interview study of teacher motivation with the aim of investigating the effects of student-related factors and tutors’ personal factors on the motivation of language tutors in the distance learning context. Findings from the study indicate that external sources of influence include students’ engagement in learning English, motivation to learn English, progress made, foundation in English and appreciation of tutors’ teaching, while tutors’ internal factors are their self-efficacy in teaching, reflection and self-initiated professional development, interest in the profession of teaching English as well as their sense of achievement. Analysis of the data also suggests that more concrete measures are needed to counteract the demotivating effects from these two dimensions. Implications and suggestions are discussed with regard to enhancing tutor motivation more effectively.     

Face-to-Face Tutorials in a Distance Learning System: Meeting student needs

Many distance learning programmes include an element of face-to-face tuition. This paper reports on a research project concerned with various issues related to face-to-face tutorials in the Open University of Hong Kong's distance education system, including students' expectations of the benefits they will gain; their reasons for attending; the approaches they prefer; and their overall satisfaction with what tutors actually provide. Some comparisons are drawn between students in the university's different schools-and the overall findings are compared with those reported for distance learners in the West, in an effort to assess the impact of cultural context on student attitudes to tutorials. The research found that the Hong Kong students' attendance at tutorials was very high compared to that found in other similar studies, possibly reflecting Hong Kong's geographical compactness, but also possibly reflecting a preference for face-to-face meetings; that the students looked for specific guidance and support from tutors within a largely directive framework; that even where the format of the tutorial departed from the students' expectations, the students did not necessarily give the tutorial a low evaluation, provided that it was a fruitful experience; and that the cultural context within which a distance education system operates affects students' expectations and learning styles.     

'From Competence to Excellence': A systems view of staff development for part-time tutors at-a-distance

The practices of part-time teachers in higher education are often different and sometimes divorced from the activities of their full-time colleagues. This is particularly true in the UK Open University where course design and production are the domain of full-time academics, and student learning is traditionally supported by part-time teachers. Higher education in the UK is increasingly responding to quality agendas that demand evidence of competence in teaching together with coherent learning and assessment strategies for students. Such demands can have positive benefits for learning across an institution, but introduce particular challenges wherever universities rely on part-time tutors to supplement full-time academics' work; they present even more difficulties where the tutors are geographically dispersed. One idea emerging from a 3-year research project in the Open University draws on theories of activity and practice to suggest that, even in a distance-learning context, staff development for part-time teachers should be embedded in conversations with the academic practices of full-time staff. Such connections would enhance the coherence of student learning in line with quality agendas.     

A holistic approach to supporting distance learning using the Internet: transformation, nottranslation

This is the first of a series of papers describing how the Open University, a large distance education institution, has embraced the Internet as a medium for supporting its students, tutors, academics, and administrators throughout the education process. This paper reports on a holistic approach to integrating technology into the teaching process which addresses how to provide necessary functions in effective forms—some traditional, some new. It describes the development and structure of actual systems, which incorporate electronic student registration; electronic assignment submission, marking, and recording; electronic tutorials and other interaction; and electronic examinations. It describes and summarises some of the findings of the evaluation of those systems, including student, academic, and administrator feedback. Finally, this paper reflects on the benefits of an integrated holistic approach in exploiting the Internet's potential to support distance learning on a massive scale. Subsequent papers in this series will address specific areas in detail: the student experience, the role of the tutor in an electronic environment, and the institutional perspective.     

基于整体思维的开放大学建设问题研究的主要视点

开放大学建设是远程教育实践探索的深化,应当开辟思维与认识的新境界;开放大学建设是教育改革的重大课题,应当形成创新性的思路和设计;开放大学建设是广播电视大学发展的战略转型,应当明确转型发展的任务和途径。     

A Case Study of Cross‐curricular Practice through Partnership

This paper is concerned with a curriculum development project, framed around the cross‐curricular themes as suggested by the NCC guidelines (1991‐a‐f). It is structured as a teacher partnership experience involving close collaboration between university tutors, student teachers and practising teachers in a local school. From the university's perspective, the curriculum development project grew out of the review and evaluation of the education courses which forms 50% of the four year BA/BSc Hons (Education) degree offered for students preparing to be secondary school teachers. From the school's perspective it offered an opportunity to develop a more formal incorporation of cross‐ curriculum themes into the subject curriculum. The paper discusses the project from three perspectives: the university tutors’, the school teachers’ and the students’, describing professional tutoring partnership in practice.     

Using Activity Theory to inform sessional teacher development: what lessons can be learned from tutor training models?

Abstract

Sessional teachers in universities are often marginalised by their part-time status, availability for training, and invisibility within the institution’s infrastructure. Nevertheless, tutors as a subset of this group, regularly have access to some training and development. This paper presents a methodological approach for implementing the BLASST framework for sessional staff at a New Zealand university, based on a project to benchmark support for tutors. Using Activity Theory, I discuss tensions associated with developing a training programme for tutors and how such an approach can aid the development of similar models for all sessional teachers.     

Enhancing learning at doctoral level through the use of reflection?

The EdD (Doctor in Education) is a professional doctorate that provides a framework for experienced professionals to examine and develop their practice through research and engagement with relevant theoretical perspectives and professional academic literature. This type of doctorate provides the opportunity for professionals to develop their capacity for critical, professional agency, often achieved through the use of reflection for the integration of academic and professional knowledge. This paper explores doctoral students’ perspectives on the nature and value of reflective statements in terms of a product of learning and a process of reflection. The analysis of EdD students’ responses from one university in the UK reveals a connection between the process of reflection and the development of professional knowledge and contribution to practice—major goals of professional doctorate programmes. This small‐scale study has highlighted implications for the role of reflection in EdD programmes for the development of critical, professional agency. At the metacognitive level of the EdD student clarity is lacking regarding the process of reflection—the nature, scope, object, purpose, value and development—which raises the very important question of ‘what counts as adequate reflection and on what grounds’. This study has identified the need to build capacity, first, in the reflective practice of EdD students and second, in the pedagogic demands of the tutors and supervisors and, third, the assessment demands required of examiners.