Introduction: Online Tutoring
Dr. Mohammad Daud Khattak
Regional Director,
AIOU Regional Campus, Peshawar
dkhattak@hotmail.com
rd_peshawar@aiou.edu.pk
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Contents
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Concept and definition
Types of e-tutoring
limitations and Advantages
Core competencies of e-tutors
Planning online lessons
Online students management
Challenges of e-tutoring
Future of online tutoring
4/13/2015
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Generations of distance education
First
• Correspondence education
• Use of print material
before 60
2nd
• Distance education
mid 60s
• Use of print material + audio taps
3rd
• Distance education
mid 70s
• Use of print material+A/V taps + broadcast
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Generations of distance learning
4th
5th
• e-learning
• Use digital contents
• m-learning
• Use digital content
mid 90s
most recent
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Learning environments
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Face-to-face teaching (F2F)
Traditional distance learning (TDL)
Online learning (e-learning and m-learning)
Others
Academic person
Academic process
Academic environment
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What is tutoring?
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Teaching is formal academic process
Tutoring is a supplemented effort
Tutoring is the process of moderation and
facilitation to achieve learning
Tutoring is the process of guidance in a
specific course/subject
Tutoring
Tutor
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What is a Tutor?
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Generally a tutor is an academic person who
has responsibility of moderation or guidance
of the learners through tutoring in the
distance learning environment
Tutors engaged in TDL referred to as tutors
Tutors engaged in online learning referred to
as e-tutors
e-tutors
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Commonalities in all forms of teachers
Teacher
Tutor
e-Tutor
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Commonalities in all forms of teachers
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Instruct/guide/coach the learners
Manage the learners
Asses academic activities of learners
Keep record of learners and activities
Give advice to learners
Many more
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Commonalities in tutors and e-tutors
Tutor
e-Tutor
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Commonalities in tutors and e-tutors
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Use of ODL environment
Use of especially designed course material
Use of ODL methodologies for delivery of
course material
Use of ODL methodologies in learners
assessment
Many more
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Commonalities in teachers and e-tutors
Teacher
e-Tutor
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Commonalities in teachers and e-tutors
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May have real time interaction with learners
Feedback from learners at real time
Synchronous discussion
Many more
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Why e-tutors?
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Yes e-tutoring is an emerging pedagogy
Online teaching is different from F2F and TDL
One can not assume that all skills/pedagogy
of F2F and TDL will be appropriate in
Cyberspace Teaching
Online Environment
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What is an online environment?
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What is an online environment?
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What is e-learning?
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What is e-learning?
Learning through online environment
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Essential elements of e-learning
e-contents/digital content
Interface
Digital communication
e-Tutor
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Types of e-tutoring
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e-Writing Lab allows learners to submit
draft papers, the tutor respond a feedback
within a specified time frame
Live Tutoring allows learners to meet with
a tutor in one-on-one or more tutoring
sessions via a fully interactive online
environment
e-Questions allows learners to send a
specific question for an e-tutor, who will
respond within specified time frame
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Limitations of e-tutors
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Students must have basic IT knowledge
Good broadband is required for video based
interaction
Time difference especially for international
e-tutor and/or students
Complex calculations may difficult to explain
Graphical explanations may difficult – it is
much more time consuming to create a
graph in e.g. Excel than to sketch on paper
Many more
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Advantages of e-tutors
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Uniform tuition is provided to masses
Uniform quality course material is provided
Free of cost course material
No geographic limitations
e-tutors do not travel for taking a session
e-tutors may not miss a session, if traveling
e-tutors can track record of learners using LMS
e-tutors can assess learners online
Many more
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Core competencies of e-tutors
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General competencies
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Appropriate use of current technology
Understand the Change role of e-tutor
Aware of digital educational resources
Development of own digital resources
Awareness about online ethical issues
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Core competencies of e-tutors …
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Specific competencies
 Planning and management
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Plan how e-tutoring will be employed
Establish the technical facilities necessary to
support e-tutoring
Provide administrative support
Provide learners with technical and subject
matter expertise
Initiate activities that will facilitate learning
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Core competencies of e-tutors …
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Specific competencies …
 Communicating with learners
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Establish relationships with online learners
Communicate appropriately with online learners
Competent enough in text chatting
Competent enough using audio/video devices
Good understanding of official website
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Core competencies of e-tutors …
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Specific competencies …
 Integrating ICT tools
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Use Web pages for communication with and
between learners
Use email for communication
Use bulletin boards and discussion forums for
communication with and between learners
Use text, audio and video conferencing for
communication with and between learners
Use of MS office for additional support
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Core competencies of e-tutors …
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Specific competencies …
 Reflecting on student and tutor experiences
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Editing of e-documents
Assess learners' performance
Evaluate and continuously improve e-tutoring
support
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Planning online lessons
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Study the curriculum of course unit carefully
Search and collect available digital resources
Filter and select appropriate digital resources
Upload the digital material
Ensure available online during pre-defined time
Strictly follow the defined type of e-tutoring
Don’t forget activities of drill and practice
Always include feedback of the learners
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Online students management
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Prior students orientation to use LMS
Circulate online ethical guidelines
Carefully divide students week time for a given
course into manageable segments i.e
 Readings say 3 hours
 Assignments say 3 hours
 Discussions say 2 hours
Define deadlines carefully i.e 12:00 pm
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Assignment#1 submission deadline is May 21, 2014
till 12:00 mid night
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Online students management
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Declare clear directions and be consistent i.e
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If assignments are required to be submitted via a
certain process, then collect all with same process
or highly publicize exceptions
Timely respond to students questions
Generate discussion forums frequently
Encourage and engage students to use
discussion forum
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e-tutors challenges
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Technological issues
 Cope with the new technologies
 Bandwidth issues
 Technology dependency
Digital learning resources
 Filtering of the appropriate digital resources
 Development of own digital resources
 Compatibility of digital resources
 Production quality of digital resources
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 Content richness, depth, and breadth
e-tutors challenges …
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Expensiveness
 initial cost of e-learning service is expensive
 high initial production cost of online
materials
 update of digital content may expensive
 tutors must be confident that extra cost is
balance with benefits of delivering a course
 significant time needs to be invested in
course set-up and in ongoing maintenance
i.e checking links, update e-content etc.
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e-tutors challenges …
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Dependencies on others
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Accommodate the disabilities
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may be dependent for help i.e search of course
materials, software not working, technology failure
students with visual or physical impairments may be
difficult to accommodate
Most of the time stay online
Difficult online text chatting for languages like
Urdu and Arabic
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e-tutors challenges …
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Indirect issues faced by e-tutors
 Lack of students online exposure
 Not enough or poor online information by
online administers
 Website or LMS interface is not good
 Students accounts issues
Many more
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Future of e-tutors
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Global perspective
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e-learning is rapidly growing around the world
MOOC-Massive Open Online Courses are the hottest
trend right now in e-learning
Micro-Learning or mini bytes of learning content
trend gaining growing popularity i.e Five minute
videos, one page documents, focused lessons, small
chunks of information, and other flexible activities
that may be easily incorporated in a busy daily life
The importance and recognition of informal learning
through social media
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Future of e-tutors
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Localized perspective
 inability of standard education systems to
address unique needs of each student
 lack of teaching staff at schools
 outdated school infrastructural facilities
 increasing trend of Internet
 growing demand of new technologies
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Thanks to All
4/13/2015
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