Thank you for using this online tutoring resource. We hope that you have found the advice here useful for developing your own practice and that you find it helpful to revisit it when you are reflecting on your tutoring or considering options for dealing with particular tutoring challenges.

Key principles

To consolidate your learning, please review the following list of principles for online tutoring. This summarises key take away ideas from the resource, in the form of recommendations for practice. It doesn't form a complete list of all that has been covered in the resource.

As an online tutor:

Try to be 'present' for your learners in three complementary ways:
- Socially - making learners feel welcomed and valued, fostering a learning community which has a positive and supportive tone, seeking to overcome a 'disconnect' that some learners might feel in this mode of teaching and learning
- Facilitating/guiding - structuring and signposting learning, facilitating interaction and discourse between learners
- Direct instruction - assuming a more traditional teaching role as needed, giving information and feedback to support learning
Adapt your tutoring presence practice as appropriate across the course of a module, for example:
- Initially being more focused on support, modelling and welcoming encounters/online socialisation
- Later being more focused on sustaining learning via facilitating and guiding (with direct instruction as needed) making connections and 'summarising and weaving' learning
- Possibly even greater focus on summarising and synthesising learning as the module concludes
Be aware of both challenges and affordances of online learning, and be prepared to respond appropriately e.g.
- Challenge: increased risk of isolation/non-participation (solution might involve increasing focus on early socialisation and/or follow-up support)
- Affordance: more time to think in asynchronous communication can lead to deeper peer-to-peer learning (to foster the learning benefit, focus on modelling and facilitation techniques)
Be aware of your tutoring context and how you can act effectively within it, for example the implications for your practice of programme, module and learning design, and bespoke factors such as whether synchronous contact, large numbers of students or the specific features of your learning platform/tool set come into play
Be aware of a range of other practical tips that can enhance your tutoring practice, including:
- If applicable, seeking some consistency of practice when tutoring in a team
- Get to know your students - learn from them and try to use elements such as their varied experiences, contexts and perspectives as learning resources to tap into
- Also be aware of different types of online learners, trying to work with any challenges or affordances of particular learners types that you are working with
- Look at particular opportunities for enhancing learning by for example: adding further stimulus/guidance to activities where needed, coaching learners or assigning them roles with a view to enhancing engagement and interaction
- Encourage learners to reflect and self-regulate their learning
- Look for appropriate opportunities to save time and be more efficient in your tutoring practice

Further resources

To explore some of the issues raised in this resource further we recommend that you take a look at the University's Quality framework for Distance Learning. This provides further details and examples of dimensions of quality for tutoring within the broader context of guidance for programme teams on monitoring the management and delivery of Distance Learning programmes.

Three key resources that have informed the development of this resource are:

Garrison, D.R. and Anderson, T. (2016). E-learning in the 21st Century – A community of inquiry framework for research and practice (3rd edition). Oxford: Routledge.

University of York Permalink

(Note that earlier editions of this text were also referred to)

Salmon, G. (2011). E-moderating. Routledge: Abingdon.
University of York Library Permalink

Salmon, G. (2013). E-tivities. Routledge: Abingdon.
University of York Library Permalink

You may find it useful to draw on these for further guidance. They are included on the next page along with a list of the articles we have drawn upon in developing the resource.

We also hope that the appendices will also provide you with a useful source of information:

Part 1: Technical guidance
Part 2: Support for online/distance learners
Part 3: Supplementary information for York Online programmes

Final reflection

As a final activity, you may find it useful to consider the learning outcomes for the resource (copied below) and reflect on how far you have been able to meet these. As you do so, if you have any feedback that we could use for future development of the resource, this would be very much appreciated. We would value any comments or recommendations that you might have.

After working through this resource, you should be able to:

Articulate your perspectives on the role of the online tutor, including key behaviours and competencies.
Critically review your online teaching context, identifying key features which are likely to impact on your approach as an online tutor and their implications for practice.
Integrate knowledge of teaching presence and the key roles of the tutor in promoting an effective learning environment.
Identify, reflect on and integrate actions, behaviours and processes that an online tutor can engage with
- in the early stages of an online module to build foundations for student participation and collaboration.
- as a module progresses to meet targeted learning outcomes.

Feedback and contacts

To provide us with feedback, please complete the form below or open it in a new window.

The form requires you to log in to your google account but your details will only be provided to us if you include them in your response.

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If you have any support requests, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us using the Programme Design and Learning Technology team email address (vle-support@york.ac.uk). We can provide you with a wide range of support and guidance from instructional design to technical support with the toolset.

We hope that you have enjoyed this resource and that you have found it beneficial. May your journey in online tutoring be an interesting and enjoyable one!

Best wishes,

Rob and Nathan

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Programme Design and Learning Technology

Academic Support Office

University of York

What next?

References