You might find that the type of programme that you are delivering has an impact on various operational issues such as:

The structure and timeline of programmes
How the learning is designed and delivered
How assessment works

This page intends to convey and signpost some relevant information for York Online tutors. For tutors on other types of distance learning programmes, you might consider asking your programme leader (or equivalent) how you can find equivalent information.

As a starting point, you might want to check the main information webpage for York Online programmes, to see how they are pitched to prospective learners.

Information in the student handbook

The student handbook contains information that you might want to know about York Online programmes, including:

programme structure and duration
'study breaks', leave of absence and extensions
attendance and participation
assessment and awards

The "carousel" method of delivery

York Online programmes do not follow the same dates / term structures as on-campus and other forms of distance learning. There are six 8-week 'online terms' per year, enabling six potential start points for students. The terms usually run 'back-to-back', although there is usually a short break between terms ending and starting near the end of the calendar year and at the end of August. To give an example of the start dates, those roughly coinciding with the 2019-2020 academic year are as follows (note that there is no formal connection with the academic year - it is only mentioned as a point of reference here):

OL1* - 2 Sep 2019

OL2 - 28 Oct 2019

OL3 - 6 Jan 2020

OL4 - 2 Mar 2020

OL5 - 27 Apr 2020

OL6 - 22 Jun 2020

*OL is here being used as shorthand for 'online term'

In addition to the core module for each programme (which runs in every online term) there will be at least one other module running, to enable continuing students to progress forwards. Students will not take more than one module simultaneously, other than potentially taking reassessments for one module after they have started another.

This is of course quite a different way of running a programme to on-campus provision and there are several implications that you might consider, including:

the sequence of progression through modules may be different across learners within a programme
there is a high level of flexibility with the programmes, not only multiple possible starts, but the opportunity to take 'study breaks' (see handbook above for details)

The role of an online tutor

To get a sense of what responsibilities are involved with the role, you might like to check how 'module tutor' was defined in the original 'roles and responsibilities' document for the York Online implementation project:

The Module Tutor (MT) is responsible for the delivery of the module. In some cases the Module Author* will also be the MT.
The MT will be responsible for:

Moderating the discussion boards and activities within the module, providing tutor feedback.
Monitoring the Q&A discussion forum and responding to queries from students about academic content and assignments.
Overseeing the delivery of learning activities within the module e.g. allocating students to groups, sending reminder emails or instructions, monitoring group work and individual student tasks.
Reading the teacher notes provided by the Module Author and familiarisation with the module content prior to delivery.

The MT will be required to attend training prior to module delivery. The training will be provided by the Programme Design and Learning Technology team.

*The Module Author is the person who originally developed the module and wrote its learning materials

In addition to these responsibilities, module tutors also mark summative assessments and moderate the marking of other tutors on the module (if applicable). Note that you might find yourself 'team teaching' a module, with a designated group (or groups) of learners allocated to you while other tutors are responsible for other groups. In this case, you might find that one of your colleagues has a 'Module Leader' role, meaning that they take a lead on co-ordinating the teaching of the module, making announcements to all students and so on. It will be important to understand the roles and responsibilities within your module delivery team as this can vary. Your programme leader (or equivalent) will be the best person to check this with.

Programme design documentation

If you wish to review the PDD for your York Online programme, you can find it linked to the relevant webpage below:

Useful Contacts

You might find that you need to contact one or more of the following for support or advice during your online tutoring activities:

1) Within your department

Your programme leader (or equivalent) and other colleagues tutoring online for the same programme (or group of programmes).

2) The library

From this webpage, you will be able to follow the link to your department and discover who the relevant Academic Liaison Librarian is. This should be a useful contact should you have any queries regarding the availability of reading materials.

3) Programme Design and Learning Technology

If you have a query regarding the VLE or how to use it, you can raise a support query with this team via vle-support@york.ac.uk. The PDLT team also includes the dedicated Educational Adviser for online learning (Nathan Page) who you might want to contact with any pedagogical queries via n.page@york.ac.uk.

4) Online Learning Support Team

This team handles administrative areas such as the processing of assessment scores, the moderation process, handling leave of absence requests and so on. You can contact them via the following email addresses however please do not pass these on to students:

For Management queries: management-online@york.ac.uk

For Computer Science queries: cs-online-admin@york.ac.uk