Working online - tutor skillsfor handling online chats,

discussions, content

Encouraging motivationand participation

Strategies

• Acknowledge students’ contributions regularly offering positive feedback. Praise their effort and encourage them.

• Provide a wide range of tasks (from blog entries, chats, discussions, etc), using different formats (audio, video, images, slides, etc) and collaboration (individual, group tasks). Offer learners to make their own choices.

• Devise tasks which will be of relevance for the participants as well as useful and appealing.

• Collect feedback along the courseso as to make adjustments or changes on their expectations

• Build rapport with students. Write nice messages. Show you care.

• Pace the course in shorter units so that they appear as achievable.

• Reply to participants’ messages as quickly as possible. • Acknowledge participants’ expectations and plan the

course taking them into consideration.

• Plan course content and tasks to be engaging and increasingly challenging.

• Contact participants who lag behind promptly to clarify doubts, provide support and reassurance.

• Provide alternative tasks for those who want to be challenged further.

• Ask for participants' input on class topics and tasks.

• Allow them to create their own as well as to act as leaders in some activities.

Tools to encourage motivation

Tutor skills for handling synchronous and asynchronous

work online

Before teaching an online course

• Tutors must be familiarised with ICT tools.• If the tutor does not know much about ICT tools,

he/she must be open-minded enough so as to start learning them.

• Specific training on the field must be taken in order to be able to start teaching an online course.

• Commitment to helping students in both synchronous and asynchronous ways is of paramount importance.

Coping with synchronous online work• Negotiation of meaning thanks to interaction has to be the main outcome of the course.• A calendar for online meetings should preferably involve

everybody’s availability (use a survey like doodle)• Online platforms such as text chat, blackboard

collaborate, among other ones, can be used to get together with everybody.

• Performing the task of being the moderator is compulsory. Nevertheless, in future sessions, this responsibility could be passed on to the students.

• Questions must be posed to encourage participation.• Weaving and summarising are necessary to prevent

people from losing track of the conversation.

Dealing with asynchronous worknous work• A forum is usually the basis of asynchronous

communication.• Introducing yourself to everybody in a friendly way as

well as making them do the same thing is very helpful to establish a good rapport with them.

• Doing a warm-up activity by either making use of the forum or doing a mind-map is a must.

• Being prompt to answer questions and reply to e-mail is a skill which must be learnt.

• Showing clear evaluation criteria and setting achievable deadlines will prevent students’ slippage or course drop-outs.

• Collaborative work must be enhanced at all times.

Controlling principles behind course design decisions

Online learning and teaching involves a series of stepsFor participants, who gradually build up

expertise in learning online: - becoming familiar with the VLE and technical tools- responding efficiently to online tasks- collaborating in real-life tasks to broaden understanding- taking the lead towards knowledge construction and assessing the learning process based on their cognitive awareness

For the moderator:- Since the VLE is the centre of attention at first, the moderator’s first role is to bridge the gap between technical, cultural, social and learning contexts so that participants socialise, becoming familiar with the platform until it no longer represents a challenge.- As participants become more actively involved, taking the lead in organising groupwork collaboration, processing final outcomes, providing feedback, the moderator provides guidance and support, coordinating groupwork, collaboration, and postings.- In the final stage, the moderator sets tasks to be peer-directed; participants construct knowledge and develop insights. The moderator supports and guides the process, keeping students on track.

Salmon’s 5 step model of teaching and learning online (Salmon: 2002)

Stage 1, access and motivation:-participants interact with each other, finding their way around the platform, while the tutor provides motivation and sets pace and rhythm so that participants learn what is expected from them within an encouraging and safe VLE E-tivities: online warmers, ice-breakers, relevant and meaningful tasks

Stage 2, socialization: -participants get to know and relate to one another responding to tasks based on a shared cultural context .-tutor guides practice in working together while establishing the bases for future construction of knowledgeE-tivities: collaboration, chats, discussion, groupwork based on the discipline

Stage 3, information exchange: -group members are assigned different roles; tasks focus on a given area of content-tutor starts delegating some control on studentsE-tivities: strong task and action focus, demanding students to work collaboratively and provide each other feedback to deepen understanding in order to reach the common goal, usually a plenary discussion.

Stage 4, knowledge construction: -participants feel comfortable working in the VLE, manage their time and collaborate effectively. -tutor assigns real-life problems and examples to analyse, aiming at broadening understanding, providing various viewpoints and perspectives. E-tivities can be peer-directed, either by students setting the outcome or designing the process.

• Stage 5, development: - students are required to gain insight and pass judgement on the

knowledge gained. - tutor offers support and guidance

E-tivities: enable evaluation and critique as participants defend their positions and explore their metacognitive awareness of their positions towards content as well as their emotions towards learning. (Monty, 2005)

CreditsThis summary was prepared by Paula Rebolledo, Gabriel Farías and Angélica Kaulen for BC Chile 2: E-Moderation: A Training Course for Online Tutors [June 2013]

References• Monty, A. (2005). A pedagogical model of e-learning

at KVL: “The five-stage model of online learning" by Gilly Salmon. Copenhagen: IT Learning C enter, KVL.

• Salmon, G. (2002). E-tivities. The Key to Active Online Learning. Taylor & Francis.