Moore and Kearsley define a tutor in a total system approach as, "one who organizes interaction among learners to help them create, apply, and test their knowledge." While in a total system approach a teacher may simply be the, "one who presents information for learners to interact with (Moore & Kearsley, 1996)." Depending on the approach and the institution, the tutor and the teacher may in fact be one person or may consist of a team of specialists.
I believe that the tutoring method is more effective for distance learning. As discussed in chapter 8 of Moore and Kearsley, the students that are often taking distance education classes often feel a great deal of anxiety towards the class, the instructor, the materials, etc. The facilitation of interaction between the student and the information being shared is critical to success. By having interaction with a specific tutor and being able to build a rapport is also critical to the success of the student. It is one thing to present information to a student using a distance learning delivery method, but it is an entirely different thing to successfully have the student assimilate the information and build the connections needed for them to apply it.
I have participated in distance learning classes by means of mail correspondence and the Internet. From my personal experience, I have found that a tutoring relationship was much more effective in my understanding of the material and remaining motivated to continue the class. Simply receiving a sentence of feedback from the tutor when receiving a grade has made a tremendous difference, as opposed to just receiving a grade in the mail. Therefore, I believe that interaction between the tutor and the student is highly more effective than a simple teaching method of presentation combined with very little personal attention to the student.
Moore and Kearsley have identified three types of interaction. They are:
All levels of interaction are critical to the success of the student and of the course. Initially, the learner must interact with the content in order for them to assimilate the new information. The instructor then would need to interact with the student. This is done by practice, manipulation of ideas and encouraging the learner. Additionally, this is an opportunity for the instructor to assist the student in understanding the information by helping to put it in a context that the students may better be able to understand. The third type of interaction as explained by Moore and Kearsley is interaction among the students. This interaction is not only a motivational tool but it also helps the students to further develop their level of understanding.
During the Fall 1997 semester, I participated in a distance education
course at Rio Salado Community College which was a combination of an on-line
course and an audio course. I chose to use the Internet as my sole interaction.
The course is titled EDU250, Overview of the Community College and can
be found athttp://www.rio.maricopa.edu/ci/riointernet/schedule/SummerII98/
Subject/education.html.
This course featured learner-content interaction through transcripts of
interviews available on-line and links to other web sites. This was effective
for me, as I was a motivated student who needed the course to continue
my teaching certification. A pleasant surprise of the course was the learner-instructor
interaction. I did not expect to receive such in depth feedback from the
instructor when assignments were turned in, nor did I anticipate that I
would look forward to her responses. Through this learner-instructor interaction
I was even more motivated to submit assignments in a timely manner or even
early. This course lacked any interaction between students participating
in the class. When choosing the method of delivery for this course work,
I had several options available to me, on-line, audio tapes, lecture based,
and text based. I chose the on-line format for several reasons, which included
the need to complete the course work quickly as well as an interest in
participating in an on-line course. I had a great deal of interaction with
the interface and it made the class more enjoyable for me.
I have reviewed a course of the University of Iowa, titled, "Introduction to Instructional Design." This site can be found at http://www.uiowa.edu/~idt/courses/7W120/index.html
This site contains it all. On the home page for the course there is a paragraph, which will help the student properly use the page, this is a wonderful example of learner interface interaction. There is a section titled information which contains various examples of interaction, "In particular, students can review materials related to readings and class presentations, check for messages from the instructor, see models of the products they are working on in their project groups, check the instructor's analysis of the performance and perceptions of the class as a whole, and be guided toward other Internet sites related to Instructional Design." The information contained in this section alone, demonstrates learner-content, learner-learner, and learner-instructor interactions. Additionally, it includes a feature that I believe is critical to a good distance education program, which is it accepts feedback from all visitors. Many other distance education classes lock out visitors and there is no way to view or comment on the course. (See Rio Salado Community College.)
I believe that all of the interactions are essential to a student's success. First, if the learner does not know how to interact with the interface and interact with the content, there will be no delivery vehicle and nothing to learn. But, once the interface and the content interacts with the student, a student may often have problems applying the content that they are expected to learn. Without learner-instructor interaction, the mastering of the content may not occur. Finally, I think back to my days as an undergraduate and the early mornings at the Coffee Plantation, where a group of students from my classes would gather to discuss lessons, study together and reinforce ideas. The information that I learned while interacting with my fellow learners is information that is easiest to recall. Therefore, I believe that all of the interactions are critical to learning.
Moore, M. G. and Kearsley, G (1996). Distance Education: A Systems View. Chapters 7 and 8. California: Wadsworth.
Jonassen, D. (Ed.), (1996). Handbook of research for educational communications and technology: a project of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology. 403-437. New York: Simon & Schuster Macmillan.
Online
University of Iowa. Introduction to Instructional Design [WWW document]. URL http://www.uiowa.edu/~coe2/courses/7W120.htm
Rio Salado Community College. Overview of the Community College [WWW document]. URL http://www.rio.maricopa.edu/ci/riointernet/schedule/SummerII98/Subject/education.html