1. Do you agree with Price et al. that online tuition is a pastoral activity and not a purely academic activity?
I think that there is an element of the pastoral in on-line tuition, even if it is as simple as providing a contact for the student so that they feel less ‘alone’ as they study. Providing a sympathetic ‘virtual ear’ and an extension for an assignment when a child or parent has been ill, or suggesting ways of catching up with the course material are as important via e-mail as they are by telephone. I have noticed recently that in fact students call me less frequently and are much more likely to e-mail if they have a problem.
2. Do you agree that the absence of what the authors call ‘paralinguistic cues’ in an on-line environment can limit the effectiveness of on-line tuition?
I would agree with this. W223 which I tutor is on-line and participation in tutorials is low across the board (it’s not just my technological failings). A common complaint from tutors is that there may be 2 ‘lurkers’ for every participant.
In a f2f tutorial if a less confident student turns up I can usually get them to participate by using small group exercises or asking them simple questions which they can answer which in turn leads to further participation. It doesn’t always work but there is a fair chance that it will. If a ‘lurker’ is asked to post in an on-line tutorial they always log off.
I would agree that students really dislike asynchronous tutorial sessions on line. They log in, see no activity at that precise moment, assume that nothing is happening and log out without posting. That leads to a vicious circle. I changed to synchronous sessions for this reason which improved things – although I do think that you need about 40 students in a ‘tutorial group’ to achieve the critical mass of participants needed for genuine discussion.
(I’m not suggesting that one tutor has that number of students to support, mark etc – just that tutorials on line need a greater number of potential participants than f2f because participation is by fewer students and they post/comment less frequently. We (W223 tutors) have discussed sharing tutorial responsibilities across tutor groups to create this ‘critical mass’ – which would reduce the ‘personal contact’ valued by students, but might make the sessions more effective).