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Patrick Andrews

Research on Tutor Group Forums

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Two colleagues, James Roy and Lynda Griffin have researched the use of Tutor Group Forums and the following slide show presents some of the main findings:

https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=7C7FA1F83AD228C7!226&app=PowerPoint&authkey=!AGC9pGbnuFwB6FM

The research is very interesting as there is great potential for learning in tutor groups and I have a stake in making my Forums as effective as possible.  I would like to write more reactions to it in the future.

At the moment, a key point that strikes me is that it is vital for tutors to maintain social presence.  An issue I am currently considering is whether it matters that some groups are much more active and likely to post and whether I, as the tutor can do anything about it.


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Patrick Andrews

Multimodal specialist forum

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I am currently involved in moderating the E852 multimodality forum.  This has always been an  interesting experience and we are currently discussing some political manifestos.  However, I reflected on how little I use multimodal affordances in this blog and have the following hypotheses for why this is:

- perhaps I do not think in a very visual way

- I tend to post fairly frequently but quickly

- my posts tend to be quite short.

I suspect the latter two are the main reasons.

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Patrick Andrews

Supporting students through tutor group forums

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Edited by Patrick Andrews, Thursday, 20 Mar 2014, 16:04

I have been thinking about the roles of the tutor group forums in supporting learners and this seems to be particularly relevant on L185 where learners face more challenging texts for TMA 4 than they had been exposed to before.

It seems to me that the following could help to scaffold them:

- encouraging top down reading strategies

- asking questions

- encouraging learners to use the "collective intelligence* of the group.

Permalink 17 comments (latest comment by Patrick Andrews, Wednesday, 26 Mar 2014, 10:47)
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Patrick Andrews

Online group work

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Edited by Patrick Andrews, Tuesday, 18 Mar 2014, 22:58

It has been interesting that online group work for L185 seems to have been particularly successful this time - it is working how it should.

It is noticeable that there is a lot of supportive chat going on as well as the task focused discussion.  There are many women in the groups and this does tend to confirm that women post more of what Rovai (2001: 41) calls “socio-emotional messages”.

Rovai, A.P. (2001) “Building classroom community at a distance: a case study” Education Technology Research and Development, Vol. 49, No. 4, 2001, pp. 33–48

 

Permalink 2 comments (latest comment by Patrick Andrews, Tuesday, 5 Apr 2011, 10:02)
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