Every module has a student facing website which is likely to slightly change for every module presentation, and an accompanying tutor facing website. The ‘tutor website’, as I’ll call it, is a really important resource for any tutor who is tutoring a module.

This short blog post highlights some of the most important elements of a tutor website. Every version of a tutor website is slightly different, but is likely to contain a few common elements: one or more forum spaces, a space to access resources (which may, or may not, be also the forum areas), and a space to have online meetings (although the module team and you line managers might choose to use different rooms in some circumstances).

Tutor websites are ‘go to’ places if you have any questions about any element of the module that you’re tutoring. If you have been asked a question by a student, and you’re not sure how to answer it, you should feel free to ask for help on the tutor forum. Also, if you’re unsure how to interpret, or to mark an element of an assignment, you should also ask on the forum. Tutor websites are monitored by curriculum managers, which means they are able to quickly highlight issues to module team members, or even the module team chair.

You usually gain access to the tutor’s website through a link on the student’s version of the module website. Alternatively, your curriculum manager might send you a link, which you should then keep in a safe place. Two recommendations about how to do this are: save the email in a folder that relates your module, and save the link to the ‘your links’ section on TutorHome or to your dashboard.

Forums

Different modules will have different forums. One module might have one main forum, where all tutors exchange perspectives and experiences. Another module might have dedicated forum spaces for each of the TMAs. A recommendation is to have a look at each of these forum areas, and subscribe to each of them.

Subscribing to a forum means that you are sent an email message whenever anyone makes a post. The advantage of subscribing, and receiving an email notification is that your email account can give you an overview of what is happening and what questions are being asked. If you have a high level of email traffic, a practical suggestion is to set up an email filter, so forum messages are all sent to dedicated folders. Do refer to one of the other blogs here about effectively managing your IT. On the subject of forums, do also refer to another article that is about student facing tutor group forums.

Some modules will apply a single component assessment strategy, where module performance is assessed purely through TMA scores. If your module adopts this approach, you might have to carry out what is known as a coordination exercise, which may take place either within a dedicated forum, or on a dedicated forum thread. The aim of the coordination exercise is to ensure that all tutors are marking to the same standards. If you are unsure whether this applies to your module, do speak with your line manager.

Activity

Find an equivalent of a tutor’s café forum. A café forum can be thought of as an informal space where views, opinions and experiences can be shared. If you can’t find a café forum, go to the main module forum area. Look for a thread where tutors introduce themselves. If you can’t find one, start one by posting anew message. When you have made the post, make sure you subscribe to the forum area to you can see everyone’s reply.

On some tutor websites, there might be a forum that is used by tutors to share tutorial resources, such as PowerPoint files, and accompanying resources, such as handouts, which might be in the form of Word documents. Sometimes, tutorial resources might be shared within the resources section, or through another tool, which is known as a Wiki.

Activity

Find out whether your tutor website has a forum where tutorial resources area shared. Identify a couple of discussion threads where sharing takes place, downloading some PowerPoint resources. Open these resources, and consider how a tutor might use this PowerPoint resource within a tutorial.

Resources

As well as being a space to get help and support, the tutor’s website is also a space for the module team to share some essential resources for tutors. For every TMA there will be a set of accompanying tutor notes. These notes, which typically take the form of a Word document, offers exacting guidance about how each student’s TMA should be marked. As well as offering a summary of the marks that should be allocated, they also offer guidance about what answers are acceptable, and what kind of feedback should be offered. The tutor notes represents the offical ‘line’ from the module team about what is acceptable and what isn’t. The role of the tutor is to interpret the student’s submission, the module team’s tutor notes, and to provide constructive comments to help to facilitate learning.

Activity

Find the tutor notes for the next TMA. Download a copy of it, and then get a printout of them if you feel this is an approach that might works for you. Read through the notes, highlighting sections that you feel you need to pay close attention to. You might want to consider highlighting important parts of the marking scheme. 

When I start marking, I always begin with a new printout of the tutor notes. I usually print them double sided, with two pages on a side, just to save a bit of paper, and staple them all together. I also get a printed copy of the TMA questions, so I have them side-by-side. I highlight key sections, but sometimes add my own handwritten notes. By the time I have finished marking, my own set of tutor notes look to be a bit torn and ragged.

Some module teams use the Resources section of the tutor websites share additional resources, such as a link to a set of frequently asked questions, or FAQs, or a set of links to any other documents that may offer further background materials that might help with the marking and the provision of feedback.

Activity

Look for a discussion about one of the TMA questions a forum area. What issues are being discussed? Has the issue been resolved? Have there been any contributions by the module chair or the curriculum manager?

Tutor rooms

Since tutor websites are editable VLE websites, sometimes the module team will add an online room, which can be used to hold module wide meetings. When a module is presented for the first time, the module chair, curriculum manager and other members of the module team will run what is known as a module briefing. This is where the module team highlights some of the key elements of a module design, summarising its structure and assessment strategy.  Module wide meetings may also be sometimes. used to prepare for exam and EMA marking.

Activity

Find out if your tutor website has a module meeting room. If one is available, click on a link that allows you to view a summary of previous recordings. What recordings can you see? Do you notice a recording of any module briefing?

A note about Netiquette

The tutor websites forums are incredibly helpful. If you have a question, no matter how difficult, invariably there will be some tutors who will be able to offer some practical advice to help you out. The tutor forums only work when everyone is willing to share experiences with each other. If you post a question to the tutor forums, do be prepared to answer other questions that are posted. The effectiveness of these spaces relies on everyone being willing to contribute.

Also, if you download a tutorial resource that has been shared by a fellow tutor and wish to modify it, and make use of it in your own tutorial, do acknowledge whoever it was who created the original version. If you do make improvements or enhancements to a resource, do also consider sharing your updated version with your fellow tutors.

Reflections

The tutor website is one of my ‘go to’ places.

I access it before the start of a new presentation and find myself accessing it regularly throughout the academic year, mostly to access, review and respond to posts that are made on the tutor’s forum. I might, of course, access the site to download updates to the tutor notes. 

A tutor website is used as a repository for resources. If you need inspiration for an upcoming tutorial, the Tutor website is likely to contain presentations that have been prepared by the module team and fellow tutors.

It is a place to visit to ask questions and to highlight issues. If you notice an issue with some module materials, or marking guide, to make a post to one of the forums. Similarly, if you have a student asking questions about the module materials, or the module, that you don’t entirely know how to respond to: ask a question. There will always be a response, often within hours of sharing your point or posting your question.

I like forums, I use them a lot.  I can barely remember when I didn’t know what one was.  I think my first exposure to forums might have been through a dial-up bulletin board system (used in the dark ages before the internet, of course).  This was followed through a brief flirtation with usenet news groups.

When trying to solve some programming problems, I more often than not would search for a couple of keywords and then stumble across a multitude of different forums where tips, tricks and techniques might be debated and explored.  A couple of years ago I was then introduced to the world of FirstClass forums (wikipedia) and then, more recently, to Moodle forums.  Discussions with colleagues has since led me towards the notion of e-tivities.

I have a confession to make: I use my email account for a whole manner of different things.  One of the things that I incidentally use my email account for is sending and receiving email!  I occasionally use email as a glorified ‘todo’ list (albeit one that has around a thousand items!)  If something comes in that is interesting and needs attention, I might sometimes use click on an ‘urgent’ tick box so that I remember to look at the message again at a totally unspecified time in the future.  If it is something that must be bounded by time, I might drag the item into my calendar and ask my e-mail client to remind me about it at a specified time in the future (I usually ponder over this for around half a minute before choosing one of two options: remind me in a weeks time, or remind me in a fortnight).

I have created a number of folders within my email client where I can store interesting stuff (which I very often subsequently totally forget about).  Sometimes, when working on a task, I might draft out some notes using my email editor and them store them to a vaguely titled folder.

The ‘saving of draft’ email doesn’t only become something that is useful to have when the door knocks or the telephone rings – email, to me, has gradually become an idea and file storage (and categorisation) tool that has become an integral part of how I work and communicate.  I think I have heard it said that e-mail is the internet’s killer application (wikipedia).  For me, it is a combined word processor, associative filing cabined, ideas processor and general communications utility.

Returning to the topic of forums… Forums are great, but they are very often nothing like email.  I can’t often click and drag forum messages from one location into folder or to a different part of the screen.  I can’t add my own comments to other people’s posts that only I can see (using my mail client I can save copies of email that other people send me).  On some forum systems I can’t sort the messages using different criteria, or even search for keywords or phrases that I know were used at some point.

My forum related gripes continue: I cannot delete (or at least) hide the forum message that I don’t want to see any more.  On occasions I want to change the ‘read status’ from ‘read’ to ‘unread’ if I think that a particular subject that is being discussed might be useful to remember when I later turn to an assessment that I have to submit.  I might also like to take fragments of different threads and group them together in a ‘quotation set’, building a mini forum centric e-portfolio of interesting ideas (this said, I can always copy and paste to email!)If a forum were like a piece of paper where you could draw things at any point I might want to put some threads on the left of the page (those points that I was interested in) and others on the right of the page (or visa-versa).

I might want to organise the threads spatially, so that the really interesting points might be at the top, or the not so interesting points at the bottom – you might call this ‘reader generated threading!’  When one of my colleagues makes a post, there might be an icon change that indicates that a contribution has been made against a particular point.

I might also be able to save thread (or posting) layout, depending on the assignment or topic that I am currently performing research.  It might be possible to create a ‘thread timeline’ (I have heard rumours that Plurk might do something like this), where you see your own structured representation of one or more forums change over time.  Of course, you might even be able to share your own customised forumscape with other forum users.

An on-line forum is undoubtedly a space where learning can occur.  When we think about how we might further develop the notion of a forum we soon uncover the dimension of control.

Currently, the layout and format of a forum (and what you can ultimately do with it) is ultimately constrained by the design of the forum software and a combination of settings assigned by an administrator.  Allowing forum users to create their own customised view of a forum communication space may allow learners tools to make sense of different threads of communication.  Technology can be then used to enable an end user to formulate a display that most effectively connects new and emerging discussions with existing knowledge.

This display (or forumscape) might also be considered as a mask.  Since many different discussions can occur on a single forum at the same time choosing the right mask may help salient information become visible.

The FirstClass system, with its multiple discussion areas and the ability to allow the end user to change the locations of forum icons on a ‘First Class’ desktop begins to step toward some of these ideas.

Essentially, I would like discussion forums to become more like my email client: I would like them to do different things for me.  I would like forum software to not only allow users to share messages.  I would like forum software to become richer and permit the information they display to the users be more malleable (and manageable).  I know this would certainly be something that would help me to learn!

Acknowlegements: Picture from Flickr taken by stuckincustoms, licenced under creative commons.