Some interesting comments made by Richardson, just to pick a few:
Page 73: “These tutors received online briefing and training activities and contributed to their own closed online support forum”.
As a teacher myself I always try to learn from my students as well. If they haven’t achieved my specific learning outcomes I want to know why and eventually adapt my strategy. This is then a learning process for me. However, my students expect expertise of me. They expect me to be the expert on the subject. As an online student I expect my tutor to be an expert as well; maybe not on the subject, but certainly with the technologies we are supposed to learn with.
Page 82: “Their explanations for their choices suggest that the two groups differed in their attitudes to new technology and perhaps also in their levels of electronic literacy.”
That is an interesting conclusion or comment by the author. Noticing differences between students should be one of many elements which have to be taken into account when one teaches. However, participating in an online environment acquires certain basic computer skills. In the OU courses participating in various forums is a skill and I would certainly mention this as a condition in order to participate in online environments. It might avoid disappointment.
At page 83 Richardson quites rice et al. (2007): “Price et al. also argued that many students come to online tuition with inappropriate expectations and would benefit from supervised experience of
an online tutoring environment.“
Interesting to know what the expectations were....as Paul Coulthart mentioned in his Blog as well.
Bearing in mind what I said earlier about the role of rhetoric in reports of educational research, do you find my conclusion – that institutions can feel confident about exploring the use of online forms of tutorial support – a convincing one? I’m not sure. It is based solely on two courses and even differentiated ones (A300 & A103). To make a conclusion with a solid statement like the author made I would have also liked to see the opinions of tutors: have they experienced enough support amongst each other, could they solve all problems they encountered, what would they want to do better, did they fail on specific procedures etc. In my opinion interaction between student and tutor is a key element in teaching whether it’s face to face or online. I also would have liked to see results from other courses as well. It would have been interesting to measure results from previous research or previous courses (the same ones) as well. Is there a development in the results? Therefore I don’t find the conclusion a convincing one; I would have liked to see more results.
How do the accounts given in these two papers fit with your own experience of online tutorial support in H800? This is my first experience with OU and so far I am very impressed by the quality in general. It is certainly an intellectual challenge for me and I feel challenged as well. Participating in the latest developments of technology is exciting (Compendium LD, Elluminate) and researching the net and use its latest tools (Delicious etc) shows a connection with the latest online developments. The course is in my opinion well structured. There is a obvious guidance for me as a learner and the learning outcomes are very well described and very transparent. I participated on purpose in an online environment and so far I’m not disappointed.
Reading Richardson (2009)
Some interesting comments made by Richardson, just to pick a few:
Page 73: “These tutors received online briefing and training activities and contributed to their own closed online support forum”.
As a teacher myself I always try to learn from my students as well. If they haven’t achieved my specific learning outcomes I want to know why and eventually adapt my strategy. This is then a learning process for me. However, my students expect expertise of me. They expect me to be the expert on the subject. As an online student I expect my tutor to be an expert as well; maybe not on the subject, but certainly with the technologies we are supposed to learn with.
Page 82: “Their explanations for their choices suggest that the two groups differed in their attitudes to new technology and perhaps also in their levels of electronic literacy.”
That is an interesting conclusion or comment by the author. Noticing differences between students should be one of many elements which have to be taken into account when one teaches. However, participating in an online environment acquires certain basic computer skills. In the OU courses participating in various forums is a skill and I would certainly mention this as a condition in order to participate in online environments. It might avoid disappointment.
At page 83 Richardson quites rice et al. (2007): “Price et al. also argued that many students come to online tuition with inappropriate expectations and would benefit from supervised experience of
an online tutoring environment.“
Interesting to know what the expectations were....as Paul Coulthart mentioned in his Blog as well.
http://www.paulcoulthard.co.uk/blog/
Bearing in mind what I said earlier about the role of rhetoric in reports of educational research, do you find my conclusion – that institutions can feel confident about exploring the use of online forms of tutorial support – a convincing one?
I’m not sure. It is based solely on two courses and even differentiated ones (A300 & A103). To make a conclusion with a solid statement like the author made I would have also liked to see the opinions of tutors: have they experienced enough support amongst each other, could they solve all problems they encountered, what would they want to do better, did they fail on specific procedures etc. In my opinion interaction between student and tutor is a key element in teaching whether it’s face to face or online. I also would have liked to see results from other courses as well. It would have been interesting to measure results from previous research or previous courses (the same ones) as well. Is there a development in the results? Therefore I don’t find the conclusion a convincing one; I would have liked to see more results.
How do the accounts given in these two papers fit with your own experience of online tutorial support in H800?
This is my first experience with OU and so far I am very impressed by the quality in general. It is certainly an intellectual challenge for me and I feel challenged as well. Participating in the latest developments of technology is exciting (Compendium LD, Elluminate) and researching the net and use its latest tools (Delicious etc) shows a connection with the latest online developments. The course is in my opinion well structured. There is a obvious guidance for me as a learner and the learning outcomes are very well described and very transparent. I participated on purpose in an online environment and so far I’m not disappointed.