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Writing this after our group's really engaging Elluminate discussion on Thursday evening.

An eye-opening activity and discussion for me, as tutorials and tutoring are entirely separate from materials production in my current role. Given his results, I think Richardson's optimistic tone in his conclusions is not misplaced. As Lynn points out so incisively and amusingly in her blog, Richardson's carelessness with assumptions and language sometimes undermines his arguments (as in his seemingly stereotypical view of arts students and their 'typical' ICT skills), but on the whole his results are reason to be confident.

Certainly he enjoins academic staff to be confident in embracing online tutorials. What is missing is an indication of how academic staff can assure themselves of a successful outcome. Okay, we're inspired by your optimism, John. Perhaps you'd be good enough to show us how to do it for ourselves?

This criticism may be unfair of a work of analysis, but it is a criticism Richardson invites with his rhetoric:

[D]epartments responsible for humanities programmes in distance education can feel confident about exploring the future use of online forms of tutorial support, with the proviso that students and tutors need to be given appropriate guidance and training in the new forms of communication that this entails' (Richardson, 2009, p.82).

On reading this I thought instantly of a course team I'm working with, thought I'd send them the article, thought I'd better check the article again for useful pointers, and I drew a blank. So, John, you going to tell us then, or what? Or maybe tell us where we can find someone else who can show us how it's done? Please.

Unfortunately, Richardson gives us no guidance or even a reference. Like his carelessness with language elsewhere, this omission somewhat dulls the shine on his otherwise justifiable optimism. Unfortunately, that is, for my course team. But then Dave reminded me of other reasons to be cheerful during our Elluminate session. What's missing from Richardson is what the learning designer must (learn to) provide, working, as Dave put it, as a middle-(wo)man between the academic specialists on one side, and the tutor/trainer/learner/client on the other.

This linkage is missing in my current role, and so the discussion on Thursday between Dave, Giulia and Alessia was fascinating, particularly the scope for tutors to be involved in developing learning materials, rather than have to make the best of a set of inflexible, generic pre-packaged stuff. This potential was revealed already in Block 1, in the responsiveness of Canadian educational radio broadcasters to listerners' (teachers' and students') submissions.