Tutor-student Interaction Research Articles

STUDENT SATISFACTION IN THE CONTEXT OF A POSTGRADUATE PROGRAMME OF THE HELLENIC OPEN UNIVERSITY

The aim of this study is to empirically examine the correlation between student satisfaction from their studies and three important distance learning factors in a blended distance education environment, namely the student-tutor interaction, the performance of the tutor and the course evaluation by the students. The study involved 81 postgraduate students from a modular course of the School of Humanities of the Hellenic Open University (HOU). A questionnaire of 35 closed type questions was used. The majority of the students were satisfied from their studies, from the tutor’s performance and from the communication and interaction with their tutor, while they also provided a positive overall course evaluation. Regarding the course evaluation, they would like the course programme to be better formulated and more clearly communicated. The data analysis yielded a significant, positive correlation between the satisfaction of the students from their studies and all three examined factors. Finally, there was a statistically significant difference on student satisfaction levels among different age groups, a statistically significant difference regarding the number of course modules attended in relation to the evaluation of the tutor's performance and a statistically significant difference regarding the number of Counseling Group Sessions (CGS) attended in relation to student satisfaction.

Blogs: A Tool to Facilitate Reflection and Community of Practice in Sports Coaching?

A reflective approach to practice is consistently espoused as a key tool for understanding and enhancing coach learning and raising the vocational standards of coaches. As such, there is a clear need for practical tools and processes that might facilitate the development and measurement of “appropriate” reflective skills. The aim of this preliminary study was to explore the use of online blogs as a tool to support refection and community of practice in a cohort of undergraduate sports coaching students. Twenty-six students (6 females, 20 males) reflected on their coaching practice via blogs created specifically for refection. Blogs were subjected to category and content analysis to identify the focus of entries and to determine both the emergent reflective quality of posts and the extent to which an online community of practice emerged. Findings revealed that descriptive refection exceeded that of a critical nature, however, bloggers exhibited a positive trajectory toward higher order thinking and blogs were an effective platform for supporting tutor-student interaction. Despite the peer discourse features of blogs, collaborative refection was conspicuous by its absence and an online community of practice did not emerge.

The opinion of teachers about tutorial problem based learning

In 2004 the Faculty of Medicine of Universidad de La Frontera in Chile implemented curricular changes, incorporating small group problem based learning in different carriers. To explore aspects that hamper or facilitate tutorial problem based learning from the perspective of tutors. Six in depth interviews and a focus group with tutors were carried out in 2010 and 2011. Data were analyzed through constant comparisons using the program ATLAS ti, guaranteeing credibility, reliance, validation and transferability. Five hundred and twenty eight (528) significance units were identified and 25 descriptive categories emerged. The categories of tutor motivation, methodological domain, tutor responsibility, tutor critical capacity, disciplinary domain, student participation and tutor-student interaction were emphasized. Three qualitative domains were generated, namely tutor skills, transformation of student roles and institutional commitment. Tutorial teaching is favored by teachers when the institutions train them in the subject, when there is administrative support and an adequate infrastructure and coordination.

The role of the lecturer as tutor: doing what effective tutors do in a large lecture class.

Wood, W. B., & Tanner, K. D. (2012). The role of the lecturer as tutor: doing what effective tutors do in a large lecture class. CBE-Life Sciences Education, 11(1), 3-9. Retrieved from https://dx.doi.org/10.1187%2Fcbe.11-12-0110

Cognitive-operative model of intelligent learning systems behavior

In this paper behavior during the teaching–learning process is modeled by means of a fuzzy cognitive map. The elements used to model such behavior are part of a generic didactic model, which emphasizes the use of cognitive and operative strategies as part of the student–tutor interaction. Examples of possible initial scenarios for the teaching–learning process are developed, along with the results provided by the model.

Web-Based Teaching Tool Incorporating Peer Assessment and Self-Assessment: Example of Aligned Teaching

Our objective was to create an electronic learning tool that incorporates the pedagogic advantages of peer assessment and self-assessment into report-generating skills. The tool was created using Web programming software. It was tested with 12 veterinary students and provided peer-peer and tutor-student interactions that supported learning. The tool is suited for training any professional concerned with the interpretation of images, particularly resident radiologists.

Studying interaction in undergraduate tutorials: results from a small-scale evaluation

This article reports on an observation-based evaluation of student–tutor interaction in first-year undergraduate tutorials. Using a single case analysis, the paper looks at how tutors and students built and maintained relationships through two different though interlinked forms of interaction – storytelling and the use of classroom space for communicative purposes. It argues that interactional factors such as these should be explored alongside other more traditional forms of course evaluation. By explicitly recognising the interactional demands placed on tutors and students, the paper suggests that it will be easier to ensure that tutorials are properly inclusive of the diverse range of students who have access to higher education.

Evaluation of an Intelligent Tutoring System in Pathology: Effects of External Representation on Performance Gains, Metacognition, and Acceptance

ObjectiveDetermine effects of computer-based tutoring on diagnostic performance gains, meta-cognition, and acceptance using two different problem representations. Describe impact of tutoring on spectrum of diagnostic skills required for task performance. Identify key features of student-tutor interaction contributing to learning gains. DesignProspective, between-subjects study, controlled for participant level of training. Resident physicians in two academic pathology programs spent four hours using one of two interfaces which differed mainly in external problem representation. The case-focused representation provided an open-learning environment in which students were free to explore evidence-hypothesis relationships within a case, but could not visualize the entire diagnostic space. The knowledge-focused representation provided an interactive representation of the entire diagnostic space, which more tightly constrained student actions. MeasurementsMetrics included results of pretest, post-test and retention-test for multiple choice and case diagnosis tests, ratios of performance to student reported certainty, results of participant survey, learning curves, and interaction behaviors during tutoring. ResultsStudents had highly significant learning gains after one tutoring session. Learning was retained at one week. There were no differences between the two interfaces in learning gains on post-test or retention test. Only students in the knowledge-focused interface exhibited significant metacognitive gains from pretest to post-test and pretest to retention test. Students rated the knowledge-focused interface significantly higher than the case-focused interface. ConclusionsCognitive tutoring is associated with improved diagnostic performance in a complex medical domain. The effect is retained at one-week post-training. Knowledge-focused external problem representation shows an advantage over case-focused representation for metacognitive effects and user acceptance.

Rethinking task design for the digital age: A framework for language teaching and learning in a synchronous online environment

This article discusses a framework for the development of tasks in a synchronous online environment used for language learning and teaching. It shows how a theoretical approach based on second language acquisition (SLA) principles, sociocultural and constructivist theories, and concepts taken from research on multimodality and new literacies, can influence the design and implementation of tasks for computer-mediated communication (CMC). The findings are based on a study conducted at the Open University, a study which examined all three levels of theory, design and implementation. The paper first presents the underlying theories in more detail before examining how these theories are translated into the design of tasks for language tutorials via an audio-graphic conferencing tool. Finally it looks at how the design was implemented in practice by focusing on a number of issues such as student–student and student–tutor interaction, feedback, use of multimodal tools, and the differences between teaching face-to-face and online.

Implementation of Problem-based Learning in a Final Semester Comprehensive Nursing Course

Problem-based learning is a technique that is becoming increasingly popular in nursing educators in nursing education settings. In the 1980s, Knox and Mogan conducted classic studies on teacher effectiveness as rated by student nurses, graduate nurses, and faculty. They determined that nursing competence and teaching ability were highly rated by both students and faculty to "best" educators. Multiple studies utilizing problem-based teaching styles have revealed that students are highly satisfied with the results of certain characteristics, which promote student learning: self-directed learning, tutor-student interaction, and group learning. This article provides a review of the literature on problem-based learning in nursing education and specifically reviews articles utilizing the Mogan and Knox Nursing Clinical Teacher Effectiveness Inventory. Problems experienced in utilization of problem-based learning are also described.

Interactive advanced-communication multistation system for microsurgical training.

The use of cameras in microscopes is not in itself new; however, this paper describes a new use of microscope-mounted cameras in conjunction with an audio intercom system for training in microsurgical techniques. The application of new technology may enhance traditional microsurgical training. Our objective was to compare the opinions of students attending training courses before and implementation of an interactive training system. This qualitative, descriptive study analyzed the results of end-of-course satisfaction surveys carried out among 400 students (physicians and veterinarians), 240 before and 160 after implementation of the system. Compared to the conventional system used previously at the Minimally Invasive Surgery Center and still in use elsewhere, most students felt that monitoring, training, and troubleshooting were both easier and more thorough using the multistation system. The "multistation system" allows real-time, one-to-one, tutor-student interaction, obviating the need for the tutor to move from student to student, and allowing him to monitor activity at the same working magnification as the student. As a result, the level of student satisfaction has improved.

The Use of Flexible Learning Resources for Geographically Distributed Rural Students

The focus of this paper is to describe and explain the evolution of teaching resources and tuition on the Rural Development Studies undergraduate degree programme at the UHI Millennium Institute. This degree was selected for development in a flexible style of delivery due to the curriculum contents and its delivery to a very scattered student population over a wide rural area. The degree has a multi-disciplinary approach with a variety of tuition styles, assessment mechanisms, and student support that have been tutored in both face-to-face and remote delivery, and this illustrates well the changing nature of information and communications technologies (ICTs) in student-tutor interaction. Increasing emphasis is on the simplicity of the application of new technologies to facilitate interactivity between students and tutors but, most importantly, on improving the optimum mixture of the different teaching media used. The emphasis is on consistency and quality in distributed learning to encourage the sustainable delivery of formal education in rural and remote areas where it is not normally readily available. Current course research is investigating the sense of online community identity exhibited by groups of students on different levels, different study modules, and using different blends of resources for tutor-student-student communication.

A Study on The Effect of Communication And Monitoring Tools In Web-Based Tutoring

Among Web-based education activities, tutoring is considered to be very efficient. If many studies focus on learner's role, performance, andx satisfaction, many questions remain about the effect of the media communication on tutor-student interaction. We report on a study comparing tutor students' interactions on a practical work session. Students and tutor are connected via audio-only or audio-video links, with or without sharing visual information. Results show that tutors shift the contents of dialogue with students from procedural to contextual sentences, in order to the different media settings.

Evaluating the use of developmental action inquiry in constructing a problem-based learning curriculum for pre-registration nursing education in Hong Kong: a student perspective.

Developmental action inquiry (DAI) was chosen as the change strategy for introducing problem-based learning (PBL) in a pre-registration nursing programme. The central task was to transform the tutor and student participants to become collaborators in this curriculum reconstruction project. This paper expounds the way in which the action inquiry was constructed and in light of students' feedback analysis, the way in which PBL has made a difference in student learning was evaluated. Taking into consideration the change context and different group characteristics, the DAI was conducted in terms of two dynamically interlinked circles that formed partnerships between PBL core group members and tutors, and between tutors and students in coconstructing knowledge useful for PBL curriculum development. The findings of the student evaluation questionnaire reveal that the majority of students felt PBL made a difference to their expectations of self, the student group and the teacher role in creating a facilitative environment to enhance learning. However, there was a significant difference among individual student group responses. The students' positive and negative PBL experience in self-learning, tutor-student interaction, and group-learning were identified as crucial factors contributing to these group variations. The evaluation findings show that a paradigm shift from teacher-centred to student-centred learning, from valuing self-learning to co-operative group-learning, and from theory-based to practice-based learning occurred among the students. DAI was found to be an effective change strategy for transforming participants to become collaborators in searching for useful knowledge and coconstructing the PBL learning context.

Constructing discussion tasks in university tutorials: shifting dynamics and identities

This article examines task-setting sequences in university tutorial sessions. Classes from three higher education institutions were audio- and video-recorded. The resulting data, which included both tutor-led and peer group discussions, were transcribed and analysed using conversation analysis (CA). A number of themes emerged from our analysis. First, we found that the tutor's opening turns routinely followed a three-part sequence, the interpersonal and metadiscursive functions of which, we argue, are crucial components in the educative process. Second, we found that students displayed discursively their reluctance to engage in discussion activities and a resistance towards academic or intellectual identities. In contrast to findings from previous studies of tutor—student interaction, we found that interactional power was negotiated in complex and contradictory ways. This, in turn, may embody a range of complex social functions including attention to the `face' concerns of the group, category membership and orientation to broader cultural trends.

SENSITIVITY AND CHALLENGE IN UNIVERSITY MATHEMATICS TUTORIAL TEACHING

Data from observations of first year university mathematics tutorials were analyzed to elicit characteristics of teaching using a tool, the teaching triad, developed in earlier research. Analysis explored elements of 'sensitivity to students' and 'mathem- atical challenge' in the observed teaching. Initial analyses suggested teaching to consist mainly of tutor exposition and closed questions embodying little challenge for the student. More finely grained analyses provided insights into pedagogic processes relating teaching actions, processes and strategies and their learning outcomes, and providing alternative perspectives on sensitivity and challenge. The research, distinctively, shows approaches to analyzing teaching that start to address tutor-student interactions related to cognitive construction of mathematics (here abstract algebra) by undergraduates within the social dimensions of the tutorial setting.

Winning and Losing: a case study of university tutor-student teacher interaction during a school-based practicum

Winning and Losing: a case study of university tutor-student teacher interaction during a school-based practicum

Winning and Losing: A case study of university tutor-student teacher interaction during a school-based practicum

Using a case study this paper analyses in some detail the ways in which both a university based subject tutor's and student teacher's implicit theories manifest themselves in the heat of the conversational moment. It illustrates how easy it is for tutor and student to 'get across each other' or to pick up messages that may or may not be intentionally communicated, and to adopt a stance that is in the last analysis self-preservative rather than developmental. The tutors' art, and their responsibility, is to present their enquiries and comments in such a way that the chances of this 'closing down' are minimised; and to be adept at repairing the relationship when it does go wrong. In defensive mode, both participants in the case study are convinced of their own rightness, take their judgements about each other as literal truth, and are quite unable to reflect on their contributions to the situation. The paper ends with some suggestions for avoiding such an impasse in similar situations.

Winning and Losing: a case study of university tutor-student teacher interaction during a school-based practicum

Winning and Losing: a case study of university tutor-student teacher interaction during a school-based practicum

Using Habermas to Evaluate Two Approaches to Negotiated Assessment

Recent discussions about learning and teaching have been strongly influenced by phenomenographic theories which focus on students' experience of learning. This theoretical orientation underestimates the importance of the tutor/student relationship. Habermas's theory of communicative action provides a model of student-tutor interaction which holds out the prospect of an 'emancipatory' adult education. By comparing two courses, both aimed at HE staff and both using forms of negotiated assessment, this paper examines the possibility of approaching the Habermassian 'ideal speech situation'. The course participants' experience of negotiated assessment is evaluated against the declared philosophy of the tutors. Although many of the ideals of the tutors found confirmation in the experience of the participants, the paper explores the factors which influenced the greater success achieved by one of the courses in approaching the Habermassian ideal than the other.