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Introduction
Tutoring is defined as providing a learner with supplemental, additional,
or remedial instruction. Traditionally, it is delivered in a person
to person communications between an expert and a learner.
At most institutions, tutoring services tend to be focused on the
acquisition of skills or knowledge associated with a course or discipline
rather than a program. In part, this is due to the expense and difficulty
in scaling tutoring services across the many courses found within
a program. Organizationally, it is not unusual for educational institutions
to concentrate tutoring services around basic skill courses within
some kind of a learning resource center.
Communication technologies associated with distance learning make
the translating of traditional tutoring services into the online
environment a relatively straightforward process. However, the cost
of the underlying technologies and increasing pressures for institutions
to be accountable in terms of program effectiveness and efficiency
suggest that 'second' generation tutoring services need to be developed.
Second generation learning support services need to be scalable
and be more demonstrably capable of increasing a student's likelihood
of program completion.
History
The Personal Computer Revolution
In the 1980's, the personal computing revolution witnessed the
widespread development of various forms of computer mediated instruction
that provided tutoring in a variety of formats. These included programs
designed to provide students with supplemental learning activities
associated with drill and practice, subject based tutorials, and
simulations. For the most part, these forms of tutoring tended to
be individual learning activities.
The Internet Revolution
The emergence of the Internet introduced a rich communication environment
to education. This environment includes communication vehicles such
as email, listservs, chatrooms, bulletin boards, and instant messaging.
Listservs began to create global learning communities by linking
people with common interests together via shared email. Web based
course management software contributed to the emergence of similar
communities within a distance learning course by employing several
communication technologies.
However, the proliferation of distance learning courses triggered
widespread concern over the ability of educational institutions
to adequately support distance learners with both student and academic
support services. Today, institutions are taking steps toward adapting
these services to the web environment. Online tutoring has emerged
employing a variety of web communication technologies. At present,
the models currently employed are based on traditional tutoring
methods that are not easy to scale.
The Portal
One of the most recent products in the Internet Revolution is the
portal, software that is capable of integrating a variety of standalone
software and hardware systems. Users are presented with a single
front-end interface to many information systems. Whether the portal
becomes a revolution or not remains to be seen. However, as portals
begin to integrate disparate information systems (a technology issue),
they are also integrating services (an organizational issue). The
challenge for many institutions will be to determine whether or
not current methods for delivering services make optimum use of
the technology and to provide the best quality of service possible.
The portal represents an opportunity to more effectively integrate
computer based tutorials and a rich communications environment into
an institution's tutoring efforts. It also presents an opportunity
to transition from course and discipline based tutoring strategies
to one that is more program based. A program based strategy suggests
that the sum of instruction within a curriculum and learning support
activities are well integrated and more capable of insuring that
students acquire the requisite skills and knowledge for program
completion.
Opportunities
Institution
The web based environment represents an opportunity for an institution
to deliver a broad range of learning support services designed to
assist students in achieving their educational goal – program
completion. Tutoring services could be delivered in a manner that
more effectively addresses critical student skill and knowledge
gaps. They could also be managed in a manner that is more scalable
– available on demand.
It is suggested that the technologies associated with distance
learning provides an opportunity to refine the definition of tutoring
so that it is more outcome oriented: providing additional, remedial,
or supplemental instruction to increase the likelihood of student
success in an academic program.
Faculty, Staff and Students
If one looks beyond the tutoring centers on campus, one is likely
to find that faculty and staff are also engaged in providing some
form of tutoring to assist and guide students through their academic
programs. Because of cost, it is difficult to scale these services.
Students also are engaged in a variety of activities to tutor themselves
or one another. However, these efforts tend to be informal and not
well organized and lack quality controls.
The web-based distance learning environment presents an opportunity
to more formally integrate these sources of tutoring into an institution's
overall tutoring efforts through integration of information sources
and communication channels among faculty, staff, and students.
In this environment, one possible strategy for the institution
is the strategic use of students and technology as first responders
to learning assistance needs. An effectively designed web environment
creates an opportunity to mobilize students into learning communities,
study groups, and tutoring/mentoring relationships. This environment
also creates an opportunity to bring together an assortment of web-based
computer mediated instruction as part of this first responder strategy.
Faculty and staff are positioned as a second tier of responders
to learning assistance needs. In essence, faculty and staff could
be repositioned to manage learning assistance and deliver more complex
types of learning assistance.
Challenges
There exist two major challenges to the evolution of tutoring into
a more complex and comprehensive learning support system. One is
technological in nature, the other is organizational.
The technological challenge is associated with the high cost of
bringing the requisite technologies to bear to provide learning
support. A well designed student information system, portal interface,
and course management software are important components of a robust
learning support system. Because of the costs involved, it makes
little sense to limit use of the system to distance learners. Instead,
the system must be designed to service all students and services
need to be re-evaluated to insure that they are scalable.
The organizational challenge involves reorienting organizational
units to think about the delivery of learning assistance services
from the perspective of the student and the student's educational
objective. It is suggested that the scope of supplemental instruction
needs to be expanded to: include a broader range of skills and knowledge
than found in individual courses and to provide around the clock
services. It is further suggested that services need to be integrated
to: create a seamless web of services that make organizational structures
transparent to the student and that students themselves are strategically
integrated into an institution's overall learning assistance efforts.
Issues
- Labor
Roles of faculty and staff are embedded in job descriptions that
were designed in a different educational setting. There may be
a need to revisit these if any implementation of technology is
intended to transform the nature of any service.
- Pedagogic
Pedagogic theory and practice has tended to evolve around course
based learning. There is a need to develop effective learning
support models around more comprehensive program based efforts.
There is a need to formally recognize and manage learning requirements
that are not explicitly defined by existing curricula.
- Organizational
Within every educational institution one will find organizational
cultures with an embedded set of policies, practices and beliefs
about the services that they provide. Rather than simply transferring
these to the online environment, the organization will need to
determine whether or not these services need to be transformed.
- Technology
Because of the cost involved, acquisition of technology should
be based not so much on current needs and practices, but a vision
of where the institution needs to be in the future.
About the Author
Michael Tagawa is currently the dean of Health/Legal Education,
Library and Learning Resources, and Technology Services at Kapi`olani
Community College. He has been there for over 20 years serving as
a professor of geography, department chair, Faculty Senate Chair,
and academic dean. Michael received his Masters Degree from the
University of Hawai`i at Manoa.
Michael was an American Council on Education Fellow where he was
first introduced to the administrative challenges of distance learning.
He has been actively involved in instructional applications of technology
and developed the college's first Computing Across the Curriculum
Plan. He is currently a partner in a FIPSE LAAP grant with WCET
focused on the development of online student support services.
References
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Courage, M.M., and Godbey, K.L. (1992). "Student Retention:
Policies and Services to Enhance Persistence to Graduation.
Nurse Educator, 17(2), 29-32.
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Jeffreys, M.R. (2001). "Evaluating Enrichment Program
Study Groups: Academic Outcomes, Psychological Outcomes, and
Variables Influencing Retention." Nurse Educator, 26(3),
142-149.
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