Interview with a tutor II

Interview to a star tutor
Guadalupe Suárez
Faculty of Education
Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú

Question: From all the tasks that you perform as a tutor, which one has given you more satisfactions?

Answer: There are several of them, but the most important is the academic assistance and affective support given to the participants who have difficulties with the virtual campus tools.

In many cases, the age or personal limitations hinder many participants to familiarize themselves with the use of the virtual resources and this, especially in the first cycle of any distance program, is an enormous demotivating factor. By helping them with this kind of problems, I have gained a lot of satisfaction.

I must also mention the affective support that as a tutor I have been able to give to several participants, only by paying attention to their concerns. I have encouraged them to use better and more effective learning strategies, to organize their time better, and not to decay in their efforts. The fact that at the end of the study process, the students discover that the e-mail isn’t the cold and distant medium that they imagined, and that it is an enriching space of interchange, is particularly valuable to me.

Question: Which are the main characteristics of the ideal tutor?

Answer: In an academic level, I would mention:
- An adequate knowledge of the contents of the course, maybe not at the expert level, but at an advanced one.
- Excellent command of the virtual learning tools.
- Knowledge of the existing learning styles and their implications.
- Didactic skills to use different methodology strategies according to the students’ needs that he/she may detect.
- Experience as a teacher and as a student in distance courses.

Among a tutor’s attitudes, I would point out:
- Dynamism, “proactivity”.
- Personal, intrinsic motivation.
- Empathy.

Other qualities:
- Communicative skills, especially writing skills.
- Time availability and organizational skills.

Question: In your opinion, what type of problems cannot be handled by a tutor?

Answer: I wouldn’t say they are impossible to handle, but administrative problems are always difficult for a tutor. I am thinking of payment control, procedures for getting certain documents, etc.
Besides, sometimes the participants ask too specific questions about the contents of the course, that the tutor can’t manage.

Question: How important is the intercultural aspect in your tutorial work?

Answer: This is a factor of vital importance. Besides a learning style, some experience in the course topic, and a certain level of ability in different areas, each participant brings with him a cultural seal, a particular vision of the world, and an understanding of his position in this particular learning context, and of how the interrelations tutor-student and student-student should be. If the tutor is not conscious of this, his performance becomes mechanized, and loses quality.

The interaction spaces offered by the virtual platform are of great value. Among other things, they help us identify the intercultural potentiality of the students, capture their perspectives, interpret their attitudes, and be more tuned in to their forms of expression and interaction.

Lima, July 2006.

Interview with a tutor I

“I like it when I get the feeling that participants really use my tips”

She loves busy chats as well as hand-written love letters. She lives in Vienna and would like to show the city to her former e-students, but she would also like to travel around the world and visit them in their countries. Julia Jäger revealed her work experience as an e-learning tutor while sharing some of her personal views and projects in an e-interview with Carmen Macavei.

1. Have the learning patterns changed compared to ten years ago and if yes, how?

I don’t think so. I think there are more different tools to convey learning, but the natural learning patterns for all learners won’t change too much, I guess. Only their ability to use different ways of learning.

2. Your graduation thesis focused on the interaction and communication in tele-learning. Please make a short comparison between tele-learning and e-learning in terms of interaction intensity.

Difficult question, since tele-learning is an “old” term (in the US they used “tele” only when mentioning video presence) so, I think this is more a term of labeling a certain way of distributing learning content.

Apart from that eLearning should be interactive and that doesn’t mean “reading on the computer screen”, but multi-media examples and discussing with other learners and tutors.

3. Which part of your work as an e-learning tutor is the one you hate the most? Which one is the most rewarding?

I don’t like tracking – writing down what the participants have done or running after participants who didn’t submit on time. But then again, I like it when I get the feeling that participants really use my tips and comments and develop their projects. I love busy chats.

4. Could you refer to an intercultural experience occurred within your work that was particularly special for you?

Many. One was about “receiving a star”. This is a method of rewarding young schoolkids in Austria and Germany. They get a “star” in their booklet. One of my participants mentioned that (he is from Germany) and the others (from Africa and Asia) didn’t know about it. This was a nice discussion about cultural background. (Stars were handed out after that for all. ;-)

5. E-mails or letters? Meetings or virtual meeting?

Depends on the context. For work: Mostly emails and face to face meetings (sometimes skype-meetings) For private issues: Is there anything better than reading a hand-written love letter? (Come on guys, think of your loved ones!)

6. Is the Internet eventually an alienating medium?

I quite disagree. With weblogs, Wikis and ePortfolios, I think it gets personalized even more. The internet is a medium to use for different purposes and I think some of them are quite nice for individual communication and getting to know other people.

7. How do you see the future of e-learning in 10 years from now on?

Is this a job-interview? ;-)

I hope to develop my eLearning competences even more, but at the same work with people face to face, doing mediation in conflicts for example.

On a private side, I hope to start a family and live in a nice place.

8. Where would you organize the f2f "class reunion" with your former e-students and why there?

This is an awful question, I have got so many former e-students and all come from so interesting countries (Cambodia, Mongolia, Costa Rica, Namibia, and a lot more come to mind). I would love to do a world-trip and visit all of them, because I love traveling, but at the same time would invite them all to come to Vienna to show them my city.