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.