How to be an Online Tutor
Description:... The internet has transformed the way that we find things out, shop, play and communicate with each other. Included in that transformation is the way in which we can learn. Not only does the Internet represent a revolution for the learner, it also represents a sea-change in the way that learning is delivered and supported, and the consequent skills and techniques needed by you - the tutor, trainer, lecturer or teacher. Julia Duggleby's How to Be an Online Tutor has arisen out of her experience as both student and tutor on the South Yorkshire Colleges' Consortium's highly successful LeTTOL (Learning to Teach On-Line) course - http: //www.sheffcol.ac.uk/lettol/index.html. Consequently, she shows great empathy for the subject and for the tutors or trainers who need to develop their skills. The book assumes that you have little in the way of technical expertise, perhaps some experience of the World Wide Web and e-mail, but no more. But it isn't intended as a technical primer, rather as a guide to translating what you already do, in terms of training and facilitating learning, into an online environment, either in the conversion of existing courses or in the creation of new courses. In the process, it explores the nature, benefits and pitfalls of online learning and the technical skills of sourcing materials, planning, designing and testing courses. Despite, or perhaps because of, the use of technology, the online tutor has a very important human role in engaging, reassuring, welcoming and supporting the course members. The book focuses on how to provide a climate in which people can take responsibility for their own learning; how to guide learners through the course, so that they complete it successfully, and how to be a facilitator for learning, leaving the technology and other learners to deliver the content.
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