Tutoring Matters Webinar Series

Tutoring Matters Webinar Series

Tutoring Matters is sponsored by

Tutoring OnlineTamsin Wisher, Anne Campbell, Cath Brown

Open Universitytamsin.wisher@open.ac.uk, cath.brown@open.ac.uk

Welcome! Today’s seminar starts at 2pm BST You can introduce yourself and ask questions in the Zoom chat or Q&A windows

Tutoring Matters Webinar Series

Webinar Presenters

Ben WalkerHost

Tamsin Wisher

Presenter

Anne CampbellPresenter

Cath BrownPresenter

Tutoring Matters: Tutoring Online at The Open University

Tamsin Wisher, Assistant Director, Associate Lecturer Support and Professional Development; Associate Lecturer in the Faculty of Business and Law

Anne Campbell, Educational developer, Associate Lecturer Support and Professional Development; Associate Lecturer in the Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths

Cath Brown, President OU Students Association, Student in the Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths

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Our mission

• We are open to People, Places,Methods, Ideas

• Education should be open to anyone, any time, any place

• No entrance requirements

• No age restrictions

Our mission is to be open to

Methods

Places

Ideas

People

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The UK’s largest university: we operate on a large scale

The Open University

• More than 2 million students since 1969

• Around 175,000 currently registered students, ages 13 – 93

• 41% of the part-time UK undergraduate market

• 76% of students currently in part-time or full-time work

• Around 25,000 students declare a disability

• 23% students from the 25% most deprived areas in the UK

• About 1 in 3 students without traditional university entry qualifications

• More than 1 in 3 new undergraduates aged < 25

• Around 4,300 part-time tutors (Associate Lecturers)

• Small group model of teaching 20 students: 1 tutor

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Students study part-time or full-time from home (or work, bus, train, prison, submarine…)

Distance learning at the OU

Distance learning: distance teaching

Combination of physical texts and online (some modules fully online)

Teaching material structured around the module website with options for online tutorials or for face-to-face tutorials in a number of modules

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Study based around the module website

Institutional VLE(bespoke Moodle)

All modules have the same standard design

Weekly study planner – instructions for what to do each week

The OU model

of supported

open learningAcademic

Services

Learner Support

and advice

Tutor

Peers

Module

Student

Library

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Tutoring at a distance in the OU

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A day in the life of an Open University tutor

What do our tutors do?

• Early student contact: welcome students, ask them about themselves, offer help if needed (e.g. disability)

• Proactive student contact: at key times during the module, before assignments, at known pinch points, reminders of tutorials, monitor progress

• Correspondence tuition: regular assessment of and for learning with comprehensive feedback and feedforward

• Individual support: answering queries by email, in forums, on the phone, may be pastoral support as well as academic support

• Tutorials, online or face-to-face: develop and deliver optional tutorials to groups, varying in number from a few (<10) to ~100s; design to build knowledge & skills, address threshold concepts, motivate individuals & build community

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Individual support for students

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Some lessons learned

Tutoring at a distance with the OU

• From paper based to blended

• Individual and group tuition

• Realities; Participation not guaranteed; Choice of tool has an impact on involvement; Manage expectations and boundaries; Regular contact; Online identity; Social versus Institutional

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Adobe Connect: integrated with our VLE

Online tutorials at the OU

• Operates at scale:

• Averages 3200 concurrent users, peaks at 5200 concurrent users

• We run around 44,500 online events per year

• Over 31,000 recordings with a view count > 1 million

• Wide range of events from <~10 attending to >350 attending –variety of different types of learning event

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Online tutorials at the OU

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Online tutorials at the OU

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Peer support from the OU Students Association

• Social events

• Groups – protected characteristics

• Forums

• Social media groups

• Peer support service

• Advice & guidance

• Volunteers

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Other Formal & InformalPeer Support

• Module Forums

• "Study buddies"

• Societies and clubs

• Semi-official social media

• Unofficial social media

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Tutor induction, training and development

Professional development and communities of practice

• TutorHome

• AL Essentials and other toolkits

• Reflective practice and review

• Mentoring and peer support

• Programme of professional development

• Monitoring

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Scholarship of teaching & learning

• One scholarship centre per faculty, plus one cross-university

• Regular calls for projects

• Project teams can include central staff, associate lecturers, students

• Recent topics:-

• Benefits of "early start" on modules

• Impact of extensions on success

• Analytics for tracking engagement

• Development of community of learners

• Perceptions of tuition

• Accessibility of tuition

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Useful resources

Taking your teaching online

https://www.open.edu/openlearn/education-development/education/take-your-teaching-online/content-section-overview

The secret life of distance learning students

https://wonkhe.com/blogs/some-students-lives-are-more-secret-than-others/

How to teach online

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/teach-online

OU sector drop-in (Martin Weller)

http://blog.edtechie.net/ou/ou-sector-drop-in-report-and-next-one/

Tutoring Matters Webinar Series

Tutoring Matters Webinar Series

UKAT highlights & upcoming events

Chair Dr Andrew Pye

Sign up at https://learning.ukat.uk/courses/36

Sharing practice through the UKAT Blog

https://www.ukat.uk/blog/

• Recognises professional practice in personal tutoring

• Evidence-based application (e-portfolio)

• Three levels of recognition• Recognised Practitioner in Advising

(RPA)• Recognised Senior Advisor (RSA)• Recognised Leader in Advising (RLA)

• Launches May 2020; currently in pilot with 13 institutions and 68 participants

• Free to UKAT personal members

• Bulk discounts for institutional members

• Demonstrates institutional commitment to personalised learning and student success

UKAT Professional Recognition

Forthcoming Webinars23 April – Supporting Students to Cope with RemoteFika Community

7 May – Advising in Turbulent TimesKaren Sullivan-Vance, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

28 May - Training personal tutors to support the needs of diverse student populationsSean Bridgen, University of Pittsburgh; National Science Foundation

More details and sign-up at https://www.ukat.uk/webinars

Tutoring Matters Webinar Series

See you again soon at our next event: https://www.ukat.uk/webinars/current/