Strengths and weakness of tutoring in distance university education: workshops with tutors of natural and exact sciences

In distance education, tutorials system are important to guide learning process, through diagnostic, formative or summative evaluation. However, in some cases, tutorials are overrated, and generate isolation and disorientation. To improve tutoring, we did two workshops with tutors in a Costa Rican d...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Calderon Badilla, Yency, Herrero Villareal, Diana, Andrés Jiménez, Carmen
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2017
Country:Costa Rica
Institution:Universidad Estatal a Distancia
Repository:Portal de Revistas UNED
Language:Spanish
OAI Identifier:oai:revistas.investiga.uned.ac.cr:article/1695
Online Access:https://revistas.uned.ac.cr/index.php/cuadernos/article/view/1695
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Tutoring
distance education
academic success
tutors
Tutorías
educación a distancia
éxito académico
tutores
uned
Description
Summary:In distance education, tutorials system are important to guide learning process, through diagnostic, formative or summative evaluation. However, in some cases, tutorials are overrated, and generate isolation and disorientation. To improve tutoring, we did two workshops with tutors in a Costa Rican distance university, and found that traditional and distance tutoring need to be different. Some tutors do not have enough training in orientation and suffer from absenteeism and lack of familiarity with some topics. On the other hand, they tend to use varied motivation strategies. We also recommend the use of other technologies, such as virtual laboratories and Second LifeTM , and strengthening administrative factors.