Driven by technological development and changes in educational paradigm, with the rapid expansion of education that incorporates e-learning, the importance of improvement in the quality of education through learner support activities based on online t...
Driven by technological development and changes in educational paradigm, with the rapid expansion of education that incorporates e-learning, the importance of improvement in the quality of education through learner support activities based on online tutors are being recognized. However, until now, studies on Online tutors have been conducted focusing on the role of online tutors in the e-leaning environment for adults. As a result, studies on the role of online tutors that take into consideration student learning have not been sufficiently conducted. Therefore in this study, with online tutors who assist adults and junior high school students as the study subjects, perception of importance and performance level of their role is examined and differences in perception of role of online tutors based on learning subjects were identified. For the purpose of this study, of domestic educational institutions that conduct e-learning with junior high school level or adult level, 3 institutions with online tutors were selected, and with the online tutors of the 3 institutions as the study subject, their perception of the importance and performance level of their roles were evaluated through a questionnaire.
The results showed that first, of the pedagogical roles of online tutors, as learner facilitator who promotes continuous learner facilitation and motivations inducing activities, the perception of importance of online tutors for such roles who deal with junior high school students whose self directed learning abilities are relatively low was higher than of online tutors for adult learners. second, regardless of the learner, of the roles of online tutors, “social role” was recognized with the highest level of importance. Especially, the online tutor’s role as an interaction facilitator that focuses on interaction between the online tutor and the student was found to have a high level of importance which suggested that in an e-learning environment, the most important role of the online tutor was recognized to be the formation of human familiarity with the learner. Third, in role performance, online tutors for junior high school students played a more pedagogical role whereas online tutors for adult learners play a more administrative role. On the other had, level of social role of online tutors was relatively low. Of the social roles of online tutors, level of performance as a social relationship maker who encourages various learning activities of the learner was low, therefore, it could be concluded that a flexible system design and specific stimulation method that allows performance of various social roles of online tutors was recognized to be insufficient.
The results of this study, by revealing that the role of online tutor and their role recognition may differ based on the learner, may possibly serve as a starting point in which the need for design of online tutor roles or competency development is recognized at the time learning support method is prepared in e-learning.