Online Teaching Skills of a Good Tutor
Online learning is fast becoming the preferred choice in most of the adult learning scenarios and E.S.L online teaching has increased in popularity thanks to the likes of Skype and other online learning centers.
The preferred choice by many busy people these days the online learning has developed into a highly interactive learning environment.
Even though the online learning environments have taken away the traditional role of the teacher from an information giver to a facilitator, it has at no point undermined the importance of a teacher in its learning activities.
The success behind online courses depends on few key factors. Some of these factors are,
Level of interactivity
Amount of generated interest
Ability to develop motivation Style of delivering the content
Suitability of the learning environment to the learning situation
Among the important points towards a successful online learning environment, teachers play a major role in the first three factors of the above list. Therefore, having ‘good’ online tutors will play a pivotal role in this type of learning.
For many tutors, changing from the traditional teaching mode to online mode is a difficult task. Thus, it needs certain amount of getting used to and discovering ones potential in carrying out this new role. It will require the tutor to build certain skills
Let’s have a look at some of these skills as well as abilities that need to be developed by a ‘good’ online tutor.
1. Good knowledge regarding the learning environment
Before embarking on an online teaching job, the tutors should be able to navigate through the learning management system and should have a basic idea about how to interact with the students, ways to post comments and suggestions, how to do assessments, viewing the discussions…etc.
It is also imperative that a tutor should also be backed up by good technical support in which they are able to contact as and when the necessity arise.
2. Sound computer skills
The tutors with better computer handling skills will perform better in online environments due to various reasons.
These reasons may vary from quick response and feedbacks, use of other facilitating tools, make use of alternatives, fast navigation through the learning environment…etc. In general, if the tutor can type fast, it will invariably make the tutor more effective in the online environment.
3. Good communication skills
The interaction in an online environment is considered vital for its success. Therefore, teachers should be able to communicate with the students in a professional, assertive, guiding as well as in a friendly manner. In order to fulfill all these requirements, teachers need to have a good vocabulary as well as the ability to mentor students rather than forcing them to do certain things.
4. Good knowledge in the subject matter
In certain instances, some of the course might not require the teachers to be experts. But, for an online course to be successful, the tutors have to provide feedback on the postings made by the students as well as assignments.
They should be able to grasp important points related to the subject matter within the discussions and should be able to guide the students in achieving the intended outcomes. Thus, in order to fulfill all these requirements, the teachers in most instances should have some knowledge on the subject that they teach.
5. Dedication and motivation
Finally, the teachers must be able to dedicate time for the tutoring purpose and should respond quickly to the queries made by the students.
It may require the tutor to be logged in daily to the online environment and checking or updating your bio or even spending few hours navigating through the student discussions.
Unless the tutors are motivated and dedicated, they will not be able to perform this task as it can be easily be distractible as well as time consuming.
Thus, by developing the above mentioned skills and practices, the online tutor will be able to be a ‘good tutor’ rather than just another