McDonell, Jennifer and Parkes, Mitchell and Tynan, Belinda (2010) Virtual tutor support using SMARTHINKING: preliminary findings. In: ASCILITE 2010: 27th Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education: Curriculum, Technology and Transformation for an Unknown Future, 5-8 Dec 2010, Sydney, Australia.
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Official URL: http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/sydney10/procs/McDonell-full.pdf
Abstract
The University of New England (UNE) has been using a virtual tutoring service called SMARTHINKING since 2007. UNE explored the use of a 'virtual tutor service' to support distance education students in their academic development; to reduce attrition; and to provide academic support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to all students with access to a computer irrespective of geographical location. A cascading selection of units across different disciplinary areas and cohorts of students were targeted for the virtual tutorial support service over 6 semesters to provide rich data. A survey consisting of 20 questions was developed and implemented at the end of each teaching period. Preliminary analysis of data indicates that SMARTHINKING appears to be making a difference to student learning outcomes. However, while uptake tends to be low in all cohorts but where students select to use the service they are positive about its effects.
| Item Type: | Conference or Workshop Item (Commonwealth Reporting Category E) (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | Authors retain copyright. Copyright © 2010 Jennifer McDonell, Mitchell Parkes,Belinda Tynan. The authors assign to ascilite and educational non-profit institutions, a non-exclusive licence to use this document for personal use and in courses of instruction, provided that the article is used in full and this copyright statement is reproduced. The author(s) also grant a non-exclusive licence to ascilite to publish this document on the ascilite Web site and in other formats for the Proceedings ascilite Sydney 2010. Any other use is prohibited without the express permission of the author(s). |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | virtual tutor support, online learning, technology |
| Fields of Research (FOR2008): | 13 Education > 1301 Education Systems > 130103 Higher Education |
| Subjects: | UNSPECIFIED |
| Socio-Economic Objective (SEO2008): | C Society > 93 Education and Training > 9302 Teaching and Instruction > 930203 Teaching and Instruction Technologies |
| ID Code: | 21145 |
| Deposited By: | |
| Deposited On: | 17 May 2012 11:57 |
| Last Modified: | 17 May 2012 14:38 |
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