Qualities of an e-tutor

What qualities should you be looking for in an e-tutor? Hywel Thomas helps to co-ordinate the e-tutoring service for the CeLP programme provided by the Training Foundation, and he’s come up with the four Ps: “The e-tutor needs to be positive: to build rapport, generate enthusiasm, maintain interest and help when the going gets tough; they must be proactive: to make things happen, be a catalyst (if necessary) to help learners get going on a course, to recognise when action needs to be taken and take it; they must also be patient: to understand the needs of each learner as well as the group and to adapt to their timeframes as far as possible; they also need to be persistent: to keep at things, stop learners from drifting away, and deal with any technical or other problems.”

Julie Linn is e-Learning Manager for the Training Foundation and a highly experienced trainer of e-tutors: “The effective e-tutor needs many, many qualities, not least intuition, initiative and assertiveness. A tutor needs to have the ability to assess student needs by picking up on hints and reading between the lines. Things can go pear-shaped very suddenly – one minute everything is fine and the next minute a student could be ranting and raving! The thing is, people tend to put off putting in writing any minor problems – it's the major or most annoying ones that are documented, so by the time the student hints at a problem they could already be at the end of their tether! A good tutor will fix problems before they even arise, and they'll always be at least one step ahead to provide whatever the student will need next.”

A day in the life of an e-tutor – Niki Kearns

Niki started out as a teacher and is currently a part-time FE lecturer, which she combines with her role as e-tutor for the Training Foundation.

A typical day for me starts with the school run, followed closely by a quick tidy up and vacuum round the house. A cup of coffee (and cake) and then emails, emails, emails.... most communication is via email and making sure your inbox is managed is probably top priority.

Contributing to student forums, marking assessments and posting notices takes up a good chunk of time and there will usually be a scheduled chat session. I follow this routine again in the early evening and do any research or follow up that’s required Depending on the number of groups you have to work with (one of our groups is typically 6-8 students) will dictate how long all this actually takes, but with one group that’s about 2-3 hours a day.

Of course, only the chat session is scheduled, so being an e- tutor is very flexible. I can do this work anytime and anywhere. In fact recently I used a high speed phone card with my laptop to catch up with emails whilst in a caravan in remote west Wales; the group were unaware of my location and work went on as usual.