Robert Rogers
Distance education has been developing by leaps and bounds in recent years. One of the great discussions, in this sense, concerns the role of the distance learning tutor as a determining figure in the process of consolidating an ideal education model.
With technological advances, however, we see on the Internet the opportunity for students of the most varied levels of instruction to have access to any knowledge without requiring the presence of a teacher to do so.
Many people wonder, then, if the presence of the tutor, or distance tutor, is essential given the learning facilities we have nowadays. And I would say one thing about this subject: distance education is growing at an accelerated rate precisely because there is a central figure of an educator behind the entire process: the distance learning tutor.
A tutor’s role in online courses (which are of the most varied types and formats) should be like that of a conductor in an orchestra, where he will observe and organize the entire flow of knowledge, in addition to answering students’ doubts. We can never discard the educational pedagogical part.
For example, imagine a student in doubt about a particular exercise and looking for a solution on an Internet site. The distance tutor, in English tutoring (ติว ภาษา อังกฤษ which is the term in Thai) in this case, has the function of criticizing the student’s source, either positively or negatively, and pointing out and correcting possible errors that may be, in addition to instructing the student to learn in the best possible way if necessary.
Another point that proves to be essential for the good performance of teachers concerns the creation of means and formats that can be easier to transmit certain information or content. This point is directly linked to the functionality and resources of a platform for managing online courses.
An education model can never, in current times, avoid encouraging the engagement and integration of students with the virtual learning environment. In this way, teachers can act in a more direct, objective, and fundamental way for the process as a whole.
