The impact of VLEs on the roles of tutor and students
When applying these theories to the design of your course in a VLE, it will certainly have an impact on you, the tutor, and the style of your teaching. Using a VLE will provide you with an opportunity to think about how you teach and how you facilitate your students to learn. You will probably find that you will become more of a guide for students as they become more independent learners. Since you are providing activities and materials for students to use online, the students will usually take more charge of their learning at a time and place convenient for them but simultaneously will look to you for advice and guidance especially in the early stages of the course. You will also find yourself working more in a team with support staff from the Library, IT and other tutors. This can be very exciting but it can also be rather challenging to let go of the comfortable and the familiar.
Goodyear (2002) has developed a number of indicators that show how the tutor and student roles might be expected to change when moving into an online environment, for example, a VLE. These roles include:
Changing tutor roles
From oracle and lecturer [tutor] to consultant, guide and resource provider;
Teachers become expert questioners rather than providers of answers;
Teachers become designers of learning student experiences rather than just providers of content;
Teachers provide only the initial structure to student work, encouraging increasing self-direction;
Teacher presents multiple perspectives on topics, emphasising the salient points;
From a solitary teacher to a member of a learning team (reduces isolation sometimes experienced by teachers);
From total control of the teaching environment to sharing with the student as fellow learner;
More emphasis on sensitivity to learning styles;
Teacher-learner power structures erode.
Changing student roles
From passive receptacles for hand-me-down knowledge to constructors of their own knowledge;
Students move from memorising facts towards solving problems;
Students view topics from multiple perspectives;
Students devise their own questions and search for their own answers;
Students work as group members on more collaborative/co-operative assignments: group interaction significantly increased;
Increased multi-cultural awareness;
Students work towards fluency with the same tools as professionals in their field;
Increased emphasis on students as autonomous, independent, self-motivated managers of their own learning;
Discussion of students' work in the classroom;
There is a change in emphasis from receiving information from the teacher and learning to 'pass the test' towards using knowledge;
Emphasis on developing effective learning strategies (both individually and collaboratively);
Students have greater access to resources.
The University of Glamorgan found that the success of their collaborative e-learning project rested upon an integrated team involving all the University's support departments working alongside the Business School from the beginning. For many staff this way of working can be strange exposing them to new and different concepts, new ways of working and challenging traditional boundaries (Jones & O'Shea, 2004).
For some tutors these changes are challenging and exciting but for others they are more threatening. It is worthwhile talking to colleagues who have used a VLE and discussing the impact that it has had on their role as a tutor and the student response.
This case study from Fermanagh College shows how in using a VLE you can engage with your students more effectively (available as a video in Windows Media Player and QuickTime formats, as a transcript of the video and a case study pdf document).
Summary of Approaches to Course design with Technology
In this section, we have drawn upon the key thinkers in using technology in learning and teaching. All the models are based on constructivism and emphasise dialogue between the tutor and the students. It is essential for you, the tutor or member of a teaching team, to be comfortable with your preferred model before proceeding to course design using a VLE. Further advice about preparing to develop a course in a VLE is available within this infoKit and also in an HE Academy Resource Guide - Guide for Teachers: e-learning Series No. 3
