Publication details
Cross-Age Peer Tutors as Important Actors of University Online Courses –Information Literacy Course Case Study
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| Year of publication | 2019 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | If we want to think about developing online education at universities, we are at the same time faced with the question of who should facilitate it. Caring for students in massive online courses and ideally formative feedback is time-consuming, and currently, it is not in possibilities of scholars. However, other participants in the educational process can make a unique contribution to this role – cross-age peers. The question is how to prepare students for the role of peer tutors? What makes their position specific? How do they perceive their tutor's experience? What makes their assessment distinct? How do students evaluate peer tutors? In the case study of the Information literacy and academic writing online course at Masaryk University, we answer these questions by interviewing peer tutors, analysing the results of the course students in the form of a final seminar paper and course evaluation. Peer tutors typically perceive their position as challenging and responsible, tend to have problems with student-teacher-expert identities, as an essential aspect of tutoring they mention their learning. They evaluate the final work of a student differently depending on whether they assess the student they have to cooperate during the semester. Students award peer tutors (4.5 points out of 5), appreciate them and perceive them as tutors or mentors (22 cases) rather than classmates (2 cases). This case study is part of broader research of online education facilitation and competencies of educators. The aim was to point out the role of peers, question our view of a teacher as expert, and contribute for better understanding cross-age peer tutors in university online education. |