Suggested Questions for Blog Post #7: Please respond to both questions as well as to each other. What seems most challenging to you about asynchronous online tutoring? What might its advantages be over face-to-face tutoring?
Deirdre will be showing us how to do online tutoring. We'll also schedule our case study or resource reports, so look at your calendars to see which of the remaining weeks, except for the last 2 weeks of class) work best for you.
To me the most challenging part of asynchronous tutoring (AT) is the inability to engage in a real time communication with the student and get an immediate response to questions I may have. From my experience so far, I often find myself working on themes from a novel/poem I have not read. Sometimes I am able to get a basic idea of the themes of that novel from the student's paper but sometimes I need additional info. In AT I would have to turn to Wikipedia and other sources. It may take me longer to get oriented topically versus having the student explain something quickly. On the other hand, researching the novel myself can help me gain my own understanding with perspectives beyond the ones the student has. Having the student as the only immediate go-to source can be limiting both for the tutor and the tutee. In this respect, having more time to think and get acquainted with the work can make the tutor more insightful and more helpful.
ReplyDeleteI really like that about in person tutoring. In my real like I do a lot of work trying to fill in gaps so that I don't have to ask questions (like somehow my being confused or not having enough information is a fault on me, rather than just a lack of information, which completely stems from childhood trauma), but in tutoring I've grown to quite enjoy recognizing gaps in information, either in writing or in understanding of the material, and asking students to fill me in, which seems to help them work through ideas and information as well helps me better guide them. You make a good point about that missed opportunity via AT.
DeleteI'll second Libby's reply about the usefulness of asking students to describe either the prompt they've been given or the themes they've been reading about. It does seem to focus their thinking about the assignment in question. It also gives *them* the opportunity to explain something during the session, which can establish a rapport by making things more equal between writer and tutor.
DeleteThe most challenging part for online tutoring may be fighting the urge to make edits and/or not proficiently being able to explain how and why to make sentence level clarity issues stronger. An advantage will be having the time and space to really think over a student's writing. Sometimes my brain doesn't work fast enough when working with students one on one while they're reading their work out loud for me to feel like I'm offering the best possible feedback.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both of the points you made! I think it will be hard to stop myself from making sentence level edits. I have yet to find a way to generalize these issues to my students so they can look for them on their own. Not being able to digest a students writing before talking about it has be a bit tough so far. Sometimes an hour after I've met with a student a really good idea or piece of feedback pops into my head but it's too late!
DeleteAs a textbook introvert, I view asynchronous tutoring as preferable to in-person appointments for a variety of reasons. The extra time to read, research, and process the paper’s content seems invaluable. I have much more command over the tone and clarity of my feedback when it’s in the margins. And, as Ted Remington points out, there’s something satisfying about giving feedback to writers in writing.
ReplyDeleteFrom the student’s perspective, emailed comments can also be a blessing. The Bedford Guide observes (and perceptively so) that this approach gives English Language Learners space to translate tutor feedback, and provides all students with a record of each session they can draw from when completing later drafts or other assignments.
Of course, everyone’s communication style is different—and online tutoring, too, has its downsides. One challenge I anticipate: managing time when responding to an online paper. During face-to-face sessions, I find it easier to adjust the pace of the discussion to the time remaining in a session. When typing comments, however, I’m more of a perfectionist: there’s a temptation not only to address every potential revision, but to craft my own sentences in a clear, concise way (“modeling,” as Remington terms it). Curious to hear how experienced online tutors strike a good balance in terms of timekeeping.
- Cassandra
I am with you in enjoying the extra time to process a paper before commenting. I also feel that I have better command of tone when I give written feedback--I think my written comments are probably less timorous. In person it can be hard to balance negotiation, encouragement, and honesty.
DeleteI think the hardest part of online tutoring will be not knowing if the student is interpreting comments correctly. Are they really understanding what you are trying to teach them? Is your point getting across in the right way? Not getting to see how the paper evolves over time adds to this challenge challenge. Seeing the draft transform is a great tool to assess how well your student is interpreting what you're trying to teach. This progressive feedback enables you to constantly adjust teaching strategies to fit the student and without seeing future drafts it is hard to know if you're making sense to anyone besides yourself. If I'm an ineffective tutor, then the student is not getting what they came fore and that is not helpful.
ReplyDeleteI liked what Ted Remington said in his article about the student not being able to make excuses. I have experienced this phenomenon often in helping students with writing, whether it's the two students I currently have at the writing center or my students in my lab sections writing their lab reports. I can't count how many times I've had to say "If you have to explain it to me then your writing isn't clear enough", or something of the sort. Also, I think online tutoring has the benefit of your thoughts being permanently on the draft for the student to come back to. How often does someone give you feed back on your work and in the moment you're thinking "yeah that's great I'm going to make all those changes and it is going to help so much!", only later when you actually sit down to make all those changes you completely forget what exactly was said and where your train of thought was heading and also you can only pick up every third word you jotted down during the discussion because you were writing too fast to be considerate to your future self by using legible handwriting. I'm guilty of that. I think having comments written down for the students is helpful because they can look at the comments, work through their draft, and come back to the comments to see if their edits helped to fix the problem.
My apologies for such a late reply/post to this conversation. I completely agree with Krista's concern here; I find myself worrying about the way the student interprets the comments that I give them in person, let alone online. I constantly ask them "did that make sense? Does that answer your question enough?" even going so far as having them repeat back what I said, using their own language. Without that kind of interaction online, I am worried I won't be providing the necessary framework for growth.
DeleteHowever, the idea of a student not making excuses during the tutorial process is nice. And in a way, the ball will be in my court to express myself better and with more confidence online; to stand by my comments with the authority of someone who understands the permanence of their presence on the page.
One of the more challenging aspects of asynchronous tutoring is the loss of back and forth communication. If I make a suggestion to a student face-to-face, there's an opportunity for negotiation that is lost in online tutoring. It can also be difficult if you have to work from the writer's interpretation of the assignment, rather than from the assignment itself. With written feedback, I worry that students may interpret something as brusque, or as "mean-spirited parody" (4). I have to imagine myself not only as reader and writer from the position of the paper's author, but also as a reader of my own comments from that position. When giving feedback to more sophisticated writers, I sometimes fret about written feedback and ethos.
ReplyDeleteI do like that online tutoring allows me to be relatively lavish with the time that I spend on a single paper. I always feel rushed in commenting on my own students' papers. Online tutoring also has the advantage of freeing tutors from constraints imposed by the writer. When the writer is right beside you, they can frame things or explain away reader difficulties in a way that interferes with an honest readerly response.
I agree with Neala and Julie in regards to my biggest frustration with asynchronous tutoring. I feel like my written comments on student work are more often read as prescriptive. I think one of the joys of tutoring is the collaborative aspect of it. It's nice to hear a student express their ideas verbally, and to be able to ask the questions that Julie brings up: "Does that make sense?", "What do you mean by this line?" "How would you say this argument in your own words?"
DeleteTo counteract this, I try to frame my written comments to come off as suggestions rather than "fixes." I say things like "Consider this revision" or "I wonder if this thesis would be improved by you bringing in the ideas of X." I wonder if a lot of issues of asynchronous tutoring can be fixed by striking the correct tone.
As far as the advantages, I agree that there's something to be gained from a written record of the feedback. Moreover, in-person feedback--for me at least--can sometimes veer into a more general conversation about the essay. While these more abstract conversations can be constructive in helping a student to better understand concepts, general comments also give students less coherent guidance on editing. With written feedback, a student can go line by line through each edit.
ANYWAY, I think a lot of my hangups on asynchronous tutoring are not so much about the limitations of AT. Rather, I think we just need to adapt our online editing strategies to compensate for the lost in-person collaboration. Here are some ways that I think you can do this: striking a more casual tone, consistently asking questions in comments, using "consider this revision"-esque language, and encouraging students to think about macro concerns as well as micro concerns (I find myself honing in on grammar whenever I do online editing). And if this post seems scatterbrained, it's only because I'd rather do this rant in person.