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Points to consider when personal tutoring remotely

With many remote students feeling anxious, personal tutors are often the first port of call. Michael Draper talks through things to consider in order to maintain a supportive and helpful relationship with tutees from a distance

Michael Draper's avatar
Swansea University
19 Jan 2021
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Key Details

This video will cover: 

00:54 Establishing effective modes of contact and communication with tutees 

02:34特etting clear boundaries around what you can advise on and what requires a referral  

05:43 Signposting useful information and guiding students on issues of concern 

Transcript

Hello, my name is Professor Michael浴raper. Im based at Swansea University眨here I am the director of the Swansea Academy病or Inclusivity and Learner Success. And Ive been畝sked to produce a short podcast around the topic皋f personal tutoring in an online environment.胼 

Were living in unprecedented times,畝s we know. Its unprecedented for us,疳ts unprecedented for our students and, of畚ourse, most of our teaching is now taking place皋ff campus and remotely, of course.  

And眩his has meant that our relationships with our盎tudents through personal tutoring and academic痂entoring has also moved to remote online contact畝nd delivery. So how best to manage that畚hange in delivery of personal tutoring?

Well, one of the things that I think that needs眩o be discussed at the outset with students is疲ow best they can contact you and how best you can畚ontact them. Give them the choice. Not everybody疹ikes to Zoom or video conference for example,畝nd so students need to understand that they畚an contact you by email or indeed by the good皋ld-fashioned telephone should they need to.胼 

So give them the option of how best to maintain眩hat personal tutoring relationship with your tutors. 

Now the next step, I suppose, is manage boundaries畝nd expectations.

With the move to online delivery眩here is a, perhaps, expectation that youll be畝vailable at 24-hours/seven, and of course眩hat isnt going to be the case.  

With疳ncreased flexibility produced by online delivery,盎tudents may feel that theres increased病lexibility in contacting you. And of畚ourse, you need to manage your time, as well as manage students time, most efficiently.胼 

And so what I would suggest is you make疳t clear the parameters of your contact hours,盎o students are aware when they can contact砰ou and will be best able to get a response.胼 

Now, virtual office hours: are they going to be眩he same as your usual physical contact hours?胼 

Again, you need to make that clear to the students.涅t may well be that you want to change them and痂ake them more flexible in terms of contacting砰ou.  

Alongside expectations and boundaries,涅 think its also important to let students疼now what it is you can and cannot help with.胼 

Now as a personal tutor, as an academic痂entor, students will see you as the face皋f the university, the first point of contact畝nd rightly so, especially in difficult times.胼 

However, you need to be aware of your皋wn limitations as a personal tutor,眨hat you can best advise on, or direct students眩owards other advice available in the institution,眨ho may be able to actually advise better in盍elation to the particular issue the student has.胼 

And so those boundaries around what it is you can畝nd cannot do need to be made clear to a student.胼 

Now of course most academic matters, you are皰rofessionally qualified to actually advise on,畝nd so it would be natural for you to actually疾nsure and give clear advice to students皋n those academic matters.  

But when it comes眩o welfare and indeed mental health issues,砰oure not necessarily going to be professionally益ualified to give advice, especially in relation眩o mental health. And so you need to be able to盎ignpost effectively.  

So one of the questions涅 would ask you is do you know how to signpost?浴o you know how to best refer your students on to盎ervices within your institution, so your students畚an get the best advice and support?  

You are,涅 suspect, if youre a personal tutor, very症ood-hearted and well-meaning and want to help砰our students whenever theyre in distress.  

Now砰ou will be the first port of call, you will be畝ble to offer them sympathy and some initial畝dvice, however if youre not professionally益ualified as a counsellor you should not畜e giving advice to students in relation to畝nxiety or mental health issues, and they留o need to be referred on.  

You can ask the皋bvious questions along the lines of, Have you畚ontacted your general practitioner?&紳莉莽梯;for example.涉nd if they havent, then you should be able眩o actually access through your institution眩he referral services to which you can refer砰our student.  

So referring is very important畜ecause if things go wrong, and we all hope they留ont, youll be judged against the standard疳n which you hold yourself out as having. So if砰ou start to give advice as a counsellor when砰oure not professionally qualified, the病act youre well-meaning will not matter. Youll be judged against the standard of畝 professionally qualified counsellor.胼 

So theres an issue of liability I think that砰ou need to be aware of.  

So refer on when you can,疼now how you should refer a student on and how best to advise a student to留o that.  

So thats all around boundaries畝nd expectations, now moving on to the actual盍elationship itself then.  

What you should be doing疳f you can is providing additional information to盎tudents remotely, either through the virtual疹earning environment of the institution,眨here commonly asked questions are made available眩o students.

So that there is an ease of access,眨hen they need it, to those畚ommonly asked questions without疸eeding to come to you on each occasion眩hat they might have a particular issue.胼 

And so one of the things you can do is send a皰ersonal email or other message to a student畝dvising them of the range of services on offer畜ut also where they can find information. 

Now, no留oubt the university will be doing that anyway,畜ut as we all know students tend to ignore疳nformation communicated to them from a central盎ource within the institution.  

However if they盎ee your name, then they are most likely to open真p an email or other message and actually read疳t and no doubt thank you for that as well.  

What涅ve noticed in relation to personal tutoring is眩hat with a move to online assessment, students疲ave become particularly anxious over the format皋f that assessment and they do need academic畝dvice on it.  

And of course as a personal tutor砰ou will be able to give that advice in relation眩o whatever assessment regulations and policies疲ave been adopted during Covid-19.  

What I have盍ecommended, certainly within our institution,疳n relation to online assessment, is the疾nhanced activity of predatory essay mills,眩hose third parties external to the university, offering so-called academic support services眩o students.  

So online tutoring sites, for example,疾ssay mills, have become very active recently畝nd what I think you can do as a personal tutor is眩o reassure students that if they are approached畜y such a service provider, not to feel畝larmed, not to feel they are being singled out,畜ecause this can enhance student anxiety疾specially around assessment time.胼 

So youre able to reassure students that if they畝re approached, that they can actually discuss眩hat with you and perhaps you can take action眨ithin your institution to block sites or access,病or example.  

So it is not unusual for students眩o receive direct, basically, offers of support病rom these third-party services. Students may畜e worried as to how they get their information,畜ut youll be able to reassure them that they can盎peak to you and you can take appropriate action眩o perhaps block their university email account疳f it has come to them through that account. 

So I think in relation to assessment砰ou can also give reassurances to the盍egulations or information your疳nstitutions placed out around, for example,盎afety net regulations or no detriment.   

And疸o doubt, as I know, there are conversations眨ithin the higher education establishment at the moment, as to whether or not those safety net or no留etriment policies should continue beyond眩he initial academic year in which Covid-19疲as hit.  

So theres a range of issues that, no留oubt, students will be contacting you about.胼 

The important thing is to make it clear眩o students when you are available,疲ow they can contact you and to maintain that皰ersonal relationship between the personal tutor畝nd the personal tutee, so that they feel supported畜y the institution and feel supported by you. 

This video was produced by Michael Draper, director of the Swansea Academy病or Inclusivity and Learner Success at .

 

Read Michaels comments in THEs feature Teaching Intelligence: how to keep students engaged at a distance&紳莉莽梯;

Further 

惚鬼插啦s&紳莉莽梯;

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