Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
The role of the tutor
In an online distance learning course, the tutor’s role is centred on facilitation and support. Unlike in traditional classroom settings, where you guide students through topics in real time, online learners engage with content independently.
By adopting a facilitative approach, you help motivate learners, guide their progress, and foster a sense of connection and belonging, key elements for student success in an online environment.
Understanding your time commitment
In terms of teaching delivery, most online modules don’t have fixed or timetabled hours, so it’s up to you how you allocate your time. We recommend setting aside regular hours across the week to:
- Send announcements and other communications
- Engage with discussion boards
- Provide formative feedback
- Make any required updates
Spread your time in the module over several days - visible tutor presence is a key factor in student engagement. If you want students to be active and engaged, model that behaviour yourself.
Recommendations for teaching online
Introduce your students to online learning. Outline how students should engage with module content, show how to access teaching material, assessment resources, activities and reading lists.
Think about how you create appropriate staff-student and student-student interactions.
Establish study groups to promote a supportive community. Recommend students meet regularly, connect online and provide peer-to-peer support.
Support students in setting their own learning goals, planning how to achieve them and monitoring their own progress.
During induction set-out consistent expectations for the whole course including:
- Managing learning - the amount of expected study time per week, self-directed and independent learning, being motivated and engaged, submitting work to deadlines
- Acceptable behaviours - collaborating and responding to peers, communicating effectively, respectfully and professionally
- Contact methods - email, discussion boards, telephone, etc
- Response times - in line with the course level guidelines
Provide a weekly/topic timetable with clear, realistic estimates as to how long it will take to complete the work. Giving expected study times for activities and reading is important for distance learning students. This helps them plan their studies around other commitments.
Make sure the study times you give are realistic. Students don’t want to find that an activity takes twice as long as expected, this can result in panic and students missing out subsequent parts of the teaching content. When calculating reading times, don’t forget to factor in:
- Slower readers
- Students for whom English is an additional language
- In-depth or complicated material
- Time needed for making notes
- Time needed for reflection
- Building meaningful student-tutor relationships
- Clearly communicating expectations and learning outcomes
- Encouraging active participation in asynchronous and synchronous activities
- Providing timely, constructive, and developmental feedback
- Respecting and valuing the diverse backgrounds, experiences, and commitments of your students
Communication is important throughout the module, but particularly in the first two weeks. Regular and consistent communication provides encouragement and clarification for the students, building staff-student rapport.
At a minimum, we suggest:
- Welcome email/announcement: Introduce yourself and the module. Set expectations and encourage questions via email or discussion areas. Let students know you’ll be active the module and checking in on activities
- Weekly email/announcement: Introduce the week’s topic, confirm when feedback will be given, and highlight that previous activities have been reviewed. Regular reminders to engage can be helpful, particularly for busy people
- Formative feedback: Use activities to build student confidence and prepare for final assessments. Set expectations for how many activities will receive tutor feedback
You may also wish to include:
- End-of-week summary: Recap key points, remind students of deadlines, and confirm feedback has been posted
- General announcements: Share topical content or relevant updates to keep the module fresh and engaging
Set clear expectations for how and when students should engage, and when you’ll respond. Overall, the more visible and engaged the tutor is, the more active and engaged the students will be.
Use announcements and weekly emails to:
- Introduce topics
- Share feedback timelines
- Encourage participation
- Confirm feedback has been posted
Consider actively guiding discussions to ensure topics remain focused and relevant. For instance, by initiating and responding to discussion posts to encourage engagement.
Use regular formative activities, such as online quizzes, to help gauge understanding and provide student feedback.
If appropriate use interventions in the form of 1-2-1 online drop-in sessions to provide personalised feedback and address individual concerns.
Student engagement with module content can be monitored through online reports in MyBeckett on participation and progress. For more information, please refer to the Digital Learning Service Student engagement (learner analytics) guide.
