Do tutors make a difference in online learning?: A comparative study in two Open Online Courses

• Richard Frederick Heller ^[4] ; Edward Chilolo ^[5] ; Jonny Elliott ^[1] ; Brian Johnson ^[6] ; David Lipman ^[2] ; Victoria Ononeze ^[7] ; Justin Richards ^[3]
  1. [1] Queen's University Belfast

     Queen's University Belfast

     Reino Unido

     
  2. [2] Griffith University

     Griffith University

     Australia

     
  3. [3] University of Sydney

     University of Sydney

     Australia

     
  4. [4] People’s Open Access Education Initiative (Peoples-uni) (Australia)
  5. [5] PharmAccess International (United Republic of Tanzania)
  6. [6] General practitioner (United Kingdom)
  7. [7] Tees Public Health (United Kingdom)

  Mostrar afiliaciones +
• Localización: Open Praxis, ISSN-e 2304-070X, Vol. 11, Nº. 3, 2019, págs. 229-241
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Resumen

  • Two free fully online courses were offered by Peoples-uni on its Open Online Courses site, both as self-paced courses available any time and as courses run over four weeks with tutor-led discussions. We tested the hypothesis that there are no measurable differences in outcomes between the two delivery methods. Similar numbers attended both versions of each course; students came from multiple countries and backgrounds. Numbers of discussion forum posts were greater in tutor-led than self-paced courses. Measured outcomes of certificates of completion, quiz completion and marks gained were very similar and not statistically significantly different between the tutor-led and the self-paced versions of either course. In light of little discernible difference in outcome between self-paced learning compared with courses including tutor-led discussions, the utility of the time cost to tutors is in question. The findings may be relevant to others designing online courses, including MOOCs.