On Tutor’s Roles in Online Students’ Thesis Writing Process

---- Focusing on Business English Students

Hu, Jin Tao

BeiwaiOnline Institution of BFSU

Aug. 2007

General Introduction

• Aims: to explore the roles and functions of tutor in the thesis process, so as to improve efficiency

• Focus: 11 business English students in BeiwaiOnline over the past 3 semesters

• Findings: tutor can emphasize the following 2 stages

The Two Stages

• Stage One: before the writing process when the tutor must familiarize the students with the regulations and rules of the thesis, which must be project-based and a reasonable projection of the business theories learned;

• Stage Two: before the final draft is handed in when the students are normally very anxious about whether they could pass or not, here the tutor is advised to give supports on a psychological level, i.e. , to calm the students down and encourage them to prepare for the next steps --- the completion of the thesis and the final presentation.

The special features

• 1. The special online students:

• 1.1 Various backgrounds and purposes of students

• 1.2 Challenges facing students

• 1.3 Responsibilities facing students

• 2. The special thesis completion: the 7 stages

The procedures of thesis completion

• 1. The teacher’s preparation

• 1) Be very well prepared in advance:

• 2) Be aware of technical issues

• 2. The specific thesis writing process

Roles of the tutor

• 1. The classification of the roles

• 1). As manager

• 2). As researcher

• 3). As mentor

• 4) As motivator

As Manager

• The role of manager is one of the most important for an online tutor.

• At the starting stages of the thesis writing tutoring, the role of the tutor is highly “managerial”, which includes lots of organizing work, such as setting the agenda, the deadlines, and providing resources for the students.

As Researcher

• One of the BeiwaiOnline “slogans” states that “tutoring is researching so that as reflective practitioners we can examine and develop our practice through action research enquiry, ie developing, reviewing and refining our practice in systematic and thoughtful way.

As Mentor

• See the following table.

Student number First draft /versions

Second draft /versions

Third draft /versions

Final score

1 1 1 1 Pass

2 1 1 1 Fail

3 2 2 1 Good

4 3 3 1 Pass

5 2 3 1 Pass

6 1 2 1 Good

7 2 1 1 Good

8 1 2 1 N/A

9 2 1 2 N/A

10 1 1 1 N/A

11 1 1 1 N/A

Note: The students No. 8 to No. 11 will not have their oral defense and final score until Sep. 2007, so that part of the information is not available at the moment. Resources: BeiwaiOnline Examination and Thesis Center (2006 --- 2007)

As Motivator

• The role of motivator is best shown when students are engaged with heavy workload and family issues that they do not have any other energy to spare for the thesis writing.

• “……I got a short message from BeiwaiOnline when I was on the way home from work this afternoon, telling me that I had passed the thesis --- I was so happy and excited that I was unable to speak!......During the past six months, I had endured the pains of operations and the burdens of taking care of the old and the child, there was more than once that I had thought of given up, but your warm e-mails and words had encouraged me to always carry on …..” (Bian Lu)

Roles of the tutor

• The flexibility of the roles:

• the online tutor needs to adopt different roles during the tutoring process, even it’s necessary to return to the traditional ways and traditional roles when the technology conditions become unfriendly (eg. internet breakdown).

Conclusion