(283)EXPLORING THE POTENTIAL OF ON-LINE TUTORING IN A MIDDLEEASTERNUNIVERSITY WRITING CENTER

摘要

A writing center in the Middle-East initiated an on-line tutoring program. At the American University ofSharjah Writing Center, writing center tutors conducted tutorials using synchronous chat programs(type or voice chat) and collaboration platforms, such as gtalk and google documents. Tutors wereasked to record their thoughts and impressions in a reflective journal entry after each writing tutorialand 25 reflections were subsequently analyzed. The data revealed that the tutors appreciated some ofthe aspects of on-line tutorials, such as the ability to focus on the text, share websites and collaborateon texts, but the tutors also found tutoring on-line more challenging than tutoring face-to-face becauseof the absence of non-verbal cues and diminished tutee participation. This presentation discusses theissues raised through this study and suggests the possibility of developing tutor training models thatare designed to access the potential of on-line collaboration platforms.