eTutoring

A chat may be used at the beginning of the course to greet learners, or at any stage of the course to vote on schedules, distribution of the workload, organisation in small groups or other pressing matters. You may want to be available at a specific time of the week for virtual consultation or informally exchange with learners, which is often referred to as hang-out. An ideal and manageable chat room size consists of 5 participants and a host. Learners may be invited in a private chat-room for oral examination. Since chat discuss is fast, it is important to agree on some rules beforehand:

• The host sends an agenda that includes key topics and questions to participants at least one day before
• Be polite and respectful
• Send short messages
• Use signs that indicate the participants’ status (available, stepped away, etc.)
• Use emoticons to express emotion but moderately.
• Read carefully the statement before responding to it
• Read carefully your message before posting it in the chat room
• If the participant asked you a personal question, use the whispering mode to address your answer to that particular learner only (note that eTutors/teachers can whisper to learners but learners cannot whisper to eTutor or each other). An alternative way to whisper is starting your message with an @ sign followed by the person’s name followed by your message. For example @Andrew: That’s very funny!
  

• If chat posts are quick and you want to have slow down posting, you can post ‘STOP’ to stop participants from posting messages temporarily. After processing the chat messages, you can post ‘CONTINUE’ for participants to continue posting. These have to be well communicated before the chat starts.
  
• Other than indicated in the previous bull-point, do not write with the CAPS lock (capitals) or bold type because those is considered shouting.
• If you have a lot to say don't try typing it all in at once because while you are typing, the conversation continues without you. Instead, type in part of what you want to say followed by ". . ." to indicate that there is more coming.
• If you have a question, use a question mark “?”.
• When the facilitator asks a question reply with: ‘Yes’, ‘Got it’, ‘Ja’, ‘Right’ or ‘Grunt’.
• Be patient. Don't repeat yourself. Instead, wait for a reply to your post. Remember, some people type slowly.

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