How do e-tutors support collaborative learning? Guidelines from a European study.

Virtual collaborative learning is becoming more and more common over the last two decades. In collaborative knowledge construction scenarios, the learner-tutor interaction plays a major role in successful learning. In this context, the support of the e-tutor is of importance. Possible support methods include the preparation and organization of the learning unit and direct interventions during the collaboration process. Even though support methods are relevant from a theoretical point of view, the question is whether or not e-tutors effectively use such methods in their actual e-learning courses. To gain further insight into the real practices of e-tutors, in our study we developed a questionnaire to survey the main support methods used. Seventy-eight e-tutors from 17 different European countries participated in this study. Results showed that e-tutors support collaborative learning by providing specific technical and didactical support and by fostering the collaborative learning process, especially content-specific activities such as online discussion. Based on these results, guidelines for supporting virtual collaborative learning were developed.