What are tutors' perceptions of an online tutoring project-Digital Learning Companion-During the COVID-19 pandemic? A case study in Taiwan

Khanh Nguyen Phuong Tran; Cathy Weng; Phuong Lan Tran-Nguyen; Melese Astatke; Nguyen-Phuong-Dung Tran

doi:10.1007/s10209-023-00976-1

What are tutors' perceptions of an online tutoring project-Digital Learning Companion-During the COVID-19 pandemic? A case study in Taiwan

Univers Access Inf Soc. 2023 Mar 8:1-17. doi: 10.1007/s10209-023-00976-1. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Khanh Nguyen Phuong Tran¹, Cathy Weng¹, Phuong Lan Tran-Nguyen², Melese Astatke¹, Nguyen-Phuong-Dung Tran³

Affiliations

¹ Graduate Institute of Digital Learning and Education, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, No. 43, Section 4, Keelung Rd, Da'an District, Taipei 106, Taiwan.
² Department of Mechanical Engineering, Can Tho University, Campus II, 3/2 Street, Ninh Kieu District Can Tho City, Vietnam.
³ Department of Materials Science and Technology, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, No. 43, Section 4, Keelung Rd, Da'an District, Taipei 106, Taiwan.

Abstract

The COVID-19 outbreak has had serious impact on remote education and service-learning implementation in Taiwan. To alleviate these impacts, the Digital Learning Companion, an online tutoring project, was proposed to bridge the digital divide and learning gap among remote children, while offering university students an online service-learning environment. This project recruited international students as tutors for local children. To explore tutors' perceptions of this project during the COVID-19 pandemic, qualitative research, particularly a case study, was conducted. Adopting purposive sampling, 15 participants were chosen for interviews at the end of the project, and 10 reflective videos were used to reveal further information to supplement the interview results. Content analysis was employed to analyse the data. The findings implied that using JoinNet and tutoring journals significantly facilitated the tutoring process, which led to tutors' remarkable development in skills, social relationships, multicultural experience, altruism, social responsibility, self-efficacy, and affective values. However, they encountered some challenges, such as technical problems, communication barrier, lack of tutee information, and short tutoring duration. The solutions to these challenges and insightful suggestions for the project development are pointed out. The results of this study contribute to tutors' cognitive, social, and motivational development, and support the online service-learning-integrated curriculum, which can become a reference for further studies regarding online service-learning implementation to bridge the research gap.

Keywords: Digital Learning Companion; Experiential learning; Online tutoring; Remote area education; Service-learning.

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