A Case Study of E-tutors' Teaching Practice: Does Technology Drive Pedagogy?

Abstract

This article presents a case study of e-tutoring teaching practice during a 20-week e-tutoring program aimed at improving the English proficiency of targeted students. The study revealed what and why certain online tools were used by e-tutors and investigated how different technological proficiency and face-to-face (f2f) teaching experience shaped e-tutorsâ teaching practices in cyberspace. Data were collected through transcriptions of each recorded synchronous Skype teaching session, interviews of e-tutors, project artefacts, and e-tutorsâ weekly memos. Results showed that use of Skype establishes a social presence in e-tutor and e-tutee instructional relationships and that online broadcasting is often equivalent to online teaching for e-tutors who are comfortable and familiar with face-to-face teaching environments. In addition, technology has shaped the teaching practice of e-tutors. This finding implies an adapted framework of technological pedagogical content knowledge for e-tutors to maximise the benefits of the designed online tutoring environments.