Online engineering tutorials: Investigation into tutors' use of technologies for learning

The transition to online teaching and learning brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic necessitates scholarship regarding the affordances and challenges inherent in this transition. A wealth of such scholarship has already been produced, most of which focuses on this transition from the perspective of students and/or lecturers. However, a relatively under-explored perspective has been the experiences of peer tutors with regard to online teaching and learning. This paper addresses this gap, by examining how peer tutors in a first-year introduction to engineering design module make use of technological resources to undertake their tutoring activities. Two teams of two tutors each were given a digital, pen-enabled device with which to conduct online tutorial sessions, which were recorded and observed. In addition, the tutors completed personalised questionnaires via email. The results of this study reveal that the tutors demonstrated high levels of professionalism and technological fluency, but that moments of struggle with the technologies still occurred. In addition, tutors also experienced challenges with regard to encouraging student interaction and participation in the online environment. There is a need for additional tutor training and development with regard to promoting student interaction, and strategies to make use of the various affordances offered by technology. Moreover, in a resource-constrained environment such as South Africa, where this research was conducted, tutors may experience additional needs over and above devices for tutoring, which higher education institutions will need to accommodate.