The on line page for each Tutor of the subject being taught will communicate his or her availabilty (dates and schedules) along with contact details (e-mail, telephone and fax number), whilst in addition allowing access to the following areas:

• Curriculum vitae;;
• Teaching Program;
• Conceptual Map;
• Didactic Materials;
• Didactic Planning;
• Agenda;
• Evaluation and Statistics;
• Learning Environments;
• Links to the Page of the Appointed Teaching Professor;

The Program, Conceptual Map and Didactic Planning of the subject being taught are the same documents that can be found on the Appointed Teaching Professor Page.

The Didactic Material is comprised of:

• subjects that have been explained in an ad hoc fashion by the Tutor on the basis of student profiles and on the results of the qualitative evaluations that the Tutor periodically administers to the students;
• a selection, made by the Tutor, of materials developed by students during their activities with the Tutor or with other students during collaborative learning tasks.

The materials developed or selected by the Tutor represent an integral part of the Media Library and of the Virtual Laboratory, and are aimed at a specific class of students.

In the area of Evaluation and Statistics the following are made available:

• the tools of quantitative evaluation, or the statistics tracking the activity of the students (at both the individual and aggregate level). This is done in terms of the number of access times and time of use in the Learning environments on the part of the students as well as by tracking the use of the Tutoring On Line tools, number of exercises completed and the mean average of evaluation and self-evaluation;
• the tools of qualitative evaluation, or the evaluation of each student based on evaluation sheets (with open questions and/or exercise), developed by the Tutor in order to monitor the learning progress of the student in his or her class.

The Tutor Page, as with the Appointed teaching Professor Page, allows access to the four Learning Environments: Video Library, Media Library, Virtual Laboratory and Tutoring On Line.

The Tutor Page contains links to the Appointed Teaching Professor Page in order to facilitate navigating the Didactic Cyberspace..

The Appointed teaching Professor and Tutor can know about the composition of their own classes of students and have access to the pages of single students through the List of Teaching Subjects for Degree Courses window.

As stated before, in the Educational Psychology Model of the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO, the student is at the centre of the learning process, which is designed on the basis of his or her needs and created through a high level of interactivity between the Professor, Tutor and Student

The professors’ and the tutors’ knowledge of their students is possible by several diverse means, including the entrance Questionnaire, which is filled out during enrolment, and the frequent virtual and face to face meetings with the Mentors and Tutors during the entire course of study.

Each and every student has at his or her disposal a page, called My student page”, that can be personalized at will in such a way as to allow the student to use the various didactic support materials available to better meet his or her needs. This makes it easier for the student to actively contribute to the collaborative educational process.

Your home page offers the following possibilities:

• to personalize your study itinerary by choosing the teaching activities to follow and making note of the last lesson that you have visited in each pf the chosen teaching subjects;
• verify your progress by checking your self-evaluations as well as those of your Tutor and viewing, for every lesson, which didactic materials you have used, how many times and for how long;
• plan your didactic activities, by mean of an Agenda, in order to view appointments in the Chat Rooms, Forums and Virtual Classrooms set by your Tutors, to insert reminders and request intervention on the part of your Tutors;
• send your didactic materials to your Tutors or to your Appointed Teaching Professor which, if selected, can be published on the site and thus made available to the entire scientific community;
• always have at your disposal your Tutors by accessing the Tutor Page with a simple click.

2.2.1 The functions of the Tutor

Within the didactic model adopted by the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO, the Tutor plays a crucial role, acting as mediator between the participants in the Learning Process, so that a Network of Knowledge Exchange (NEKE) is created.

The tutoring activity represents one of the most significant moments of learning input and requires a high level of interactivity between Tutor and Student. It has been noted that the student learns through the continuous integration of theoretical knowledge (through the professor’s lessons), concepts that are acquired thanks to examples and advice provided by experts (through discussions and comparing ideas in the Forums) and practice in the field (through exercises guided by the Professor and/or Tutor that are offered singularly and personally to the student).

The Tutoring phase is therefore a necessary complement to the lessons of the professor and to the period of self study that follows.

The Tutor is presented as a “planner” for the learning experiences of the students, a consultant and guide to the Learning Process; thus he becomes a member of the learning team, reducing the risk of isolation on the part of the student.

The Tutor has the task of organizing and making available to the students a series of materials and tools. These match the lessons given telematically and, taken altogether, give a precise picture of the individual topics being taught.

As shown in various studies conducted in the field, the role of the Tutor is considered by the learners to be a sort of interface between the student and the teaching subject; his or her activity should be aimed at creating the interactivity between student and professor that is missing in the video-lessons.

In addition, an undeniable characteristic is the quickness of response. This underlines the need of the students to have someone who represents a constant and reliable presence. The contribution of the Tutor will be even more appreciated with the preparation and correction of written exercises in preparation for the exam. In this way, a didactic ‘semi-guided’ itinerary is created, taking the student up to the final exam with a preparation suited to the needs of each and every program.

The tasks of the Tutor at the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO are orientated towards organization, both their own and that of the students.

The tasks geared towards organization consist of the following:

1. Selecting/adapting learning materials:
   • Selecting supplementary learning resources;
   • Organizing the access of the learner to learning resources.
2. Giving an evaluation/some feedback:
   • Regarding the results of the learner and his or her experiences in the program and the course;
   • Regarding the materials and the organizational aspects;
   • Regarding the students’ problems.

The tasks of the Tutor where the learner is concerned are the following:

1. Help the student stay motivated:
   • Actively bring about and maintain motivation;
   • Create an open and positive climate;
   • Help fill the gap in a student’s social needs.
2. Provide help concerning the course contents:
   • Connect the contents to the previous knowledge of the student;
   • Solve problems regarding content;
   • Stimulate the application of the course contents in a professional context.
3. Develop study skills:
   • Promote a critical spirit;
   • Develop learning styles and cognitive strategies;
   • Help the student to self-regulate his or her study and learning;
   • Promote knowledge of contextual factors in learning;
   • Introduce the student to the use of new technology (e-mail, chat rooms, videoconferencing and Internet).
4. Give an evaluation/ feedback
   • Inform the learner about his or her progress;
   • Prepare the learner for exams;
   • Help the learner to develop realistic self-evaluation skills.

To these tasks are added other functions specific to tutoring.

At the beginning of the course, for example, the Tutor:
defines what the learner is to expect from the course;
- verifies previously acquired knowledge;
- offers suggestions and materials to strengthen any weak spots in the student’s preparation and, if necessary, offers training to improve study skills (especially time management).

During the next phase, which begins at the start of the course itself, the Tutor’s role as mediator comes into play. In fact, during the course the Tutor carries out a series of tasks with the precise aim of guiding the various aspects of learning and laying the basis for the exchange of knowledge between the participants in the Learning Process.

These tasks are to:
- enrich the materials of the course and provide access to the learning resources (by creating Internet site links, exercises on the web, etc.);
- identify study problems and find eventual solutions;
- instill specific study skills and improve learning capacity;
- lend support in practice activities;
- “try” the contents of the course;
- give objective and constructive feedback on the results of the learning process in the interest of ensuring success on the part of the student;
- help the student to apply the contents of the course in real life situations;
- instill a spirit of cooperation among the students (functioning in this way as mediator); - monitor (evaluate) performance.

As the teaching modules are presented, the Tutor provides qualitative and quantitative evaluations on the student’s learning so as to constantly monitor the results of the Process of Learning, as well as giving the students personalized support in preparation for the exam at the end of the module.

The quantitative evaluation of the student’s participation is given by the Tutor on the basis of statistics regarding the student’s navigation through the Didactic Cyberspace. These are defined as follows: number of access times throughout the time of use on the part of the student within the Learning Environments, the Tutoring On Line tools, the number of exercises completed and the average of the evaluations/self-evaluations.

In order to integrate this level of monitoring, the Tutor administers evaluation sheets to all the students (preferably with questions and open answers and/or exercises) in order to check and see how well the student has assimilated the contents of the professor’s lessons.

The results of the qualitative and quantitative evaluations constitute the basis for carrying out the aims of the Tutor, namely strengthening the student’s cognitive abilities along with preparing him for the exam.

The Tutor’s offering of supplementary learning materials serves two purposes: on one hand to strengthen any weak spots in the Learning Process of the single student or group of students and on the other hand to satisfy eventual requests for study in greater depth. These materials can be: books and articles (therefore study sheets and projects), CD-ROMs, bibliographical or site link references, exercises and and virtual laboratories.

The Tutor’s role as mediator involves a last phase that coincides with the end of the presentation of teaching materials. Here the Tutor helps the student review the teaching contents and prepare for the exam. The Tutor also asks the student for their evaluation of the teaching itself, thus obtaining valuable feedback on the teaching/training process from the student.

As has been previously stated, the Tutor works in close contact with the students and his/her activity is aimed at creating a collaborative environment characterized by direct support for the students through two complementary approaches: the long distance (synchronic and diachronic) method and the traditional one.

In order to carry out such an important and complex role, the Tutor must possess a combination of abilities. These can be boiled down to five fundamental areas:

• specific ability to control and direct;
• specific professional ability;
• organizational ability;
• communicative and relational abilities;
• pedagogical and didactic abilities.

Naturally the content of the Tutoring activity and the combination of abilities necessary to carry it out will vary based on various factors, including the aims to be reached, the specific needs of the students, the characteristics of the Degree Course, the type of subject beingtaught, etc.