Effective ODeL Instructional Delivery: Using the Lenses of Tutors

A growing body of research on effective instruction acknowledges the pervasive influence of educational technologies, tutor dispositions and perceived institutional support to classroom practice. Yet, there are limited studies on the perceptions of ODL tutors to these three factors. This study found that ODL tutors in two universities in Botswana considered these factors to play varying roles in shaping their classroom modus operandi, in shaping tutor motivation and classroom creativity and in shaping learner experiences. The study recommends that new ODL learners should take a compulsory introductory module on computer-mediated learning in order to bring learners up to speed on the basic of learning through technology. Furthermore, the study recommends further research on dispositions in order to discern which dispositions are necessary in what contexts. Currently this area of research has received little research attention and there are many areas that are still unknown. In the case of institutional support, there is a need for a more streamlined approach to providing support to tutors in order to address the four areas of critical importance, which are; what support is needed, from whom, for what purpose, and how to measure the impact of such support.