COMPUTER-MEDIATED TUTORIAL SUPPORT FOR CONVENTIONAL UNIVERSITY COURSES

In an effort to restore quality and flexibility to the tutorial provis ion on some undergraduate courses, first, second and third year psycho logy students at the University of Southampton have been inducted into the use of 'skywriting' as a medium for learning support. Email messa ges from students and tutors, primarily focussed on issues arising fro m the course content, are directed to a course list so that all partic ipants receive them; both tutors and students may reply to these. The course tutor maintains a Web-based archive of threaded discussions by the occasional modification of message subject lines. Within this arch ive, the exchanges can be searched and read by theme, by participant, or by date. This provision is in addition to the usual lectures and fa ce-to-face tutorial meetings. This paper examines students' participat ion in skywriting on three courses. Participation is examined in relat ion to gender, and to attitudes and experience with computers. Levels of contribution to face-to-face tutorials and to skywriting are compar ed, and their relation to students' learning styles is explored.