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The purpose of this paper is to discuss the development and assessment of learning support environments for academic writing that utilize ICT, such as e-learning and online tutoring, in Japanese higher education. First, the authors introduce the design of an e-learning writing program for the Japanese language and assess whether the program is an effective learning support tool for undergraduates. Second, the authors analyze and assess online tutoring support for academic writing and clarify the merits and disadvantages of online and offline tutoring at writing centers, then suggest instructional strategies by analyzing the writing tutoring process.

The authors adopted e-learning goals to assess its effectiveness. The authors asked the participants questions they could answer from five-point scales, conducted a paired t-test, and included a free description-type questionnaire. Then, to assess online tutoring, the 12 students took pre- and post-test questionnaires, after which the authors conducted a Wilcoxon signed rank test. In addition, the authors carried out a Kruskal–Wallis rank sum test in order to confirm differences in satisfaction level and the effectiveness of face-to-face tutoring and online tutoring.

By analyzing the pre- and post-test results, the t-test confirmed that the students found the e-learning system to be effective for nurturing academic literacy. This means the system is appropriate as a support tool for nurturing academic writing, especially writing knowledge and rules, and university must provide a comprehensive learning support environment including e-learning. Next, the authors found no statistically significant difference between face-to-face and online tutoring, although some problems with the writing process remained. So online tutoring has opportunity to promote autonomous learning. The research results make it clear that because of writing centers’ potential and their effectiveness in utilizing ICT tools.

Research findings about academic writing are to improve the tutoring process and writing strategies, such as the use of ICT for academic writing support like e-learning, online tutoring, do not exist. To provide learning opportunity to learners and promote autonomous learning, e-learning and online tutoring are important. For the reasons noted above, it is necessary to provide an alternative writing support environment to students in Japan. Therefore, the authors report on and assess the development of learning support environments for e-learning programs and online tutoring for academic writing at the undergraduate level in Japan.

What happens when computer software is designed to replace the teacher and the human role is to service the relationship between the software and the learner? Specifically, this paper aims to consider whether or not emotional labour is performed in contexts mediated by technology in the private sector.

The research is a single site, the online tutoring centre, in a large global education company in Europe servicing learners based in companies elsewhere. It is a critical case study with strategic importance for understanding the effects of the transformations to the education work afforded by a work design based on digital Taylorism. Qualitative methods are used, including observation, analysis of tutor/student e‐mail exchanges over a ten‐month period and interviews with key personnel.

It was found that in spite of the drive for standardisation and consistency, online tutors engaged in considerable levels of emotional labour, individualised in its performance along a spectrum.

The work has value in that it extends into new sites the study of digital Taylorism. In finding emotional labour in this critical case, it suggests that emotional labour will be present in less extreme cases.

The article is a useful source of information for practitioners in online learning centres, as well as researchers in the area of recruitment and training of online tutors.

The article provides insights into effects of the recruitment of underqualified people in private learning centres.

The article provides insights into an area of work‐based learning that is under‐investigated to date – i.e. the recruitment and practices of tutors in private learning centres and the role of emotional labour.

Online teaching particularly through Open Distance and e-Learning (ODeL) has become a phenomenon in the twenty-first century. ODeL and blended approaches inevitably lead to increasing dependence on electronic communication systems. The University of South Africa (Unisa), where the author teaches, enables students through its Learner Management System to interact with lecturers and e-tutors online. The responsibilities of e-tutors are of an educative and technical nature. Their roles include guiding and assisting students, encouraging active participation, responding to their queries and grading their assignments. In addition, e-tutors provide notifications and assign tasks or activities that students are expected to complete and submit. In several cases, these forms of assistance are absent, when there is a lack of follow-up within the response period which is 24 hours – missing notifications and lack of guidance – rendering these e-tutors ineffective. The chapter provides strategies that were analyzed and implemented to motivate effective tutoring and enhance student participation learning. The author draws on her analysis as a virtual ethnographer and long-term participant observer as an e-tutor and lecturer who supervised e-tutors and taught a large number of students – 2,500. The objective of the chapter is to encourage effective tutoring that can enhance students’ success.

The aim of this paper is to describe a study of online, asynchronous dialogues between tutors and nine work‐based postgraduate learners on learning through work (LtW) programmes.

Adopting a constructivist perspective and using a qualitative approach, 670 messages were segmented into semantic units and categorised by activity and content. Analysis borrowed from content and discourse approaches and categories were grounded in the data.

Online exchanges were found to mirror those of effective face‐to‐face learning encounters. Learners asked questions, reported on their progress and plans, sought and gave feedback, and disclosed personal information and feelings. Tutors gave direct answers, advised and made suggestions, explained and elaborated, offered signposting and referral and provided feedback. Dialogue content was categorised as administrative/organisational, technical, affective, social, academic or relating to programme design.

Learners embarking on undergraduate level study may raise different issues from those working at postgraduate level.

The individual categories and the framework as a whole may help new online tutors to anticipate and prepare for their role.

The study is unusual in focusing on one‐to‐one online dialogues between university tutors and work‐based learners. The unique contribution is a hierarchical analytical framework of dialogue topics in which “hard” and “soft” topics underpin academic dialogue.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the development of a blended e‐learning pedagogical model for an undergraduate enterprise programme. The proliferation of e‐learning programmes offers new opportunities and challenges for universities to meet the learning needs of new student markets. However, the use of e‐learning as an enabling mechanism for enterprise education remains largely unexplored within academic literature.

The case study methodology comprises a series of focus groups with key stakeholders in the project, namely online tutors, students and scheme leaders from a number of partner colleges involved in the delivery of the course.

The study charts the evolution of the blended learning pedagogy which was found to best meet the learning requirements of non‐traditional learners on an undergraduate programme. The blended learning pedagogy strategy which was developed replicated the best informal practice that had emerged through each of the partner institutions and the learning needs of the students. Constituent elements of the pedagogy included the provision of structured face‐to‐face events, a range of student supports systems and the creation of a code of practice for online tutors. As a result, a model of best practice for blended learning is proposed.

This study contributes to the literature in terms of proposing a working framework for online undergraduate enterprise education with identification of critical success factors including supportive induction, viable pedagogy and effective support systems. The framework can be utilised by practitioners and theoreticians as a guide to the effective management of pedagogical issues associated with blended online education.

‘I like the fact that it's simple; I like the fact that it's not too complicated, and I think that whoever developed it, developed it with the people in mind’. Blended learning master's student talking about Solent Online Learning.The authors carried out an extended project aimed at making effective use of the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) for the delivery of high-quality online distance and blended learning. This was in response to a greater demand for such courses through the emergence of a new constituency of learner, principally professional learners, those already in employment but seeking to improve their level of qualification and employability through the study of flexibly delivered credit bearing courses. The growth of this constituency can be seen very much as a response to the changes to the funding structure in the higher education sector in the UK. To this end, the authors worked within a team that developed an approach to effective course design, the Solent Online Learning Standard, and then a new methodology for collaborating with academic staff in the development and delivery of such courses. In order to best facilitate this, the team also created a new instance of its institutional VLE, called Solent Online Learning and tailored more to the needs of these new professional learners.

Examine the effectiveness of online tutoring software to ameliorate poor performance in intermediate financial accounting.

Probit regression analysis comparing users versus nonusers of online accounting tutoring software, as well as analysis of student achievement pre and post-technology adoption over a 10-year period.

We confirm prior research findings that the number of terms that have transpired since a student took introductory financial accounting, whether they took the course at a two-year college, or if they needed to repeat the introductory course, are all negatively associated with performance in intermediate accounting. We find evidence that an online tutoring system, ALEKS®, helps moderate these negative correlations. Results suggest that in upper division courses where student knowledge of underlying basic material is uneven, online tutors are an effective tool in bringing students up to an equal level of competence without sacrificing class time.

Provides empirical evidence on the usefulness of online accounting software as a review tool in intermediate accounting.

Disadvantages experienced by accounting students due to when, where, and how they learned introductory accounting can be overcome quickly.

Although vendors of intelligent online tutoring software market their product as a useful review tool for intermediate accounting, academic research has not examined the effectiveness of these products.

This chapter clarifies the role of the tutor in enabling collaborative learning through assessment using technology as part of a blended learning framework. This is achieved through a practical example of using Wikipedia and the Collaborative Learning through Assessment and Technology (CLAT) pedagogical model.

Using the analogy of e‐learning as “the perfect storm”, the aim of this paper is to explore the disruptive nature of e‐learning in higher education.

Taking a case study of a university, the paper explores the movement from an e‐intensive approach to e‐learning into an on‐campus blended learning approach. What are the lessons for higher education and how responsive are we to the new challenges. Is blended learning creating a new stability after change, or is it placing the university in the eye of the storm, a still small moment within an ongoing change process?

The paper presents findings from the E‐College Wales (ECW) project, looking at the disruptive effect on such a learning organisation from student, staff and management perspectives. It concludes by moving the focus from the e‐intensive ECW project to focus on the developments during the first year of a blended learning project and the disruption endemic in such a development

The paper will be of special interest to the blended learning policy maker, practitioners and educators. It includes a journey of a case study concerning blended learning.