Online education: The effect of computer-mediated communication on tutor-tutee interactions.

The purpose of this study was to examine the impacts of CMC on the interactions between teacher/tutors and students/tutees on a commercial Internet provider\u27s educational service. Specifically, this study endeavored to discover if using CMC for tutoring purposes allowed both students/tutees and teachers/tutors to increase the tutee access to tutor expertise, judge content based solely on the merit of the message and to determine what types of educational strategies were used in this medium. The results of this study showed that students generally functioned at the lower levels of learning complexity; that is, they asked questions and received answers at the knowledge and comprehension levels on Bloom\u27s Taxonomy. Also, this medium lent itself to a guided discovery pattern of instruction, where tutors guided students to find resources and answers on their own. The study also showed a high ratio of tutor to tutee time and a feeling on the part of the tutees that tutors were approachable and available. These factors contributed to a positive attitude on the part of the tutees toward the use of CMC as an educational tool