Synchronic tutoring of a virtual community

The role of tutors has changed over time, depending on models of learning and on the technology available. This article discusses the evolution of the tutor role and presents a new model concerning the tutoring functions in a synchronous virtual community. The definition of a virtual community starts from a theory of communities of learning and takes the features of the virtual environment into account. A project set in order to verify the tutors' features in a synchronous virtual community with an educational aim will be described in detail. The chats on-line are analyzed combining two analysis systems: (a) a category system describing the tutor's on-line functions; and (b) a discourse analysis exploring the dialogical and interactive dimensions of the tutor interventions. Results gathered from this study highlight typical features of tutoring on-line a virtual community. On-line tutorship appears to be a fluid, situated and dynamic process of meaning negotiation. Tutors are able to take over each others' specific roles and students act as tutors to each other