ABSTRACT
While the use of forums is generally accepted as a key part of blended learning, the contribution of face-to-face or online synchronous support has received rather less attention, as I described in Chapter 5. We know that faceto-face tutorials can have many benefits for student learning. However, given that many of the roles traditionally attributed to face-to-face tutorials can be realised asynchronously and online, what is special about synchronous support and how should we be using it? I will address this challenging question by describing a variety of models of support that can be deployed using synchronous media, together with the implications for choice of an appropriate tool.
