ABSTRACT
Distance education is different from conventional education in one very important aspect: the teaching in distance education is mainly carried out by the course text, whether that text is in print form or online via podcasts, video and audio material, discussion forums and so on. This means that the role of the teacher in distance education is usually markedly different from the similarly named roles in conventional education. And, although “academic support” is the more accurate description for the activities described in this chapter, the terms “tutor” and “tuition” are so widespread that I will use them. However, you should bear in mind that the terms imply certain activities that are more relevant to conventional education than to distance learning. So the transition for tutors from a conventional face-to-face tuition system to distance tuition is not always easy.
