Tutoring in Higher Education and the contribution of the ICT for its improvement

Abstract

University professors exchange opinions on tutorship in a virtual seminar developed at the University of Salamanca (March of 2007) in the context of the investigational project TICDUS. This study was subsidized by the Ministry of Education and Science and performed by GITE-USAL (Group of Investigationinnovation of Educational Technology of the Salamanca University). The contributions of the Information and Communication Technologies are analyzed to improve the didactic processes related to the methodological change proposed by the European Program of Higher Education. The tutorship is considered a basic strategy for the students’ guidance, individualization and pursuit of learning in any pedagogic model. Yet this is even more apparent when we attempt methodologies that give the students more autonomy, as with the credits of the ECTS and the ICTs. These are appreciated as important and valuable resources to achieve the proposed ends. The good practices conflict with the difficulties of time, space, number of students, recognition of educational activity, etc. These indicate that the professors are factors of the current situation and can stand in the way of a true change towards greater learning and an increase in didactic efficacy.