ABSTRACT

The Tutor: who is he? (Barbara Ciani)

The article deals with the profession of a Tutor, that is very important inside the learning and training world. Within the context of a training course, a Tutor takes different tasks: he replies to questions pertaining to organisation, gives explanations of the subject of the course, gives teaching equipment, provides students for an help-desk service, give them incentives to act well and support them, even appraises what they have carried out.
Collins and Berge identify three kinds of tutorship, according to the training context he works in:

- Tutor Instructor: this kind of tutorship is well known in Italy; it carries out e-learning lessons, taking advantages of new technologies, as means of distribution of contents;
- Tutor Facilitator: in this case, Tutor becomes more and more an acting guide, able to strengthen students' skills, making them more and more taking part in the training course;
- Tutor Moderator: in this case, Tutor becomes an observer in comparison with the learning community and takes the task to create an informal environment. Able to foster friendship and coperation, spurring the attendance of all the members of the community.