Action plan on communication practices: roles of tutors at EMU Distance Education Institute to overcome social barriers in constructing knowledge

The research involved action plan for the improvement of Distance Education Institute for quality mission of Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU) based on European University Association (EUA) norms. My project contributed online pedagogy and teaching process for online tutors. Research aimed to stress the importance of communication process and investigate roles of tutors in facilitating communication to construct knowledge in online learning-teaching process. The research has inductive nature that action research approach was employed to change professional practices of tutors through collaborative activities. Therefore, focus group, trainings, in-depth interviews, self-report and research diary were used as data collection techniques in this qualitative research. Content analysis was implemented to analyze triangulated data. The research results revealed that tutors were novices on online pedagogy and they had no prior knowledge on the importance of communication and socialization to help students construct knowledge in their learning process. My research puts forward to gaining in-depth understanding on how to teach online courses based on Salmon’s five stage model. My research project provided change and development which contributed professional development of the tutors in online pedagogy. As online pedagogy is one of the critical factors to reach out quality improvements, my research filled the gap on the roles of tutors in facilitating communication to construct knowledge by practical and collaborative work of the professionals. In this respect, I as insider researcher and the participants gained reward of the professional learning and experiences from the learning cycle of the participatory action research.