Distance education and online tutorials: an analysis of the interactions between the tutorial-teacher and the student trainee

Distance education is growing rapidly and professionals involved in this process need to empower themselves to keep pace with technology developments and new teaching methodologies. Among such teaching professionals, we can also find the teacher-tutor i.e. the person whose role it is to guide, encourage, motivate, and help build students develop their careers as well as maximize their learning. Within this perspective, this paper aims to highlight how the course titled "Training Tutors" prepares participants to become a "tutor". The second phase consisted of researching the performance of these tutors as facilitators and mentors in the course "Assistive Technology -. 4th edition", which was held at the Universidade Estadual Paulista in conjunction with the Open University of Brazil, i.e. in the distance education format. Research in this case is defined according to the concepts of the qualitative approach to teaching. Initially, we prepared a literature review, which was followed by semi-structured interviews consisting of four tutors, namely those individuals who completed the training course and who participated in the course titled: "Assistive Technology". In addition to the data collection, we analyzed the teaching materials and the feedback from the interactions and mediations between the tutorial trainers (experts) and trainee teachers (professors), and the tutors and the trainees (students), i.e. in forums and in other Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) activities. The analysis of the information and data shows that trainees were sufficiently trained and prepared to perform adequately and effectively the activities of: teaching, mediation, guidance, and training. With regard to the types of behavior considered in the analysis, it was considered important for all trainees to: identify problems, provide feedback, be autonomous, and promote interaction. Identifying problems, promoting interaction and providing feedback were reported as being essential in the interactions between the tutor and the trainee, especially in forums and chats in the virtual learning environment, although it was observed that the tutors acted somewhat autonomously during the Assistive Technology course.