Defining the role of the course coordinator in UWIDEC's blended learning/asynchronous delivery mode

Abstract

There is wide consensus that the online teaching/learning environment works best when participants conceive of themselves as belonging to and functioning within a community. This paper holds that community members must be clear about their respective roles and about the interrelationship among those roles. In the 2005-2006 academic year, the UWI Distance Education Centre made the shift from face-to-face to online tutoring as part of a movement to a blended learning/asynchronous delivery mode. In that context, emphasis was placed on articulating procedures for the functioning of three key stakeholders, namely course coordinator, tutors, and students. This paper describes some aspects of the course coordinator's role. It then locates the role within a theoretical framework built, in part, on the conception of the online environment as a community of inquiry, with special emphasis on its teaching presence dimension. The concepts of transactional distance and transactional control are also highlighted. The paper concludes by noting the implications of this new outlook for the overall role of the higher education practitioner