Context Analysis

Because tutorials take place in different surroundings the context analysis was done by observing several tutorials from different studies. In total three tutorial sessions were observed, of which one was a master course tutorial. Some of the teachers mentioned the restrictions of certain rooms and their preferences for the room in the interviews.

Observations

There were three different rooms that were observed. A room in Carre, a room in the Oost Horst and the SmartXp in the Zilverling. These rooms all differ from each other.

White board sign off The first observation was done in Carre, the tutorial session was special because they introduced a way of dealing with the raising hands problem in that session (seeQ.1). Namely, the students had to write down their name on the

white board when they were ready to sign off assignments. There were 42 students, 2 TAs and one teacher present at this tutorial. The queue on the board did solve the raising hands question but it wasn’t a fair system. When no one was looking students placed their names above other students, and students had put their name on the board before they were done estimating how many names were on the board and if they would be done when it was their turn if they would step into the queue at this point. The crossing off of the names went wrong a couple of times, resulting in the TA or teacher calling a name that was being helped at that moment by another TA. Also the students did not put their names below each other but made a garland within the predetermined column, this was confusing for the TAs and the teacher because they didn’t know who was first. Some students signed off their assignments individually and some as a group. The teacher needed 10 minutes on average to help students and the TAs 18 minutes. Most of the students that had to wait to be signed off were bored and doing something else on their phone or laptop. The room was too small for the teacher to walk around. The teacher had ordered extra power outlets so the students would all be able to plug in. If the TAs or the teacher wanted to help a student there were no chairs left next to the students, so they had to lean on a table or squat next to the students to be able to help. The teacher wanted the students to sign off after three to four assignments, but only 15 students did this, the other students all signed off all the assignments when they were done.

A lot of support per student The second observation session(see Q.2, was in the Oost Horst. This room was large with several projectors and five rows for the students to sit in. This session was not mandatory and started with 25 students and after two hours there were 32 students present. Next to the students there were two teachers and five TAs at the session. During the observation there were 35 raised hands of which 33 got attention. Almost all questions had a response time within half a minute. In the table inQ.2the front rows asked more questions than the rows behind them. On average students in the front asked 1.7 questions per student, in the middle 0.66 and in the back 0.86. However the TAs mentioned that it was less busy than the week before, so this is not a representation for all the tutorials of this course.

Master course The last observation was of a master course, the session took place in the Zilverling in the SmartXp room. For the full observation see Q.3. This course had too many students, so they decided to split the lab-sessions into two groups of 120 students. The room is a large rectangle with in the front a large projector screen and rows that are split in the middle, each side of a row can seat 4 students. For each side there is are mobile power outlets. On the left of the room

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there is a corridor. During the observations 30 students raised their hands, of which 6 out their hands down. Of the six students who lowered their hand one did this within 7 seconds from raising, the rest waited for more than a minute before they gave up, one of those waited for 3 minutes with his hand raised. On average the students had to wait for 40 seconds before they were helped. Per 16 students there was one supporting staff.

Cultural beliefs

It is expected of the students to show an active learning attitude and be proactive in asking for help. However, teachers and student assistants have noticed that stu- dents don’t always ask for help, and that students have a hard time to describe what their stuck with. If they are stuck students would first ask the teacher or TA for help and then their fellow students. The teacher and the TA are viewed as an all knowing source of information, instead of someone to help you figure out the solution. Stu- dents don’t like the hand raising and the waiting on their sign-off, especially when they can go after they are helped. Teachers who are present at the tutorials like to gather information about what the students find hard and their progress.

Activities

During tutorials students work in pairs, in some courses they are allowed to work in bigger groups, but generally pairs are made. Students work on their laptops to make assignments or to work on a project. When the student gets stuck or has a question they can ask a TA or the teacher for help. Online the students can look up references and other sources that help them solve the assignments. Most courses have a paper manual with the assignments and more info. Some courses have a book that contains information about the topics of the course. The students often need to sign off or hand in assignments to show their progress and their understanding of the concepts. If their would be a tool, then it should be intuitive and not ask extra time from the students and support to learn how to use the tool.

Socio-techno-spatial relations

Students bring their own laptops, usually with the needed software installed. Re- garding wearables all students have a smart phone, some students have a smart watch, and some have a tablet . The TAs all have a smartphone, a laptop, and some have a smart watch or tablet. Some of the teachers bring their laptop to the tuto- rials, most of the teachers have a smart phone, and some of the teachers have a smart watch. In the classrooms there is a computer located in the front of the room,

that can be accessed with all university accounts. It depends on the classroom how many power outlets are available and how many seats are in the room. When students don’t need help the teacher and TAs usually sit in the front of the room fac- ing the students. Sometimes the teacher or TAs walk around and ask the students questions about their work. When several TAs are not helping students it is com- mon for TAs to work on their own study material on their own laptop. Teachers can be seen grading or doing administrative work when they are not helping students. During the tutorial the students work in pairs, most of the time they both work on their own laptop on the same assignment, but sometimes students share a laptop. One of the teachers mentioned that especially during the first lecture when not all of the students managed to install the software it is common for the students to share a laptop. The work of the students is mainly private and only stored at their laptop. One course had an online hand in system, where the students had to hand in their solution to the assignments. In this system the teacher and TAs could access and review the hand ins of the students. When work or questions of students become accessible to all the user groups the work should be anonymous, because all the groups mentioned that it would be off-putting for students with performance anxiety. The students mentioned that they would like to see the questions of other students because it would help them see if other students had the same problems. Teachers and TAs declared that they would like more insight in the kind of questions that were asked, and that they would like to be able to help students with the same question together. For the technical support it is important that if an application is made that they can support it. To be able to support the application it has to be written in java and preferably be an LTI application.

Interaction with the outside world

According to the TAs the the first year bachelor students need to learn that they can search online to get an answer to their question, and then how to read the documentations online. The students often have several platforms, like Whatsapp, Facebook, and Slack, on which they share information and communicate with each other. Especially for programming languages their is a lot of online documentation. If students have a question outside the tutorial they usually email the teacher or ask it the next lecture, some teachers prefer the discussion board on the LMS over email. TAs do not like to answer questions outside the tutorials. TAs also do not like to answer questions online because it takes a lot of time to explain it by text instead of in person. Further, TAs made known that many students do not know what they want to know, so the TA has to ask follow-up questions to figure out what the question is and what the students knowledge is so far.

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