Interaction and feedback on performance are essential elements of the language learning process. On a distance-learning course, since opportunities for interaction may be limited, feedback plays a crucial role in opening and maintaining a dialogue between tutors and students. Using text analysis, questionnaire and interview data, this study explores both tutor and student perspectives on the feedback offered on a distance language course. It finds that there are considerable individual differences in the feedback offered by tutors and there is also variation in the type of feedback the students want and their reported uses of it. The article suggests that more training for both tutors and students is necessary to adequately exploit feedback's potential in a distance-learning context.
[Copyright of Open Learning is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02680510120084959]

A total of 712 students of the Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK) - sampled from high achievers and low achievers, as defined by their performances in their overall course scores in four consecutive semesters--participated in the study. An instrument, the Survey of Students' Study Preferences and Habits, developed and validated for the study was also used to collect data from the students who participated. The data collected through this instrument were complemented with in-depth telephone interviews using a sub-set of 32 from the main study sample.The analysis of the data, using both qualitative and quantitative methods which included descriptive and inferential statistics, showed very interesting patterns of differences in locus of control and the use of mctacognitivc strategics by low achievers and high achievers. For instance, high achievers rated themselves significantly higher than low achievers (p<. 01) in a number of scales such as confidence with studies, ability to cope well with studying in distance learning mode, and motivation by the need to avoid failure. High achievers indicated a significantly higher use of effective learning strategies than did low achievers (p <.01).
[Copyright of Distance Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0158791990200206]

Good tutoring requires appropriate interpersonal and pedagogical skills. Tutor personality is a major factor affecting how tutors communicate and deals with students, and yet it is a largely unexplored context of distance education. Using the Chinese Personality Assessment Inventory (CPAI)* this paper examines how the personality of tutors' affects their teaching effectiveness at a distance learning institution in Hong Kong. The results are compared to those reported by Chan (2001) in a similar study using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). The results indicate that certain scales on the Chinese Tradition factor of the CPAI are significantly related to tutors' teaching performance, and that the MBTI could not subsume all the CPAI scales. Future research with the CPAI should explore whether this Chinese Tradition factor is unique to the Chinese culture or whether it comprises elements of a universal domain useful in understanding key interpersonal aspects of personality that have been absent from Western personality inventories.
[Copyright of International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning is the property of International Rice Research Institute.
Access via Directory of Open Access Journals: http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/index]

This paper reports on a study which investigates the implementation of a synchronous e-learning system (Interwise) for online tutorials on an information technology related course offered by the Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK). It examines a set of interview data related to students' and tutors' views on the use of the system. Issues concerning students' participation in online tutorials, opportunities for interaction in using the system, and tutors' roles in real-time conferences are discussed. The findings suggest that both the students and tutors are positive about the use of Interwise for online tutorials in general. Some students, however, indicate dissatisfaction with the one-way communication and teacher-control functionalities of the system. The results also indicate that the tutors are concerned about the workload involved in using Interwise in terms of managing the functionalities of the system and the different learning tasks. Implications are then drawn for supporting synchronous online learning both in the OUHK and a wider academic context.
[Copyright of International Review of Research in Open & Distance Learning is the property of Athabasca University.
Access via Directory of Open Access Journals: http://www.irrodl.org]