Meeting of doctors at the university of Paris

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

, a tutorial is a method of transferring knowledge and may be used as a part of a

learning Learning is the process of acquiring new understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, value (personal and cultural), values, Attitude (psychology), attitudes, and preferences. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, non-human animals, and ...

process. More

interactive Across the many fields concerned with interactivity, including information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, communication, and industrial design, there is little agreement over the meaning of the term "interactivity", but mo ...

and specific than a

book A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, ...

or a

lecture A lecture (from ) is an oral presentation intended to present information or teach people about a particular subject, for example by a university or college teacher. Lectures are used to convey critical information, history, background, theo ...

, a tutorial seeks to teach by example and supply the information to complete a certain task. A tutorial can be taken in many forms, ranging from a set of instructions to complete a task to an interactive problem solving session (usually in academia).

Academia

Tutorial class

In British

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

parlance {{Short pages monitor; a class of six to eight students is a far more common tutorial size. At Cambridge, a tutorial is known as a supervision. In

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

, and South African universities, a tutorial (colloquially called a tute or tut) is a class of 10–30 students. Such tutorials are very similar to the Canadian system, although, tutorials are usually led by

honours Honour (Commonwealth English) or honor (American English; see spelling differences) is a quality of a person that is of both social teaching and personal ethos, that manifests itself as a code of conduct, and has various elements such as valo ...

postgraduate Postgraduate education, graduate education, or graduate school consists of academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications usually pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor' ...

students, known as 'tutors'. At the two campuses of St. John's College, U.S. and a few other American colleges with a similar version of the

Great Books A classic is a book accepted as being exemplary or particularly noteworthy. What makes a book "classic" is a concern that has occurred to various authors ranging from Italo Calvino to Mark Twain and the related questions of "Why Read the Cl ...

program, a "tutorial" is a class of 12–16 students who meet regularly with the guidance of a tutor. The tutorial focuses on a certain subject area (e.g., mathematics tutorial, language tutorial) and generally proceeds with careful reading of selected primary texts and working through associated exercises (e.g., demonstrating a Euclid proof or translating ancient Greek poetry). Since formal lectures do not play a large part in the St. John's College curriculum, the tutorial is the primary method by which certain subjects are studied. However, at St. John's the tutorial is considered ancillary to the

seminar A seminar is a form of academic instruction, either at an academic institution or offered by a commercial or professional organization. It has the function of bringing together small groups for recurring meetings, focusing each time on some part ...

, in which a slightly larger group of students meets with two tutors for broader discussion of the particular texts on the seminar list. Some US colleges, such as

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim ...

, offer tutorials almost identical in structure to that of an

Oxbridge Oxbridge is a portmanteau of the University of Oxford, Universities of Oxford and University of Cambridge, Cambridge, the two oldest, wealthiest, and most prestigious universities in the United Kingdom. The term is used to refer to them collect ...

tutorial. At Williams, students in tutorials typically work in pairs alongside a professor and meet weekly, while alternately presenting position papers or critiques of their partner's paper.

Tutorial schools

There are also specialized schools for tutoring such as,

Kumon is an educational network based in Japan and created by Toru Kumon. It uses his "Kumon Method" to teach mathematics and reading, primarily to young students. History Kumon was founded by Toru Kumon, a Japanese educator, in July 1958, when ...

and EduHub. These supplemental hands-on learning programs are especially popular in Asia.

Conference tutorials

Offered as a service or deliverable to its members, conference tutorials are one example of a continuing education activity sponsored by a technical and professional association.

Private study

A tutorial in high schools in the United States may also mean a session for

homework Homework is a set of tasks assigned to students by their teachers to be completed at home. Common homework assignments may include required reading, a writing or typing project, Exercise (mathematics), math problems to be completed, informatio ...

or other private study.

Education

In documentation and instructional design, tutorials are teaching-level documents that help the learner progress in skill and confidence. Tutorials can take the form of a screen recording (

screencast A screencast is a digital recording of computer screen output, also known as a video screen capture or a screen recording, often containing audio narration. The term ''screencast'' compares with the related term ''screenshot''; whereas screenshot ...

), a written document (either online or downloadable), interactive tutorial, or an audio file, where a person will give step by step instructions on how to do something. Tutorials usually have the following characteristics: * A presentation of the view usually explaining and showing the user the user interface * A demonstration of a process, using examples to show how a workflow or process is completed; often broken up into discrete modules or sections. * Some method of review that reinforces or tests understanding of the content in the related module or section. * A transition to additional modules or sections that builds on the instructions already provided. Tutorials can be ''linear'' or ''branching''. While many writers refer to a mere list of instructions or tips as a tutorial, this usage can be misleading.

Computer-based tutoring

In computer-based education, a tutorial is a computer program whose purpose is to assist users in learning how to use parts of a

software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

product such as an

office suite Productivity software (also called personal productivity software or office productivity software) is application software used for producing information (such as documents, presentations, worksheets, databases, charts, graphs, digital paintin ...

or any other application, operating system interface, programming tool, or

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

. There are three kinds of software tutorials: 1) video tutorials that the user views, 2)

tutorials where the user follows on-screen instructions (and—in some cases—watches short instruction movies), whereupon they do the tutorial exercises and receives feedback depending on their actions; and 3)

webinar Web conferencing is used as an umbrella term for various types of online conference, conferencing and collaborative services including webinars (web seminars), webcasts, and web meetings. Sometimes it may be used also in the more narrow sense of ...

s where users participate in real-time lectures,

online tutoring Online tutoring is the process of tutoring in an online, virtual, or networked, environment, in which teachers and learners participate from separate physical locations. Aside from space, participants can also be separated by time. Online tutorin ...

, or workshops remotely using web conferencing software.

References

{{wikiquote, Explanations Educational practices