DESIGN OF A COLLABORATIVE WORKSPACE FOR TUTORIAL ACTION

The aim of this paper is to describe the design of a collaborative workspace as support for the tutorial action of the Experimental Science Faculty at Jaén University.

The Tutorial Action Plan (Plan de Acción Tutorial, PAT) of the Experimental Science Faculty is a programme which promotes communication and interrelations between students and lecturers to identify the main formative needs and encourage the development of academic and professional skills. Each participant student has a lecturer (tutor) who provides personalized assistance, orientation and information during their university life. For this purpose, it is essential to use effective and fluent communication tools, which complement the classical ones: communication via e-mail and periodic personal interviews.

In this context, one of the challenges of the PAT coordination committee is to gather the most usual worries and questions from our students in order to give them fast and direct answers. For this purpose, a collaborative workspace has been designed using the e-learning platform ILIAS of our university. This workspace is an inter-connected environment where all the participants can access and interact with each other, regardless physical location or time differentials. All the documents and programmed activities are included in this space, thus being easily updated; a discussion forum is also available to share comments, questions or suggestions; and a wiki has been created to gather the frequently asked questions from our students.