Roles and Competencies of Distance Education Tutors in a Public University

This study was conducted to determine the roles and competencies of distance education tutors in public universities. The main objectives of the research were to identify these roles and competencies based on student perceptions, to find out whether there is any significant relationship between selected demographic factors and their roles and competencies as well as to determine whether any gap exists between their required and acquired competencies. The research deployed the survey methodology, where 128 (60.38%) out of 212 respondents completed the distributed questionnaires. The results showed that the social role is the most important role for a distance education tutor to perform, while managerial competencies are the most important competencies they should possess. The findings indicated that there are significant relationships between the respondents gender, the distance between their residences and the learning centre, their level of experience with internet tools, their level of interaction with their tutors outside the tutorial sessions and the roles and competencies of their tutors. The study also found that gaps exist between the required and acquired competencies among distance education tutors, with the biggest gap being in pedagogical competencies and the smallest in social competencies.