We love to hear from you! Send your questions and comments to voice@ausu.org, and please indicate if we may publish your letter.
RE: The Value of Discussion, v14i4
I really enjoyed the recent article by Rebecca Brewer, “The Value of Discussion at Athabasca University.” She makes a valid point, one that I had not really thought about, but now I realize that I have been missing out, too. AUSU should post a survey, and possibly take this issue to AU, in my opinion. I have had study buddies that are in the same boat as her, living overseas and the time difference not allowing any tutor contact besides email, which can be very frustrating. Thank you Rebecca for bringing this issue to light.
Andrea in Alberta
Hi Andrea. This is a good point. One thing you should know is that we’ve had a few students comment about the difficulty of contacting a tutor during regular hours when they live overseas. It’s a difficult issue to address, but perhaps more online asynchronous communications tools would address this. I know the university is experimenting with some new software, and we hope it will address this issue and provide more of a community environment, while preserving the option to work in isolation for the many students who prefer that and choose AU for this reason.
