Online Tutor

The Online Tutor allows you to direct questions to your tutor or lecturer via the Internet. Tutors generally attempt to answer your questions within 24 hours (weekdays only, although tutors will sometimes respond on weekends as well).

Your questions and the tutor’s answers can be accessed by all students in the subject, allowing everyone to benefit from the question and answer. Importantly, your identity will not be revealed to other students. Even if you don’t ask a question, you can still access the system and view existing questions and answers.

One of the many benefits of the Online Tutor is that it allows you to ask questions while you’re at home, so you can ask a question while you’re studying, when the question is fresh in your mind.

Please note that tutors/lecturers cannot give answers to upcoming or current assignments or online test questions, nor will they answer questions where the answer can be easily obtained from the textbook.

View the Student’s Guide to the Online Tutor.

Please note that usage guidelines apply to the Online Tutor. Your lecturer or tutor may provide additional guidelines relating to the subject being taught. The following are general guidelines that should be followed for all subjects that use the Online Tutor:

• You can post as many questions as you like, however, we ask that you look for the answer in the prescribed references before asking a question. If the answer can be easily located in one of the references, the tutor will refer you to the reference rather than provide you with the answer directly.
• Always search for an answer to your question before posting it to the system. If the answer to your question already exists, the tutor will most likely reply to you directly and ask you to search the Online Tutor question bank. Note that it’s worth spending some time searching through the question and answer bank as you’re more likely to receive an answer immediately, when the question is fresh in your mind.
• When writing your questions:
• Provide an accurate description of your question in the subject line. This will help other students who may have a similar question.
• If your question is about a reference, please include the title and author of the reference and page number(s).
• Tutors will not answer questions that relate directly to assessable work. In other words, the tutor will not do your assignments for you.
• Tutors generally attempt to answer your questions within 24 hours on weekdays, although they will sometimes respond on weekends as well. However, you should not expect the tutor to respond over the weekend.
• Always be polite when asking questions. Impolite language will not be tolerated. The tutor reserves the right to ban students who use inappropriate/impolite language from posting further questions.
• The Online Tutor usually closes a day or two before the exam date, although it is up to your lecturer to decide when the Online Tutor will be closed for the subject. When the Online Tutor is closed, you will still be able to view questions and answers, however, you will not be able to ask new questions.