The idea behind the modified tutorial is simple: establish a collaborative relationship between faculty members and students that blends intellectual freedom and guided direction. To do this, the model proposes that classes are converted into smaller, tutorial groups that meet together with the faculty member on a weekly basis. These tutorial sessions replace large-group class meetings, enabling a stronger sense of connection, focus, and attention during conversations. Because instruction is more individual, students are more responsible for what they bring to the class and become more conscious of how they are working to develop as thinkers. Furthermore, the faculty member has more flexibility both in terms of the material and skills each tutorial covers and in adapting the physical and technological environment each group might require.
This option takes its cue from the tutorial system used in Oxford and Cambridge, in which a single student or a small group of 2-3 students meets weekly with a faculty member. The tutorial session itself is used to discuss the reading for the week, as well as a paper the students have written and turned in before the tutorial. This is the flipped-classroom coupled with individualized attention and accountability.
In this option, the instructor records weekly video lectures on the assigned material (either one longer lecture or—perhaps preferably—a number of shorter bite-size lectures) for students to watch asynchronously. Instead of full-class meetings, students meet with the instructor on a weekly basis in smaller groups of 4-8 for 45-60 minutes (depending on the total size of the class). For example, in a class of 24 students, there might be 3 groups of 8 students each meeting with the professor for one hour a week.
In this option, the class is broken up into several groups of 3-5 students. Each class session, one group “takes the floor” and holds a discussion among themselves about the texts or topics for the day. This can either be paired with a pre-writing assignment or a short video lecture and a series of discussion prompts, and/or a small group meeting between the panel and the instructor. During the class session, the students in the panel, along with the instructor, discuss either their writing or the prompts, engaging with the material much as they would in a regular seminar class.