Academic tutors in WhatsApp learning groups for a collaborative Knowledge Building community

Higher education can be innovated by designing learning communi ties of collaborative knowledge. The case presented here is about a ma ster course on e-learning designed following the Trialogical Learning Approach (TLA) and focusing on the knowledge creation processes, recommended by Knowledge Building (KB). Students work in groups using WhatsApp to build boundary objects under the guidance of academic and corporate tutors. Attention is posed to the self-percep tion of four academic tutors’, interviewed to gather information about two research questions: a) How do they conceive their adaptive role in supporting the collaborative construction of boundary objects? b) How do they perceive WhatsApp in supporting these collaborative processes? Through a two-level qualitative content analysis – oc currences and co-occurrences – it was found that they covered two functions: Task-oriented and relation-oriented. In conclusion, tutors are crucial mediators impacting learners’ effectiveness, expertise and self-confidence and they guide students toward autonomy.