Online Tutoring - What Parents Should Know Before They Start

Whether you are curious about how online tutoring works or are actively searching for an online tutor for your family, this article outlines what parents should know before they start online tutoring. Moreover, we identify five advantages of online tutoring as a complement to traditional schooling and contrast it with in-person tutoring.

What is online tutoring?

Online tutoring is a form of teaching or educational instruction that supports formal schooling. It often occurs one-on-one but may also be conducted in a group setting and happens in real-time while the student and tutor are connected to the internet. The prerequisites for online tutoring require tutors to register on a tutoring marketplace and list the subjects they wish to instruct and for a client to also be registered to state the subject they need tutoring lessons for.

How does online tutoring work?

Thanks to continuous developments in technology, there are more sophisticated ways of engaging in learning via the internet to ensure that tutors and learners can make the most of their lessons, providing a positive impact on their academic development.

Most companies provide online classrooms with collaborative features and tools to assist in your engagement with the tutor. Moreover, real-time video chat is available through online learning tools. An interactive whiteboard is accessible for activities like uploading files, sketching grammar rules, and working out mathematical problems step-by-step.

How online tutoring works depends on the resources supplied to you and the tutor if you work with a business specialising in tutoring. In terms of interactive features, ZOOM and Skype are examples of software which offer real-time video and screen sharing but are limited in providing in-software tools necessary for an interactive experience.

What does an online tutor do?

Online tutors are often educators who are either qualified teachers, professionals in their industry, or students pursuing higher education. Online tutors have the expertise, aptitude, and drive to assist learners in improving their proficiency in a specific subject area. Most online tutors have a particular area of expertise, such as teaching or tutoring Languages, mathematics, or physical science.

A good tutor should provide students experiencing difficulties with improving their performance or preparing for graded assessments, such as entrance examinations and grade-level assessments, with guidance on test preparation and test-taking strategies.

Online tutors create and provide personalised lesson plans that address their students' academic circumstances, such as learning styles, academic challenges and goals.

Is online tutoring safe?

As a parent, we understand that your child's safety is a primary concern, and you want to know that the person educating your child has been carefully verified.

Most companies require online tutors to undergo a criminal background check, just as they would for face-to-face tutoring. You should expect reputable tutoring companies to give you information about their recruitment and background-checking procedures so that you can make an informed decision about getting a tutor.

If a business is rigid or reluctant to share this information with you, it would be best to look into the services of another company, as you won't know whether the tutors on their database are legitimate or have had their criminal backgrounds checked.

5 Benefits of online tutoring:

Want to know if online tutoring is suitable for your child? Here are 5 benefits to provide a clear picture:

Learning takes place in an environment in which your child feels most comfortable.
It is more cost-effective than face-to-face tutoring.
Online tutoring is more convenient and enables flexibility.
The teaching approach and pedagogy are aligned with unique student requirements.
A break from traditional learning allows your child to take ownership of their learning.

Let’s take a closer look at each benefit of online tutoring:

Learning in comfort:

Nothing quite triumphs over learning in the comfort of your home without having to drive to a specified location (i.e. school) to receive additional lessons for academic support. Although wearing pyjamas or loungewear is encouraged so your child feels more comfortable and ready to acquire and retain knowledge, having a workable space is crucial to help with increased productivity.

What does a productive workspace look like?

A learning environment that inspires your child is more likely to help them focus and stay motivated to give their best in every lesson.
A desk set up with textbooks neatly organised and with homework, tests and assignments in a central location.
A quiet and secluded space from common areas to help eliminate distractions from interfering with lesson proceedings (if you have a younger child, you can still monitor their online tutorial without distracting the lesson by ensuring that there is no background noise).
Not having a tutorial in bed should be a non-negotiable as you want your child to associate their bed with good sleep, not studying. Moreover, learning with the appropriate posture (i.e. sitting on a chair by a desk) signals to the brain that you’re in study mode.

Affordability:

Face-to-face tutorials are widely accepted to be more expensive due to logistical considerations such as travelling to a specific location to conduct lessons, which is usually at an extra cost to the tutor (which their tutoring fees will cover).

Online tutoring becomes the most cost-efficient way to receive additional academic instruction without compromising learning quality. Besides your study materials, you should only need a computer with an internet connection and a webcam. Should noise-cancelling headphones be required, this might be an additional purchase (i.e. you live by a busy train station).

Convenience and flexibility:

Your child's formal education undoubtedly takes up a significant portion of their daily schedule, and tutoring would only be used to augment it. When considering how to arrange a time for tutoring, one of the benefits of online tutoring is that you may choose a time that is most convenient for you and your child's calendar, ensuring that no overlapping events occur.

You may reschedule cancelled lessons with your tutor online, and if they are unavailable in a particular slot, you have access to a database of thousands of instructors who can fill in a gap on that day. Not all tutoring businesses have the ability or resources to find and assign you a replacement tutor that meets your child's academic needs, but education management companies like Teach Me 2 do since they specialise in matching families with their perfect tutor.

Personalised learning:

Personalised learning allows students to communicate and learn in a way that works best for them, increasing their chances of understanding the material better. As a result, there is a decrease in the likelihood of frequent miscommunications between your child and the tutor.

It is perfectly natural for students to reach a stage in their academic careers where they feel overwhelmed by institutional and maybe familial demands to achieve above-average grades. Perhaps at this time, your child is at a loss on how to elevate their grades in any particular subject. Enlisting the help of a private tutor is one proven way to rebuild confidence in your child’s studies and boost their grades.

One-on-one tutoring will help your child to overcome learning obstacles, navigate learning expectations, and accomplish learning goals with the help of individually tailored teaching and learning. Your child will then benefit from the advantages of one-on-one lessons, such as enhanced comprehension, memory recall, and application of consolidated knowledge.

Adaptability to different modes of instruction:

Traditional instruction in a classroom with one teacher and 20+ learners can make learning challenging as it limits opportunities for engagement, as well as a critique of the effectiveness of teaching techniques. However, if your child has more autonomy over how lessons are delivered, they can feel more at ease to ask as many questions as they want to without the fear of being teased or interrupted by classmates.

Furthermore, the pace at which learning occurs aims to suit their unique learning abilities. Getting an online tutor for your child can prove to be the most effective learning mode as it involves active participation and listening between your child and a tutor.