Online tutoring?

[OliveHelper]

Hoping I could get some advice or thoughts on online tutoring- how effective is it, what have you tired for your kids and has it worked?

We are a very busy household and have kids busy at all different times. I am hoping I could hear what anyone has to say about working online as it would make things a lot easier for us. General tutoring but also any experience of online speech therapy for kids would be helpful?

Looking forward to hearing your experiences!

I tutor online as well as F2F and it works brilliantly for most. The students it doesn't work so well for are those without a quiet space, decent tech or who don't really want to be tutored. If the child is motivated and your tech set up is decent, then it can work really well. My online students pass rates are as good as my F2F ones.

As a parent, I've used several online tutors for my daughter and been very happy.

I think that as long as the child is motivated and engaged, it works very well.

I agree. To be fair this applies to face to face tuition as well. Many parents believe otherwise, but spending money on any tuition where the child is not interested in learning/engaging is a waste of money.

DD has an English tutor at the moment. We originally wanted F2F but the local tutoring organisation that we had been recommended said that one of their most highly regarded tutors had an available slot for online tutoring. She has been fantastic for DD and she is really thriving under her tuition, going for online tutoring means we have a much wider pool of tutors to draw on.

Obviously how good the tutoring is will come down to the individual tutor and how engaged the child is.

We use an online company for tutoring and they're great! We don't have any (good!) tutors near where we live, so face to face wasn't really an option. I think my kids are quite used to online and aren't really aware that there's a difference (they facetime my sister who lives abroad most weeks, and to them it's no different to seeing her in real life to be perfectly honest!)
I think you need to find a good one though. My kid's tutors are all very 'hands on' and constantly talking and going through things - my friend had one who would set a worksheet and then disappear off for half an hour (obviously teaching other students!!!!) and then pop back in for 5 minutes at the end.

Hi OliveHelper,
I can definitely share some thoughts on online tutoring! As a busy parent myself, I understand the challenge of juggling different schedules and activities. We’ve been using online tutoring for my child through Tyneside Tutors, and it has been a game-changer for us.

I just wanted to answer about the value of online tutoring. I am a tutor and teach both face to face and online. I would like to assure you that a good tutor would make online teaching as valuable and successful as F2F. There should really be no profound difference between the two. Children are nowadays used to learn digitally; however, it is all down to the style, experience and approach of the tutor. Children can be equally engaged, but sometimes, for younger children, it is necessary to involve the parents in the process. My younger children benefit from having an adult by their side and the adults tell me that they enjoy learning about the subject, how to extend their child and how to offer continuity to the learning. I personally let the parents know what each lesson is about, give verbal feedback at the end of each lesson, followed by an email and homework. When necessary, I offer ideas and support to the parents on how to help with homework, explanations and practice. All things which would also be done in face-to-face lessons.

Just so long as the tutor is tech savvy and the pupil is engaged then online is great. Most tutors honed their online skills during Covid.

Going online offers more flexibility in tutor choice and session timings. I have picked up a number of Economics and Business students from various colleges as I offer day time tutoring. Plus I am providing literacy support to a Key Stage 3 student from 4pm once a fortnight.

Finding the best person for your child is probably more important than the online/F2F debate, I think.

I do both, mainly because of the geographical locations involved.

To give you an idea of online things that might be useful for your child, I set up a shared drive with every child, where they get resources specifically for the units they are studying with me, over and above what we do in lessons. It can be homework, or stuff I have used in the classroom over the last 12 years, or simply alternative resources for their particular needs. In the lesson itself, I share screens and we work collaboratively on a document which is then shared in the drive.

And - for safeguarding reassurance, at least one parent is copied in on all emails, and has access to the shared drive too.

I know this is quite an old thread, but in case you’re still reading it, one advantage of online is that zooms can be recorded to rewatch.

From a tutoring point of view, there a few disadvantages to online tutoring:

1. You cannot always see the child if they are very wriggly and move around all the time. I sometimes find myself talking to the oven/cupboard etc....if the child disappears from frame/screen it's not always obvious what they are doing if they don't say.
2. If a child is studying for exams and I am asking them to do a mock exam, I cannot see exactly how they are interacting with the paper, how long they are spending on each question etc.
3. I miss being able to intuit when they are upset/struggling/getting bored - it's much easier to pick up face to face, I can feel and see the emotions better.
4. Children can get easily distracted by the tech/emoticons/backgrounds/playing with the microphone etc.
5. I find there tend to be more interruptions online - people walking past, hoovering, cooking, dogs coming in, siblings interrupting etc etc.
6. Technology breaks down. Connections lost, internet intermittent, batteries not charged etc etc.

I've still had good results from online tutoring and there are often ways around the problems. It's certainly a good way to avoid all the travelling that comes with face to face tuition.

I can definitely vouch for online tutoring, but then I'm biased, as I'm an online English tutor! What I will say is that it's both convenient for parents/busy students, who may not have time to get to lessons, and in my experience it is as interactive as face-to-face. There are so many brilliant platforms (aside from Zoom) that can be used nowadays where students can write and edit materials. There are additional advantages too: lessons can be recorded to watch again, and all work can be stored in one place. My year 11 tutees from last year all did brilliantly in their GCSEs, and were exclusively tutored online. Hope that helps, Best wishes, Verity

Hi, happy to help… We’ve been using a 1-to-1 online tutoring site: youth-in-action.com . It’s run by some lovely secondary school students who do it all for free and my DD has been finding it really useful so far! The girls have really kept her engaged and set her tasks to do at home and i can see a really clear change in her performance so far…