Online Tutoring

First, I am going to tackle online tutoring. There are so many great things and challenges to online tutoring. I will tackle the pros first them move on to some challenges that may present themselves.

Pros

1.Scheduling

Online tutoring opens up a world full of scheduling options that are just not available with in-person tutoring. For tutors, you can completely fill your schedule in ways that are not possible if you only tutor in-person.

Normally, after school hours are from around 3-8 pm. This is the prime time for tutoring students. When you tutor online after school hours can be anytime because you can have students from several different time-zones. You can fill your schedule up as much as you want to.

You also don’t have to drive from place to place so you can have sessions five minutes apart and make better use of your time.

For parents, if you go on vacation and are in a different time zone you don’t have to miss tutoring. You can have tutoring anywhere you just need a computer and an internet connection.

Online tutoring also opens you up to other tutors that don’t live in your area. If you find that all the good tutors in your area have their schedules booked in the times that you want. If you go with online tutoring then you have many more tutors to pick from. You can find great tutors that will work with your schedule even if those close to you can’t.

2. Getting Specialists

This is incredibly useful if you are wanting your child to learn a language from someone who is a native speaker of that language. This will help them learn the language in a more complete way. There really is nothing like a tutor that speaks the native language to teach that language.

Likewise, if you have foreign students that are wanting to come to America for college and they have to learn the system and the tests that are involved in getting into college in America or another country. It is helpful to have someone from that country that knows the system to teach your student. This is incredibly helpful for all of the standardized tests in America.

Tutors the fun thing for you is that you get to be those specialists, and the more you know the more that you can charge for your services.

3. No Travel

This is a huge pro of online tutoring. You don’t have to travel anywhere. It is amazing. As a tutor, you save precious time that would be used running from student to student. It also saves you on gas, wear and tear on your car etc.. It can be so much less stress not having to travel everywhere on a daily basis.

For parents, this is the case too if the tutor doesn’t come to you and you have to take your students to a center or a library. It saves you from that drive. Your students instead just get on their computer at home.

If you are at work it doesn’t matter you don’t have to be there with the student and tutor. They can just get on their computer and learn what they need to with a knowledgeable person.

Cons

1. Technology Issues

Rarely are technology issue ever debilitating to a tutoring session,  but it would be naive to say that they don’t exist. There usually will be some kind of technical issue.

If students or the tutor are not familiar with a program than it can present a problem when they try to use it. Also, there are just so many different types of programs and technology out there that it is hard to know everything.

That being said technology can be learned and problems can be overcome. I know that it is a joke in the IT community, but many things can be fixed by turning it off and on again.

Likewise, tutors, you need to learn the programs to be as much of assistance as possible to your student. It also makes you look more professional.

There is also technology needed to look professional. This can include a green screen, desk risers, a professional webcam, lighting, a headset, a digital writing tablet etc. The list can go on and on, and it can get expensive.

Do you need all this stuff, no. I get by with the webcam on my computer, a digital writing tablet, and I use boxes as a riser for my computer. My tutoring room also has excellent lighting though if it didn’t then I could not get by without lighting. It also is incredibly quiet which lets me get by without a headset. This may not be the case in your setting.

I also am more of an in-person tutor and have very few clients online. So it’s not a major way of growing my business, which allows me to get by without as much technology.

2. Engagement

There are also ways around this challenge. Tutors can make an online session just as engaging as an in-person one. However, there is always the risk that students will not be able to be as engaged.

This is especially true of younger students. It may be harder for tutors to keep them engaged or keep them focused enough on the task at hand. For student K-2, I would recommend that session be shorter: 30 minutes to an hour. This will make it so it is possible for them to be engaged.

Likewise, something I have noticed in online tutoring is correcting students becomes difficult. Especially, if a student does not have a digital writing pad or they don’t have access to an online whiteboard to write on the platform being used for tutoring. Then I have to wait until I am going over the problem with them to correct them. Instead, of being able to look over and if I see they are messing up correct them right away.

I also may not be able to see their work to see if they always keep messing up a certain step. It doesn’t make correcting them impossible just not as smooth.

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In-Person Tutoring

Now for in-person tutoring. I have more in-person clients, and I have to say I enjoy it more than online tutoring for many reasons. There are also things that are hard on the tutor’s side with in-person tutoring

Pros

1. Engagement

As much as engagement can be a struggle in online tutoring, this is where in-person tutoring really shines. It is much easier to keep a student engaged with in-person tutoring.

Likewise, there are just more activities that you can do. I have worked with preschoolers where I am playing games with them with letters and colors. I am having them color, read books together, and do crafts. This works very well in an in-person situation, but I don’t see that type of thing working in an online situation.

There are certain online games that I could do but it wouldn’t have the same hands-on approach of play and experimentation.

Likewise, I had a homeschool family that I worked with.  I would meet them in person and do tons of science experiments. We did an egg drop contest, made roller coasters out construction paper, toothpick towers, Popsicle stick bridges, and the list goes on and on.

This would not have been possible in an online setting. I could have given them the instructions, but I would not have been engaged with them doing the project. The parents would have to be way more engaged to make sure they were doing the project without me there to lead it.

2. Clear Guidance

This goes with correction. In- person tutoring makes it easier and faster to correct students when something goes wrong. You can look over at their paper and tell them what they are doing wrong to correct them right away.

I also find that I really get to know my in-person students more than my online students. I know many times about their family, what neighborhood their family lives in, and what their home life is like. This allows me to know their needs more closely and how I need to guide them. It also helps me make material which is more closely tailored to them and their interests. This means they are getting tailored guidance, which is exactly what students need.

For parents,  driving your students to a tutoring center may not be the most fun part of your day. It may even be impossible for you if you work. However, if the tutor comes to you then this challenge may not be a problem.

Cons

1. Driving

Driving is the worst. I live in Los Angeles, so I often have to plan at least 30 minutes if not 45 minutes to an hour between students just so I can make it to my next session on time.

Luckily, I meet many of my students five minutes away from my house at a library, but there are still ones that I go to their houses. The travel time is brutal, and I have put so many miles on my car this year from tutoring. For tutors, this has to be the biggest con.

For parents,  driving your students to a tutoring center may not be the most fun part of your day. It may even be impossible for you if you work. However, if the tutor comes to you then this challenge may not be a problem.

2. Limiting

In-person tutoring can be limiting. As a tutor, if you only tutor in-person, then you really only have the after school hours open for tutoring. There is the possibility of homeschool students, but in my experience, it can be hard to land these clients. You may want to work other times but students are in school, and you can’t expand your schedule with students from other time-zones if you only tutor in-person.

Parents, you may not be able to find good tutors in your area because all of them are booked in the times that you want. They may also if the tutor allows it, have to be put into tutoring classes with other students to fit their schedule. Then that doesn’t give them the one-on-one tutoring that they wanted.

It also limits the students and tutors from getting the global experience that they could have with online tutoring. Online tutoring can open up a world to them that they would not get from tutors in their area. For tutors, also it opens up new experiences with students, which you would not get in any setting other than online.

Which is better?

So which is better online or in-person? That is a question that you will have to answer for yourself, your business, and your students. I hope that you are better equipped to do that now. There are great things about each of these models and there are downfalls to each. This list above is by no means complete, and I would want my fellow tutors and parents to comment with their own lists below. I would love to hear your experiences and what you love about each of these models of tutoring.

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