Which is best? Online or in-person tutoring?
You want to be sure you are getting your child a quality education. A tutor can affect the students future to a great degree. Not only current class grades are affected but future classes and even college. The students attitude and employment can also be affected by the tutors they have had.
There are now options to as how, where, when, and the number of tutors available. Today’s online chat programs and educational software offer a great number of programs and type of tutors. Now you can even get an online college degree.
But for most parents or businesses the question of does online tutoring or online classes yield good results is hard to answer. There are pros and cons to either one.
What is online tutoring?
Online tutoring is teaching by using the internet. The student and teacher might use computers, cell phones. white boards, email, or various of available chat programs. Some online schools might have their own software. Due to the evolution of technology there are many variations as to the learning methods and how the student and tutor interact.
The most common tutoring is one-on-one tutoring. However, there is also group classes and peer tutoring. The one-on-one might be live tutoring or done by email so a student can submit a question and the tutor will answer ASAP.
Peer tutoring connects fellow students and they tutor each other or his may also be conducted as online tutoring over an online conferencing interface.
Benefits of online tutoring
Online tutoring offers great flexibility. No travel time wasted and no need to pay the tutors time to travel.
The tutor can be next door or on the other side of the world. This also allows for a larger pool of tutors to choose from since the subject you wish to learn may not be available locally.
Another advantage is the cost of the tutor. Online tutors don’t have travel time or expenses so they can charge less. Also, depending upon the course, having a tutor from a different country may be considerably cheaper.
Online tutoring downside
No hands on training can be a problem for some courses and students. Some younger children might learn better in a group setting where they can get ideas by watching what others are doing.
Another problem might be student discipline. It is easy to be late or change dates of sessions and this procrastination could be a problem. Also, the student might have others in the room or a tv on or music or they might be using a cell phone. For online tutoring to be effective there needs to be motivation and good study habits.
Benefits of person to person tutoring
It is almost impossible to replace person to person learning.
The tutor can be motivational and this can lead to better results. Younger students might not work well on their own and might need to interact with in-person tutoring.
A private tutor can session can be similar to the classroom. There is no wasted time for the student to learn the latest technology. No internet problems and no computer issues.
To acquire social skills, a students need to be exposed to face-to-face interactions that involve reading body language and other factors such as personality and tone of voice.
In person tutoring allows for the use of different tools such as flash cards or even games to the younger students. Demonstration in person is often very useful.
In general, in person tutoring is far more flexible and adaptable to the different needs of students.
There is no question that online learning has many advantages. For the older working student or for the student who is learning for the sake of a hobby, business program or learning a software program, virtual might not only be an excellent way to go, it might be the only way to go since in today’s world there are so many areas of interest and things to learn that are just not taught in a classroom.