No one could have predicted the huge effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the whole world. Over a year later we are still settling in and getting used to the changes in our daily lives.
One of the most critical aspects of daily life is education, which has, for the most part, transitioned into online learning for the safety of everyone involved.
Online tutoring, which is face-to-face online lessons can be incredibly effective, but many children continue to have difficulty with one particular subject – maths. Let’s look at this further.
Is Online Tutoring Really Effective?
Tutors, students, schools, colleges, and, of course, parents are all invested in making online maths tutoring work. During the years of development, the advantages and benefits of online tutoring have been identified allowing providers to offer highly effective courses that get good results.
Benefits of Online Tutoring
There was much scepticism about the efficiency of online tutoring when the world was compelled to turn to it as the COVID-19 pandemic set in. However, over a year later it cannot be denied that this method has undoubtedly proven its worth. Give the right tools and training, online tutoring offers many benefits.
Here’s a quick overview of the perks:
Better One to One Experience
The kind of focus and connection created during a one-on-one online lesson is unparalleled and incredibly beneficial to your child’s learning. Our Guernsey maths tutors are able to focus all their attention on your child’s progress as all lessons are one-to-one, which accelerates students’ progress.
Tutors are able to follow all aspects of your child’s learning process, identify their strengths and weaknesses, and track their development over time. Many of these students do extremely well in their GCSE maths exam and continue to A levels and further study.
Readiness of Material
Another significant benefit to online, face-to-face tutoring is the variety and readiness of material at the fingertips of your online maths tutor. This vast array of resources would be much harder to collate in real-world tutoring sessions. No matter where face to face sessions take place: the tutor’s house, the student’s house, or via a tutoring centre, generally only past papers and notes are available to look at.
Conversely, if you find the right tutor for your child’s online math tuition, they will be able to offer engaging videos and PowerPoint slideshows, as well as having access to electronic resources that cater to all types of learners.
Nowadays, there is a huge variety of software packages available to online tutors, specially designed not just for the process of learning online, but for online maths tuition in particular. This enables your child’s tutor to choose the resources that best match your child’s learning skills.
Correlation Between Fun and Education
This is another aspect that was considered a dilemma when online teaching started back in 2020. Would students be able to switch from the ‘fun mentality’ of using their computers and iPads for games and chat, to being able to fully focus on online lessons as if they were in a proper classroom?
The success of this transition relied not just on the work of the online tutors but on the dedication of busy parents as well. They had to provide a quiet, distraction-free environment to put their children in the mood for online teaching and build confidence in the fact that they were being educated just as before, but in a different way.
One advantage of course, was that students already had a love relationship with their electronic devices and were more than familiar with using them for hours on end.
Hence, fitting their online maths tuition into their day and getting to know new software systems and technologies, such as screen sharing and interactive whiteboards, made online learning a better option for many parents and children as they spotted faster progress with O-levels and A-levels alike.
No Judgement
In-person tutoring has suffered from a bit of stigma; some people see it as an option for weaker students who need extra tuition. As a result, some children are reluctant to take part in online tutoring to avoid being labelled that way.
However, with online maths tuition, any perceived stigma is removed as the child is safe at home, away from prying eyes, while still enjoying the benefits and functionalities of the best online maths tutors.
This is very likely to have a beneficial impact on the outcome of children’s assessments as any worry about other children knowing about their grade or making fun of them is removed.
No Need to Acclimatise
Many of us have experienced the effects that transferring to a new environment can have. Moving to a new school or a new job can have negative effects on your mental health and focus.
Having to acclimatise to a new environment can take up a lot of effort and energy, so another benefit to online maths tutoring where students are safely ensconced in their own homes is that there is no need for them to divert energy that should be centred on learning.
It’s important that students are able to focus wholly and entirely on their lessons, homework, and making their way to the university level, one step at a time.
New Technologies and Programs
In a little over a year and a half, online teaching has evolved exponentially every day. There are many new programs, technologies, and extensions that improve the experience of online learning.
The same applies to online maths tutoring; there are an impressive number of dedicated programs available to help students and tutors alike to reach their goals.
Some programs allow for the work done by students outside tutoring sessions to be recorded for tutors to review and analyse in order that future lessons can be targeted in the right areas.
A Variety of Online Tutors
Last but certainly not least, it’s worth noting the variety of online tutors available. With classroom tutoring, parents have little choice but to opt for one of the tutors available within their vicinity, due to travel time and costs.
Conversely, online tutoring, allows parents to choose a maths tutor from literally anywhere in the world to help their child. The best online math tutors are now available to any child regardless of location.
Adapting to an Online Tutoring
The transition from classroom tuition to online tuition has been somewhat of a roller coaster ride for students and parents alike. However, it has been an even greater roller coaster for teachers and tutors who have had to adjust all of their teaching materials and techniques in order to adapt to this new normal. Yet, they have not only matched their previous high standards, but in many ways, exceeded them. Many education experts agree that online tutoring is more comfortable, more effective and offers greater value for money that in-person teaching.
With the elimination of overheads such as the upkeep of tutoring centres and travel expenses, payment rates for online math tutors have improved and the time allocated to each child has increased.
These improvements have motivated tutors to focus more closely on the online tuition of each child, and to spend the tutoring sessions more creatively and effectively.
This has created a snowball effect of advantages, in that close supervision allows tutors to spot problems as they arise and to deal with them before they escalate. Nipping problems in the bud in this way prevents the student from getting distracted and losing focus during their online maths tutoring sessions, so they enjoy the benefit of concentrated engagement with the work. In turn, this allows more time to allocate to other important subjects.
The final result is that marks and grades will rise on a par with the improvement in student focus and concentration. Not only will their engagement with their work improve, they may even come to enjoy their studies!
Flexibility of Online Maths Tutors
One of the greatest advantages of studying maths online is the flexibility. Tutors and students can arrange sessions at time to suit both, and, if an emergency were to occur or an internet connection lost, your child’s tutor is easily contactable to apprise them of the situation.
Consequently, no time is wasted by either party and the tutor may even be able to re-arrange their schedule so that another student can take advantage of the empty slot, saving time and resource.
Different Platforms
Last but not least, online maths tutors are trained to excel in using different websites and programs to enhance the development of their students and retain their engagement for extended periods.
More recently, this has been made even easier by the introduction of new websites and programs that incorporate puzzles and games into the learning process of online maths tutoring.
Final Thoughts
Online maths tutoring can be seen as a triangle of effort between the parent, the student, and the online maths tutor. Eliminating many of the negative variables that occur with classroom learning enhances the probability of your child improving their maths performance.
The student is of course required to focus and work hard in order to reach their goals; parents must provide a proper study environment and identify a suitable online maths tutor; the tutor must deliver interesting and interactive lessons to retain student engagement, along with incorporating some fun into tutoring sessions.
If all three elements of the triangle play their part, success is guaranteed!
