Whether you have decided online tuition is the best thing for your child or are in the early stages of researching the best online tutoring platforms, there are many things to consider when selecting a tutoring website. With so much information available, finding the best 11 plus online tuition or the best science tuition near you might seem difficult, but following these tips will ensure you find the best online tuition, and tutor, for you and your child.

How to find the best online tutoring platform

Responsiveness

One of the core benefits of an online tutoring platform is its readiness and availability. The best tutoring websites will be utilising this to their advantage, and are responsive to new and existing parents. A fast responsiveness demonstrates an interest in your business, attentive customer service, and active account management.

Ensure that the communication methods chosen by the platform and therefore the tutors work for you, whether that is a messaging system built into the tuition platform, emails, phone calls, or WhatsApp messages.

A Review and Rating System

The best online tutoring platforms understand that reviews are important for parents to assess the tutor’s suitability for their child. As a parent, you are likely to trust the review and experience of a fellow parent, more so than what the business might tell you.

At TutorHive we have built reviews into the platform and collect responses at the end of each lesson. When viewing tutors these reviews are visible on their profile, making sure you have all the information you need to make a decision.

Tuition Platform Usability

You want to make sure you and your child can use the platform and find any additional resources you need. You can understand the usability from reviews, but the easiest way to determine usability is by using the platform. Most tutoring platforms enable you to make an account for free, and you can test out how easy it is to navigate the platform and find the right tutor.

Tutor Search

Another key aspect of the best tutoring platforms is how you can search for tutors. Parents should be able to search for tutors depending on the subject, if they can support with multiple subjects e.g. English and Maths tuition, their experience level, and qualifications.

Our platform gives every tutor a profile to house all the information needed for parents to reach a decision. The TutorHive Hive-Matching Algorithm makes it easy for parents to find tutors, by inputting the relevant information and providing tutors that are right for them.

Progress Tracking

Many parents search for online tuition to provide more support for their children and improve their academic performance. Parents need to be able to track their child’s progress, whether that is preparing for the 11+ exams or supporting their GCSE grades with science tuition.

Following feedback from our parents, we have implemented monthly feedback reports for our TutorHive BLACK members, that use feedback at the end of lessons and tests to assess where students are and how they can reach their potential. This is important for parents to understand how effective the online tutoring is and how else they might be able to support the child’s learning.

Customer Support

With something as important as your child’s education, it is important parents consider the customer support and service of the online tutoring website. Whether you need to reschedule lessons or have a question about your child’s English homework, it is important you feel cared for and have any problems solved quickly.

At TutorHive, we pride ourselves on our customer service. We are available at all times via WhatsApp and our TutorHive BLACK members can access tutors on-demand within 10 minutes. You won’t be left on ‘Read’ for hours as a TutorHive parent!

How to find the best tutor for you

Experience

The existing experience of the tutor is incredibly important to ensure they match the requirements of the student. You should look for both their experience within the subject you’re looking for, and their experience as a tutor. The best online Maths tutor for a student completing the 11+ might be a student who has already completed it. For more advanced students, such as those looking for English or Maths A-level tuition, a tutor with curriculum teaching experience might be more relevant.

Personality

One of the most overlooked considerations from parents is how well your child gets on with their tutor, through their  personality. This can be hard to grasp through an online profile but reading through the reviews and having an introductory call or lesson can help.

We use personality, as well as hobbies, interests, and learning styles to match students with the tutor that is best suited for them. We have a 93% first-time match rate between students and tutors, in comparison to the UK average of taking 3 attempts to find the right tutor. Students who get on with their tutors are more likely to feel engaged in lessons and succeed academically as a result.

Learning Preferences

There are three core learning preferences that students belong to - visual, auditory, or tactile. It is worth discussing with potential tutors what their teaching methods are and whether they can help your child understand the subject matter.

At TutorHive, learning preference is important as part of our Hive-Matching Algorithm, so you can be sure that the tutor can teach in the way in which your child learns best.

Safety and Qualifications of the Tutor

Rather than just taking the tutor’s word for their experience, the benefit of online tutoring platforms is that they will often require tutors to share their qualifications and DBS checks.

That’s certainly what we do at TutorHive. This reassures you that the person spending time with your child is indeed safe and qualified, and also supports your search for any other tutors on the platform as you know they are trusted.

Location

A benefit of online tutoring is that students can work with tutors from anywhere in the country or globally. In some cases though, such as with entry school exams, it is important that when you search for the ‘best tuition near me’, you are serviced by tutors that understand the local schools and area to best help your child. This can also feed into the trust between student and tutor as there is another common interest between them.

A lot of the time, location doesn’t need to factor in finding an online tutor, so consider whether a nearby location is needed or whether this might be limiting your tuition options.

Pricing that is aligned with your Budget

Online tuition does come with a cost, and it is worth considering your budget during your search. Our tutor profiles include the prices of their lessons, which they can set based on their expertise, qualifications, and years of experience. We also only take a 10% commission, well below industry standard, meaning more of your money goes to the tutor taking the lesson.

Your Child’s Preference

At the end of the day, your child is the one who will be taking lessons and interacting most with the tutor. This is where aspects such as personality and learning preference play a key part. Students who get on with their tutors are far more likely to stay engaged and succeed in their learning, so asking your child’s opinion can make all the difference in the long run.

Finding the best online tuition platform and tutor for your child might seem like a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be. Follow these tips and your online tuition journey can begin!

Click the link to sign up for a free TutorHive account and we will find the perfect tutor for your child using our Hive-Matching Algorithm.