Online tuition is a popular choice for many students and parents (in fact, it is the fastest-growing market within education!), but it does come with challenges for students. Understanding these problems and how to overcome them helps make online tuition more effective and delivers results for the student. 

We take a look at some of the challenges and questions you may have about online learning, and share our tips for students to make the most of their tuition. 

What is online tuition?

First, let’s establish what type of learning we are talking about. There are lots of ways to learn digitally, such as through pre-recorded lessons or courses on an app. 

We are focusing on tuition that provides a different channel to have one-to-one or group lessons that would otherwise occur in a home or learning centre. Around half of students globally have engaged in digital learning, demonstrating its importance in education and improving students’ confidence with technology. 

What are the challenges of online tuition?

Whether you’re looking for English and Maths tuition online or finding an alternative to in-person teaching, we take you through the common challenges of digital learning and how you can overcome them, so you feel prepared when starting tutoring. 

Isolation

On the surface, digital learning looks like a student sitting alone, staring at their computer and talking to a tutor far away. This may leave students feeling isolated and out of touch with their tutor or classmates. Isolation would also impact the effectiveness of lessons as students are unmotivated or easily distracted, problems we will cover later. 

How to Help

The potential for isolation is eased when students feel connected to their tutor. TutorHive’s Hive-Matching Algorithm matches students with tutors based on their hobbies, interests, and personalities, designed to foster a better relationship that not only improves engagement in their studies but also creates a supportive learning environment. 

Another way to ease isolation when learning digitally is through enrolling in group lessons. These support students in different ways to one-to-one tuition, such as improving their debate skills and evaluating different perspectives, and also bringing them together with peers to learn. 

Lack of Motivation

Feeling isolated may result in a lack of motivation to learn and disengagement from the student. Especially when parents have found online tuition for kids, the child may feel a similar detachment from school as it is an activity they are being told to do.

How to Help

A good tutor will know how to keep the pupil motivated regardless of location. Online learning provides many options to use interactive tools to provide the best online tuition that students want to work hard for. As a parent, you can motivate your child through rewards and positive reinforcement for completed lessons or projects. 

Fighting Distractions

A common concern is that students will be distracted when learning, either due to the dependence on technology or learning in a busy home environment that they associate with other activities. 

How to Help

Students are already using technology for multiple reasons and will use it for learning at school. However, it is worth turning on ‘Focus’ mode or turning off notifications to avoid unnecessary interruptions to the lesson. The best online tuition can take place when the student is in a quieter space without distractions and those in the home should make a conscious effort to respect the time of the lesson. The student is welcome to use headphones to increase the noise cancellation to make the most of their online learning.

Technical Problems

Learning digitally is innately linked to technology. It can be a concern that any interruptions to connectivity will disrupt the lesson. There may also be worries about whether pupils can use the technology and systems.

How to Help

Children are very capable of using technology and will already take lessons digitally while at school. If they do have any difficulties, parents can ensure they are set up correctly and tutors will be able to support them during the lesson. Online tuition platforms are robustly built and can operate using regular home wifi. Should there be any issues, a benefit of online lessons is how flexible they are and can be easily rearranged.

Rather than focusing on potential challenges, the technology used offers new and interactive ways of learning to deliver effective online tuition for kids.

Effectiveness and Results

Parents may be concerned about whether learning online is as effective as learning in-person. 

How to Help

Learning through digital platforms is a highly effective way of learning. In fact, 70% of students said digital learning is better than traditional teaching. At TutorHive, we have seen that students with regular lessons over a period of 3 or more months see an improvement of 1-2 grades. All tutors are vetted and have the same qualifications and checks as a tutor you would use for in-person tuition. Whether you’re looking to brush up on the core subjects with English and Maths tuition or have a specific goal in mind, learning through digital platforms, such as TutorHive, is an incredibly effective way of learning and improving academically. 

Additional Support

For many reasons, students may need additional support that is thought to fall outside of a typical student-tutor arrangement. Perhaps the student has special educational needs (SEN) or requires certain cultural support. 

How to Help

A lot of tutors will already have experience providing additional support for their students and will likely make this clear on their platform profile. We encourage parents and students to be upfront about what they require and expect from tutors, to provide the best online tuition experience. At TutorHive, any additional support is factored into matching students and tutors, so we find the best tutor for you. 

There can be a lot to think about when searching for the right tutoring platform. Hopefully, our best learning tips for students and parents can help you with your search and you can begin to take lessons that are effective and right for you and your child.