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The covid-19 pandemic has led to the closure of schools in almost all countries in the world. Around the world, over 1.2 billion school-going students are at home and can’t study in their respective schools. The education platform and system have changed abruptly, creating a rise in online learning and tutoring. Online learning involves tutors teaching their students through various digital platforms remotely. According to studies, online learning is fast, and it’s increasing the retention of valuable information. These benefits mean it’s an education module that might stay for a long time even after the virus gets contained.
Let’s check its benefits, what it offers, and how it helps students during this coronavirus pandemic.
What Does Online Tutoring Offer, and What Are the Requirements?
For clarity on this, we need first to understand what online tutoring is, who can be a tutor, how it works, and any other relevant information.
Who Can Be an Online Tutor?
With the rising coronavirus pandemic, every teacher in public and private institutions can be an online tutor. Teaching online is achievable to anyone as long as they have the right gear. If you are a passionate teacher, you can embrace this online tutoring, as long as you have a computer and a stable internet connection. Other individuals who can offer online teaching include university students and other individuals, who would love to share education to individuals in lower classes.
Anyone can offer online tutoring. You must be of the legal age and must have the required experiences and knowledge. You also need to have excellent communication skills and the culture of interacting with people. You can acquire much experience by training or learning through online tutorials videos. The main goal of online tutoring is to pass the required message to students in the most definite way. Ensure your communication skills and connections are top-notch to carry out this online tutoring.
To conduct online teaching, especially on this pandemic, you must also be a listener. You need to make your students understand and ask questions where they don’t understand. As a tutor, you have to make sure they comprehend the information you are passing on. Students always have high expectations from their teachers, and they rely on them to gain much-needed knowledge to achieve their career goals. By accepting to teach students, you give them hopes of learning, and you should deliver what gets expected of you.
How Does Online Tutoring Work
After schools got closed due to the ravaging pandemic, many parents and scholars were worried about their education. Thanks to online tutoring, they can now get the same learning remotely at their homes’ comfort. Online training works by teachers offering their services through technology to students at home. To start online teaching as a tutor, you need to create an impression. You can do this orally or share your skills through social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. To get much attention to students and their parents, you can offer your services in the form of sponsored ads, which create a good impression. You can also join reputable organizations and websites like Train the Brain that provide online teaching to students. Ensure you provide all the required information such as the media you will use, learning time, your rates, and other relevant information to the target audience. With the rising number of tutors in this COVID-19 pandemic, offering the best information and services will make you stand out among the growing competition.
Online tutoring needs dedication and hard work. You can decide to work several hours a day, teaching different types of students, including people of different levels, nationalities, and ages. You have many choices to choose from what suits your needs. You need to decide what works best for you and stick with it. As an online tutor, you need to register your profile, advertise, and get set to offer these learning services. Online learning is easier since you don’t require many tools. You only require a laptop/computer or tablet, good internet connection, webcam, and microphone.
Where Can Online Tutoring Be Conducted?
You can conduct online tutoring anywhere as long as you and the students have a reliable internet connection. You don’t require moving from one place to another, commute from home, or move from one office to another. You only need the above tools, internet, and useful resources to begin with. Suppose your home is not a suitable place to work from? You can choose your nearest café, cyber-shop, or any other better position you are comfortable with, with a reliable internet connection. Ensure it is a place conducive for passing out information with few or zero disturbance. Any place is ideal, as long as you are safe from the dangers of contracting the Corona Virus disease.
Which Is the Best Suitable Time to Carry Out Online Tutoring?
Online tutoring is flexible. Meaning you can conveniently set your own time to train your students. You can set your timetable, whereby students can only book you when you are free to teach them. With this pandemic, when almost everyone is working at home, you can set different classes in a day. If you work somewhere else, you can teach after work, on weekends or during the holidays. Be mindful of the hours you set for your students. Most growing tutors currently are teachers, who don’t have physical classes and are taking most of their idle time to teach students online. With international students available, it would be easier to be all-rounded. You can work during the day and at night since there is a time zone difference. This time zone difference enables you to have different types of students at different times of the day.
How Much Can You Charge for an Online Tutoring
Charges on this COVID-19 pandemic times depend on several things since there is a rise in the number of online tutors trying to make ends meet. Do not make your prices too high or too cheap. Too high might make you lose students while too low might mean your services are weak or won’t cater to your expenses.
In online tutoring, pricing is paramount. You need to consider your time and the resources you will use on this kind of learning. However, on this pandemic, pricing is dependent on the supply and demand for your services. Most students will consider paying more for tutors who are experienced and who can create more time for their learning. Different subjects also require different types of pricing methods. You can charge less for easier subjects and more for complicated topics.
Prices can vary based on the teacher’s expertise, experience, preparation required, and the time required to teach students. It will be less costly to teach several students compared to individuals since the cost is apportioned amongst them.
Benefits of Online Tutoring and how it is Helping Students in This CoronaVirus Pandemic
Now that you have known the requirements of online tutoring, how it gets offered, and other features, it is time to understand its benefits, and how it helps people in this coronavirus pandemic.
Online tutors always follow two types of teaching. These include:
- Asynchronous tutoring: involves sending emails by tutors to their students on what they are supposed to learn and the assignments. Assignments, questions, and any other exchanges between the teachers and the students get done online for this kind of tutoring, Students and tutors do not need to be online at the same time. It is the best module for online learning in remote areas experiencing an unstable internet or power connection.
- Synchronous tutoring: This type of education involves real-time learning between the teacher and the student. It requires a stable internet connection and also requires software, which enables students to communicate with their teachers via live video conferencing, audio calls, or live text messaging. This type of learning is useful and allows students and teachers to interact with each other directly. A teacher will be able to determine the student’s weakness, and the student can ask direct questions and get immediate answers from the tutor.
When it comes to the benefits of online tutoring, they are diverse and depend on the model being used to teach the students. Some of its benefits include:
Students Can Learn at Their Pace.
Unlike the traditional learning method, online learning enables students to learn at their own time, taking their own pace. There is no waking up early, running to take a bus to school, and no designated learning time. It also allows students to complete assignments and coursework at their own time.
Online Tutoring Involves Personalized Teaching.
Whereby a teacher concentrates on one student, they will learn quickly and efficiently since there is total concentration and input from the teacher. Students can get direct aid from the teachers and get assistance in case of complicated assignments.
It Provides Web-Based Benefits.
Through online learning, students can learn other digital aspects, either directly or indirectly. They can learn more about computers, web processes, word processing, and other online learning technologies. This learning has enabled students to acquire skills that were impossible to receive before the pandemic, during the traditional mode of learning.
Online Learning Has Boosted the Tutoring Industry.
Online learning has brought up a tutoring business since teachers and non-teachers can pass information through various means. Most government agencies are also funding online tutoring, making low-income earners and low-income families get assistance in getting internet and devices required for this type of learning, especially on this COVID-19 pandemic. For example, through the No Child Left Behind initiative, the US government is coming up with ways to help disadvantaged families acquire computers and internet essentials for online writing. This initiative has led to massive job openings for internet service providers and technology companies.
Online Tutoring Gives Better Education and Training.
According to studies conducted in the US, college students who got their education online scored higher than those who attended physical classes. This idea has shown that through online courses, students can concentrate and learn more while researching as compared to when they get clustered in a traditional classroom. Students who acquire education through online learning seem to have more attitude, achievements, and retention in their careers than other students.
How Do You Begin as a Student?
For a student who wants to begin online learning, there are several factors that you need to consider, and the main one is to have a reliable tutor. To get a competent tutor, use the below tips to get one that meets your requirements:
- Find out how a tutor can help you achieve your goals: Most online tutors offer different types of subjects to different types of students. Look for a tutor that can help you in achieving your goals through various subject combinations.
- Create a list of viable tutors: after getting several tutors, have a list of them, check on their services, and choose the best. You can search for tutors on websites and social media sites. Take their details and choose the best according to reviews, response time, and how they answer questions. Check the red flags for a lousy tutor and discard them from the list.
- Choose a tutor by reviewing their curriculum.
After going through the list, choose the best tutor based on their curriculum. If it’s a self-guided Programme, review it according to its daily, weekly, and monthly schedules, checking if they meet your schedule and other commitments. If you are a parent, contact the online tutor and check if their education courses meet that of your child.
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The way E-learning has changed how individuals acquire an education; online tutoring seems to have more changes, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. It provides supplemental skills required by students to build up their careers, making it more effective and cheap compared to traditional learning methods. If you are a student or a tutor, the information in this article will help you a lot either in acquiring or offering online tutoring.
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