We are at the start of the age of social distancing. All of a sudden every tutor offers online tutoring. Everyone is doing everything online. But how are they doing it? Who knows! Some people are pointing their computer’s camera towards a white board and writing everything down; others are using online whiteboards and writing everything down; some people are using videos; others are exchanging pictures of worked out examples, the variations on the methods for online tutoring go on and on. Let’s think about this for a moment. How do you effectively help someone in a subject that primarily problem solving, requires a completely different and symbolic language to communicate it in written form, a different vocabulary to communicate it verbally, requires learning new ways of thinking in particular, analytical thought processes and is very visual? That’s challenging. What we have come up with is below:
What is required for online tutoring?
- Some way for the student and tutor to be able to write on the same page and share exercises, problems and notes to be reviewed and worked on. An online whiteboard is a good tool for this.
- Some way to verbally communicate between tutor and student so that questions, answers, discussion and just developing a connection and sharing verbally is possible. This can be facilitated through some sort of online meeting platform.
- Some way to share take pictures or share written content quickly that may be done independently by either the tutor or student at their location. For example, if the student tries and work an exercise out on their own, it’ll probably be easier if they use pencil and paper at their desk to complete the exercises or at least do as much as they can. Once they have completed the exercises or gotten to a point where they are stuck, they now text or message that image to the tutor who can then discuss the exercises with the student and where to go next.
What pieces of technology are required?
- For 1 we have chosen a few options that are either free or inexpensive. All of which the tutor would use, create a board and then invite the student to through a website link sent to the student via email. To learn more about some of the online whiteboards out there, take a look at our post on Online Whiteboard Review.
- For 2 There are a few online meeting tools including Zoom meeting, Skype, Google hangouts, Facebook messenger. This step is optional since we will require 3. If you choose to omit the online meeting then definitely a phone call will be required to facilitate verbal communication.
- For 3 We will need to use some sort of messaging tool, text, WhatsApp, Facebook messenger. Something like Snapchat may not be long enough.
Technology we are currently trying
- For 1 we are using Microsoft Whiteboard, BitPaper or AWW – A Web Whiteboard. You can find out more about each of these on our Whiteboard review post.
- For 2 we lean towards Zoom. The reason for this is it allows for messaging sending links, files, face to face conversation, audio conversations and people in various locations can be invited. Most tutoring sessions will be one on one. Zoom is by invitation so you don’t have dial or call anyone and can be sent in advance. Other options for this are Skype, Google Hangouts, Messenger but now it is more of a telephone call which requires both to be at their phone at the same time. If these latter options are used, then a telephone call would probably suffice.
- For 3 using the camera on your phone and whatever messaging tool you have will probably be sufficient provided both tutor and student have the same tool. We use WhatsApp, Messenger and text.
What is the procedure or an online tutoring session?
Good question. I have noticed that in many cases when a tutor or company offers online tutoring it’s unclear how a session will start. With a face to face in person session it is easy:
Procedure for an in-person tutoring session
- Student or parent schedules a tutoring session which included date, time and location.
- Invoice is sent to parent or student.
- Invoice is paid to reserve tutoring time.
- Student comes prepared. This includes: textbook, all class notes, all notes student has taken, all marked and returned tests, assignments and exams provided by teacher, any exercises and problems assigned by the teacher, any other material that may be helpful for the tutor and any specific questions the student may have.
- Tutor arrives to location on date and time of tutoring session.
- Tutoring session begins.
- Tutor looks over material prepared by student with student.
- Tutor and student agree upon what work they will be working on for remainder of session.
- Tutor asks student if there are any final questions before leaving.
- Tutor confirms next session, if any, and then leaves.
Now what is the procedure for an online tutoring session? Obviously, some of the above steps are not necessary or impossible. There will be a bit more preparation the part of the student but it hopefully not too much more than if they were to meet in person.
Procedure for an online tutoring session
- Student or parent schedules a tutoring session which include date and time. Email, at the very least, and phone number for student will also be required.
- Invoice is sent to parent or student.
- Invoice is paid to reserve tutoring time.
- Student comes prepared. How does a student come prepared for an online tutoring session? This is a good question and we have the following suggestions for an effective, efficient and productive tutoring.
- Take a look at the work you would like to discuss with your tutor before hand because your tutor will not be able to see all your notes.
- Take pictures of the exercises you want to discuss with your tutor and put them on your computer. This will allow you to upload them onto the online whiteboard. It is probably better to take pictures of one question at a time, at least not more than 2 shorter questions.
- If you have old tests or assignments that you want to look at with the tutor, please take pictures of those and have them on your computer so that you can upload these for both you and tutor to review together.
- If you plan on working on new material out of a textbook, pleas take picture of the content related to that section and have it available to upload onto the whiteboard or send to the tutor before hand. Please do not send the entire textbook. If you do send the entire textbook, please indicate which pages you would like the tutor to go over with you. There is a fee for any significant prep work the tutor may have to do. E.g. preparing lessons from scratch; going over any material before hand etc. Please contact us to find out what would constitute prep work on the tutor’s part and what additional fees and time may be required.
- Tutor sends a zoom meeting invite to the student for date and time of tutoring session by email.
- Student accepts.
- Student and tutor enter meeting at specified date and time on Zoom.
- Tutor greets student.
- Tutor creates an online whiteboard and sends the link to the student through the messenger in the Zoom meeting.
- Either tutor or student uploads a file with questions or notes onto the whiteboard one at a time. Now student and tutor can discuss and work on together these questions, problems or topics.
- Specific exercises that the student does during the online tutoring session, if the student cannot do these comfortably on the online whiteboard, the student may
- Do the exercise on a piece of paper during the tutoring session
- Take a picture of what they are have done
- Send it to the tutor via the agreed upon messaging tool
- Then discuss the solution attempt with the tutor.
- As the session nears the end, the tutor will review what was done with the student, ask if there are any other question. Request the student to download the content from the online whiteboard for their notes and the tutor will do they same.
- Confirm the next session, if any and then leaves the meeting room.
An online tutoring session is very similar as an in-person session except that there is a little more preparation on the part of the student to really get the most out of the session. We are open to suggestions if you feel for your particular case another method of online tutoring would work for your or your child. If there are any questions about whether online tutoring will work for your at this time, feel free to ask us. We are always happy to talk.
Stay safe!
