The benefits of becoming an online tutor

There has never been a better time to become an online tutor. With most of the country enjoying a reliable and fast internet connection, the days of signal drop outs half way through a lesson are a thing of the past - and with almost every media device, from a laptop, to a tablet or phone, now possessing its own camera and microphone, there are no longer any issues with syncing webcams and calibrating hardware drivers.

Online tuition has an abundance of benefits over face to face tuition. The main one at the moment is that, given the lockdown conditions, online classes are really the only option. Another benefit is not needing to travel. When I was working as a tutor I would sometimes have three or four students to teach in a single day, and this involved a lot of time consuming and expensive travel. With online classes you can tutor any number of students from the comfort of your living room. You will also no longer be limited to only being able to tutor students who are closely located to you - with distance no longer being a factor, your client base can now be anywhere in the world, which will only increase your demand.

Even if you are an experienced tutor, you may be somewhat apprehensive about what online teaching entails, and how it differs from tradition face to face lessons. How does one go about giving a class on a computer screen? You are confident in your abilities as a face to face tutor, but does that mean you will have a concomitant abilities as an online tutor?

It is important to keep in mind that you are still delivering the same service, whether it is face to face, or online. Your knowledge and fundamental teaching ability are just the same. If you are a competent and longstanding tutor then you are very likely already a great online tutor, their being no fundamental differences between the two practices.

As with face to face tuition, the first lesson should be used to arrive at good understanding of the student`s abilities, and so ascertain the areas they need the most help with. You have probably already consulted with them to some degree over this matter, perhaps through the tutor hunt enquiry system, but it will may be best if you devote some, if not all of the first lesson, to appraising their understanding of the subject. You should ensure that your webcam positioned so that your face is always visible, and this can easily be checked by keeping an eye on the thumbnail screen, which displays what the student will be observing.

If you plan to upload any files during the lesson, it is best if you locate these before starting. You don`t want to be searching through the hundreds (or even thousands) of files your hard disk contains during the lesson, allowing your student`s attention to wander and having them browse through youtube or their social media when they should be learning.

Practice using the Tutor Hunt interactive white board before the lesson begins. Our whiteboard is a great teaching aid, but you may need a little practice to get the most out of it. After logging in to your account click dashboard, bookings, then my online lessons, and at the bottom of the page you will see an image of the whiteboard that you can click. Take some time to familiarise yourself with the different buttons - if you have any experience using a drawing package like Adobe photoshop many of the icons will be immediately recognisable. The whiteboard is useful for drawing diagrams, or annotating equations, such as in chemistry or mathematics. The student will see in real time anything you draw, and you can of course speak to them as you are using the whiteboard.

After only a few lessons you will likely become completely acclimatised to this new way of teaching - and once the lockdown restrictions are lifted you may very well find that you prefer conducting online tuition sessions. With access to tuition jobs from across the globe, and no need to travel, it is very easy to see the benefits of online tuition.