It’s been just over two years since the Covid-19 crisis set the education industry an unprecedented challenge; to abandon ship and transfer exclusively to online learning. And what a journey it’s been. While we have been strong proponents of online teaching ever since Tutor House was set up in 2012, the pandemic did a lot to accelerate our move towards developing this side of our platform. There, we’re no different to 99% of businesses who woke up on that fateful day in March 2020 to a locked down world. What we didn’t anticipate was just how much this period would teach us about the ways in which technology has transformed education and the glimpse into the future of learning we would be given.

‍The rise of at-home learning

At the start of the pandemic, as we all recall, the prospect of adopting an online approach to education across the board was understandably daunting to many. The transfer of the long-guarded teaching space from classrooms to a digital environment presented a multitude of questions surrounding discipline, concentration and assessment. How would being confined to our at-home digital cells affect the delicate teacher-student dynamic? No one knew but we were all about to find out. 

Indeed, there was no shortage of teething problems, with teachers and parents alike lamenting the temporary loss of the control and cohesion afforded by a standard classroom environment. And two years on, it’s safe to say that very few teachers crave a return to virtual teaching because, as we discovered, when it comes to group learning, there really is no alternative to an in-person context. 

The energy and collaborative exchange passed between a teacher and a group of students during an in-person interaction can rarely be replicated virtually and, while teachers coped admirably with the new imposition, this mismatch proved to be a real concern across school years. The repercussions of those surreal few months of fully virtual schooling throughout the UK are still being felt at the start of the new school year eighteen months after March 2020.

Online tutoring

However, school is only one part of the education puzzle. Tutor House’s focus lies at the point where mandated daily academic teaching ends and flexible self-driven learning begins. Here, the homeschooling season proved eye-opening in numerous ways. While group-based learning failed to find its place in the virtual world, one-to-one tutoring thrived. This is largely due to the nature of tutoring itself. 

In the majority of cases, the role of private tutoring is to provide supplementary teaching alongside a student’s schooling. Similarly, adults who hire tutors generally do so alongside work, higher study or other commitments. Therefore, an ideal tutoring setup will slip seamlessly into the student’s everyday school (or work) experience, meaning the more streamlined it is, the better. Opening a laptop and receiving a slickly delivered lesson from one’s kitchen table tends to be infinitely preferable to the clunkier alternative of returning home from school and leaving again an hour later to meet a tutor at their home or in an office. 

In addition to the obvious convenience of online tutoring, this setup allows for enhanced choice when it comes to tutors. Students are no longer limited by factors such as proximity, and can instead prioritise quality and experience over location. This means students across the country can learn with the most suitable tutor for them, no matter where they are based, and are free to move around or travel without disrupting their learning. Such flexibility has a crucial role to play in empowering students to take control of their own learning. 

Plus, the idea of one-to-one tutoring, while an incredibly powerful learning tool once students have found a rhythm within it, can be intimidating to first-timers. The ease of a form of tutoring that is available at the touch of a button is the perfect solution to pushing past this initial trepidation. So, increasing the convenience and accessibility (not to mention affordability) of online tutoring, giving an increased scope of students the opportunity to experience its radical potential, can clearly only be a positive thing.

‍How can we get the most out of online tutoring?

For online teaching to work at its best, it needs to be approached correctly. Despite its clear advantages if carried out effectively, successful virtual tutoring is not always guaranteed. Like anything, it is a skill that must be mastered. As the virtual space is still a germinating platform for teaching, it is important that tutors expand their view of it in order to recognise its full potential as an independent medium instead of just a convenient replacement for in-person teaching that stepped in during our time of need. Simply replicating your offline teaching style in front of a webcam will generally fail to produce the best results; being open to adjusting your approach to the medium within which you are working is essential.

So how can tutors make sure they are creating an optimum learning environment when teaching online? The first thing to keep in mind is how the teacher-student dynamic might be affected by a digital environment, and the adjustments that can be made to combat this. These will often involve shifting the tone you’re projecting, upping the energy you’re bringing to your exchanges in order to compensate for the inevitable distance imposed by a webcam and keep lessons as engaging as possible. For example, you may choose to make an active effort to bring the student into the discussion more often than you perhaps would face-to-face when you would be better placed to respond to more subtle cues and signals.

Needless to say, online tutors should be consistently mindful of adjusting their approach to individual students and the ways in which different age groups, temperaments and learning requirements might respond to a virtual environment. Feedback, corrections and praise should be amplified as necessary, and don’t be afraid to change up your approach if it is not eliciting the student response you are aiming for.

Finally, take advantage of the technology at your disposal to introduce as much variety as possible, whether that’s recording sessions or incorporating multimedia seamlessly into your lessons. When it comes to creating an immersive learning experience, technology should be seen as an ally rather than an obstacle. Think of virtual platforms as a means to both enhance teaching and streamline it where necessary. You’ll be surprised at just how helpful a small shift in attitude can be.

‍To sum it up…

Covid, as painful as it was, forced us all to try something new. For Tutor House, it gave us all - teachers, students and parents alike - an opportunity to learn about learning. Some will have emerged from lockdown having decided that online learning is simply not for them (and if this is you we encourage you to get in touch with our team about our in-person tutoring options). Others, however, will have had their minds opened by this period of enforced experimentation.

Sometimes, trying something new can transform your view of a concept you never thought to question. Grappling with online learning has expanded our view of what teaching can be and, even if it hasn’t been your best friend, it’s impossible to deny that it not only brought us through a pandemic but has opened doors onto enhanced educational opportunities all over the world. When all is said and done, the pillars of private tutoring are choice and flexibility, and in many ways the rise of online teaching has been a gift to both, so, who knows… perhaps that infamous period of universal at-home learning was a blessing in disguise.