If you had told a teacher in 1960 that one day it would be possible to teach without students and teachers in the same classroom, they would never have believed it. After a technological revolution and the general spread of the Internet, online teaching and therefore online tutoring have become possible.
Online tutoring has increased significantly in recent years, but is nowhere near the number of face-to-face tutoring hours per year. Why is online tutoring still so popular? What does online tutoring have to offer to revolutionize the education sector?
Advantages of online tutoring
- Time flexibility: It is not necessary to travel to the lesson location for online tutoring. Therefore, it is much easier to combine tutor and student schedules.
- Online tutoring is cheaper: Academic online offerings are generally cheaper than face-to-face tutoring because there are no additional travel costs.
- You can choose your classroom: Whether you’re a student or a tutor, the advantage of connecting from home or the library is that you can choose the location for your tutoring and customize your space to suit your needs.
- Train technological skills: Tools like Classgap enable the feasibility of online training. Implementing these applications and constantly updating them means that we are constantly developing our technological knowledge.
- The priorities when choosing a tutor are changing: In face-to-face tutoring, one of the priorities when choosing a tutor is proximity in order to save time when traveling. However, with online tutoring, travel is no longer necessary and is no longer a search criterion when it comes to finding the ideal tutor. When it comes to online tutoring, we just have to make sure that we like the private teacher and that he or she fits our training needs.
Disadvantages of online tutoring
- Less social interaction: Although experiences with online tutoring are generally positive, most stakeholders agree that some of the social interaction between student and tutor is lost over the screen.
- Distraction: The virtual environment offers us a variety of opportunities and advantages when giving or receiving tutoring, but it is also true that both students and tutors emphasize that the tendency to be distracted is easier with online tutoring.
- Requires good technology: The universalization of the Internet and technological resources is a reality in today’s society, but it is also true that not everyone has the necessary resources. To have a good experience with online tutoring, you need quality resources.
- Excessive Screen Usage: Nowadays we spend most of the day in front of a screen. If you add online training to your daily life, you will have to spend more time in front of the screen and no longer be able to disconnect from the internet.
- The learner may not take tutoring as seriously: There is a prejudice against online training that says it is not as important and of lower quality than face-to-face training. This can lead to the learner not attaching enough importance to online tutoring.
Advantages of face-to-face tutoring
- More trust: Personal tutoring facilitates the bond between tutor and student, which has a direct impact on the student’s academic performance. Direct face-to-face contact, without being separated by a screen, creates a closer and more immediate relationship and therefore more trust.
- No Technology Gap: The technology gap is the biggest disadvantage of online tutoring. Not everyone has access to a computer and an internet connection, so there is inequality. In face-to-face tutoring, there is equal opportunity, in contrast to online tutoring.
- Motivation: Face-to-face teaching requires a certain routine that helps ensure that students are motivated to attend tutoring and feel connected to the knowledge being taught.
- No technical problems: Since there is no technology involved, the quality of the private lessons does not depend on the quality of the internet connection or computer.
- Procrastination is avoided: The Internet is an open window to knowledge, but, be careful, it is also a source of distraction. One of the main advantages of face-to-face tutoring over online tutoring is that procrastination and distraction are significantly reduced.
Disadvantages of face-to-face tutoring
- Lower Availability: The number of students that can be taught by a single tutor is less. This is a disadvantage for the tutor, because fewer lessons mean lower income, and for the student, because a precarious salary makes them less sustainable in the long term.
- Travel time: The time lost due to transportation is significant, especially when a tutor has many students and everyone lives in a different part of the city. This can usually be avoided by only teaching students in your area.
- This limits the options: The Internet is huge and students from anywhere in the world can be connected with tutors from anywhere. If we limit ourselves to the physical plane, the possibilities become very limited.
- Attendance and fixed schedule: Flexibility is far less as the schedules of an in-person tutor are much more complicated to manage than those of an online tutor.
- Costs: The price for face-to-face tutoring is usually more expensive. Experienced tutors know that if they want to make a living from tutoring, they have to rely on a small number of students who value their work.
Is face-to-face tutoring or online tutoring better?
There is no clear answer to this. It depends on what you need it for. If you require intensive, focused study with a high level of energy and attention, especially when preparing for important exams like the GCSE or a new job, face-to-face tutoring is the right choice for you. A face-to-face GCSE tutor offers immediate feedback and interactive learning opportunities, allowing for a more personalized approach to help you excel in these critical exams. On the other hand, to understand solving PAT past papers, both online and face-to-face tutoring work equally.
On the other hand, if you want to deepen your knowledge in an area, online classes will give you everything you need and you won’t feel like you’re investing more time, effort, or money than you should.
To figure out what’s best for you, be honest with yourself and consider whether an online tutor is enough or whether you need a human presence to get serious about your studies.
Final Words
The choice between face-to-face and online tutoring depends on individual needs and preferences. Face-to-face tutoring may be suitable for intensive and focused study, such as exam preparation, while online tutoring can be effective for gaining in-depth knowledge in a particular subject. Ultimately, the decision should consider the nature of the study and the need for a human presence in the learning process.