Learning has never been more fun, flexible, and interactive as in the 21st century, largely due to the advancement in technology. While students were limited to books and traditional teacher-student interaction before, we now have multitudes of diverse options. Watching lectures on tutorials on YouTube, tutoring through video chat, online student communities to do my homework (e.g. websites like homeworkdoer.org), and also online courses and streamlined learning platforms like Duolingo. All in all, the online tutoring industry is estimated to expand rapidly at a rate of 13.68% from 2017 to 2021.
Technological advances are a huge driver for this, leading to creative systems for learning. Two specific developments have been especially crucial: video-calling apps such as Skype and artificial intelligence. Video-calling allows tutors to talk directly to students, almost as if they were in the same room, while artificial intelligence analyzes a student’s learning curve and constructs a personalized study plan. Alongside the rise of technology, more students and experts willing to teach are also jumping into the movement.
The future doesn’t seem to be 100% online tutoring, though. What we’re foreseeing is online tutoring working side by side with traditional learning. Face-to-face contact is still important, but online tutoring can substantially supplement that, addressing skill gaps not tackled in the classroom and helping students review and prepare for exams.
Benefits of Online Tutoring
Online tutoring has many benefits that are experienced right away:
Personalized and Affordable
In a classroom, lessons aren’t tailored to the individual, but with online tutoring, students can learn at their own pace and devote more time to topics that they find difficult. This type of personalized learning is much more effective. It was only accessible before through in-person tutoring, which gave students a huge edge—as much as 98% better performance than their peers, in exchange for a hefty price per session.
Online tutoring retains the same powerful results, but it’s much more affordable and democratic. In addition, since there are so many experts available online, you can easily find a high-quality tutor that you click with.
Flexible and Convenient
Families are busier than ever, and students are no different—face-to-face tutoring might be hard to squeeze into a schedule that’s already taken up by classes, extracurriculars, and social obligations.
On the other hand, online tutoring from a company like Caddell Prep is flexible. Students can do it from anywhere—even at home while wearing pajamas—and they can even decide when and what they want to study. Most, if not all, study materials are also saved digitally so that they can access these anytime from their phones or laptops.
Digital and Relaxed
The digital format of online tutoring makes it a good fit for today’s generation of students, who were already tinkering around with social media and Google since their childhood. They’re incredibly comfortable with using technology, so online tutoring is natural for them and easy to adapt to—there’s nothing unusual about it.
Because they go online a lot during their free time, online tutoring doesn’t feel stiff or formal, unlike when inside a classroom. Instead, the huge amount of control students have over their experience can make studying exciting and playful, reconnecting them with their innate curiosity and desire to learn.
Learning at Its Best
Both individuals and schools are increasingly shifting towards online tutoring. Many topics discussed in the classroom can be learned with the help of technology, and people love the convenience, personalization, and more relaxed style of online tutoring. We can’t tell what advancements will happen to online tutoring as technology progresses, but what’s clear is students are learning much faster and making it a permanent part of their study routine.