Thoughts about online tutoring

I have been tutoring for 17 years and except for a handful of boarding school students all of that tutoring has been in person at the student’s home or neighborhood library. But the pandemic changed everything for the last quarter of 2019-2020 and for the entire 2020-2021 school year. So what lies in store for for 2021-2022?

The past year and a half has been very stressful for students and teachers, and we are all relieved to see this period come to an end. But the tutoring experience was different. I found it easy to work with students online and except for the occasional technical glitch the students did too. Tutoring one to one is very different than teaching one to many. Building trust and a strong connection with students is a pre-requisite for tutoring successes and online tutoring did just that.

I keep careful records of student outcomes (grades in school and scores on standardized tests) and these were normal. The big surprise was that I felt very connected to most of my students, with the same intensity as when all tutoring was in person. I also had a student in Montana and a student in Kuwait, which was fun.

So I intend to continue tutoring online because it works and it works well. Tutoring online is better in some ways. For example I found myself scheduling half hour sessions just to keep on top of things which is something I could not usually do when tutoring in person.