Benefits of Online Tutoring
Before we get too deep into the semester, let’s talk about tutoring options. Some classes are going to be right in your area of interest. You’ll be motivated to read your textbook, interested in the material, excited to ask questions, and overall psyched to go to class.
But then there will be classes you’ll struggle with. It’ll be tough to stay motivated. You’ll dread going to office hours, so you’ll only do it once or twice, and while your grades will start out slightly less than desired, they’ll quickly plummet into the letters of the alphabet that you don’t want to see.
So what are your options? Well. Pretty much every university is going to have tutoring services, free of charge, for students. But sometimes this is a hard option to take advantage of. Tutors have schedules that are crazy and they may not line up with your availability. You may be embarrassed to go to tutoring in person. What if you see someone you know? It’s hard to take the confidence hit and admit that you need help.
Have you ever heard of hiring a tutor online? As technology keeps progressing, our options keep expanding. Online tutoring is becoming bigger and bigger. And there are plenty of benefits to doing tutoring this way. Here are some of the biggies.
1. More flexibility
One of the hardest parts of taking advantage of online tutoring services is making their schedule work with yours. If you look for an online tutor, chances are, they’ll have much more availability. Since neither of you are required to meet up somewhere, it opens up a lot more time for each of you to schedule a session. Not to mention this is pretty convenient for those of us who work three jobs and take 18 hours per semester.
2. Plethora of subjects
You can literally find tutoring online for any subject. Sometimes it’s tough to find a Mandarin tutor on campus, but hit up the internet and I’m sure you’ll find one pretty quickly. If you’re looking for tutoring in subjects that aren’t as common as college algebra or biology 101, the internet is the place to begin.
3. Affordable
Because you aren’t taking advantage of the free services offered by your university, you’re going to have to pay for an online tutor. But chances are, it’ll be totally worth it. Sometimes you may have to pay $30-$40 an hour, but it’ll be worth it when you’re sitting on your couch watching your math problems get worked out in front of you.
It’s much easier to justify paying for a convenient tutoring session than justifying taking time out of your schedule to go somewhere, meet a tutor, and pay for it.
4. Frequency
Since online tutoring is so much more convenient, it’s much easier to have multiple tutoring sessions per week. Overall, this is going to help you learn the material faster and better, and you’ll probably retain it more than if you were to only take part in tutoring once per week. Having an online tutor is super convenient because they’re right there — at the touch of your fingertips — whenever you need them (for the most part).
5. Confidence
It’s tough to take the hit and walk into a tutoring center. I know what that feels like. Online tutoring is much more anonymous, so you don’t feel like you’re having to admit to the world that you’re failing. Additionally, you’ll be able to ask questions without feeling like a total idiot. It’s just a much more comfortable environment.
If you’re interested in becoming an online tutor …
Here are some tips for you:
1. Where to begin
The first thing you need to do is find a “host site” or two that’ll house your tutoring profile. You may want to just start with Facebook or Craigslist. But if you’re wanting to take things a little more seriously, set up a profile on care.com or Wyzant.com. These are websites that will connect you with tutoring jobs in your area as well as online tutoring jobs.
Be careful, though; some of these websites will take a cut of whatever you make — so you won’t earn as much as if you were tutoring privately.
2. Subject selection
You’re only going to want to tutor subjects online that you’ve taken recently and purely excelled in. You don’t want to tutor Calculus 17 unless you’ve taken it recently and can recall information quickly and accurately. One of the most embarrassing situations for a tutor is not knowing the answer to a question or answering a question wrong.
3. Creating your schedule
The biggest thing to keep in mind when you’re setting your online tutoring schedule is to not let it take advantage of your life. You could very easily become consumed with tutoring your students and you won’t be able to get your own things done. When you create a schedule, leave time for emergency tutoring sessions as well as your own personal self-care time!