Dave Bell

It’s strange to think that only a few years ago the whole of the UK was in a national lockdown brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. Where Covid had many negatives, the effect it had on education and educational development is often unspoken, or at best misunderstood.

The whole country having to shift to online learning is something many were not prepared for. How do we make this work for people who aren’t technologically savvy? How do we make it work for households with bad internet, or less computers than students? Will people engage with conversations as well through screens, instead of with a physical person in the same room? It’s a harsh reality that some schools were not prepared for, or did not have the resources available, to make online learning as high quality as in person. Witnessing this, companies quickly recognised the need to advance online learning technology, which has rocketed up in standard in recent years.

I must confess, as a full time private tutor, this advancement in online learning resources has been hugely beneficial to me. When I first started this job, 14 years ago, there just wasn’t any constructive method of running lessons online, they all had to be done in person to get the desired effect. This meant that not only was I restricted to the UK market, I was restricted to within reasonable driving distance of wherever I lived at the time. Furthermore, between each lesson you had to factor in the travel time from one house to the next, which could easily mean half your ‘working hours’ were spent sitting in rush hour traffic. To be honest, this made me question the viability of private tuition as a profession at times.

That all changed during Covid. With social distancing now obligatory, people who were rightly sceptical about online learning were thrust into an environment where it was compulsory, and the technology quickly filled this need.

With tutoring now being 100% online through this period, I could run lessons with a ten minute break instead of potentially an hour drive. No longer was I restricted to clients around my home in West London, I could now work with anyone in the UK at the touch of a button. But a real surprising added bonus came in the form of international students. You see, private tuition working hours are largely after school, so typically between about 4pm and 8pm. Realistically, this does limit the amount of revenue you can hope to make. But since learning moved online I now work with clients all across Europe and the Middle East, with them being a few hours ahead of the UK means my working hours can now be more like 1pm-8pm GMT.

This is not to say the shift to online learning doesn’t have its challenges. It does mean knowledge of more syllabi is required, it does mean having to keep people’s attention through screens rather than with a physical presence, it does mean you’re in competition with thousands of tutors worldwide, rather than just your local area, etc. But, on balance, I firmly believe the adoption of online learning has been beneficial for the private tuition sector.

Why am I telling you all this? Well, I want to be as honest and transparent as possible with you. I want you to know what I stand to gain from this, but at the same time give you a better understanding of what you have to gain. If you’re looking for private tuition, you now have the choice of high level tutors anywhere in the world. With tuition now being more financially feasible as a career, much of the top talent can stay in the industry. Lastly, dare I say it, I believe online learning can in fact be more beneficial than in person lessons, but only if it’s done right.

Which brings me to the true purpose of this article: how to get the most out of online lessons. To be crystal clear, this is not going to be about tuition or education in general, this will be specifically about online lessons.

Use a shared collaborative whiteboard. A rookie mistake private tutors make is thinking they need to demonstrate their content knowledge continuously. They do not. The job, amongst other tasks, is to present the content knowledge AND check the student has absorbed it. This cannot be done effectively if you can’t see the student’s workings in real time.

Personally, I use an app called Explain Everything in my lessons, this is not an ad by the way. The app provides shared whiteboards, which can be edited in real time by all parties. For example, if I present a maths problem, both myself and the student can complete the workings side by side.

Have a tablet computer and a stylus pen. I recognise things like iPads and the associated gadgets aren’t the cheapest things in the world, but a harsh reality is they do make online learning higher quality. With collaborative whiteboards, these can often be accessed through a desktop computer, but it means writing and drawing diagrams with a mouse rather than a stylus pen. This significantly slows down working, and often means new content isn’t absorbed as well as students are using more cognitive capacity to focus on writing in an unfamiliar way.

Honestly, if you want to get the most out of your online learning, invest in these pieces of kit. You won’t regret it.

Charge your laptop, iPad, and stylus pen in advance. I know this will seem a silly thing to write, but you’d be amazed how often I see student’s start a lesson telling me they need to charge their iPad. It’s not the end of the world, but it does mean about five minutes of lesson time isn’t optimised as we can’t see each other’s workings. Squeeze everything you can out of the online lesson, turn up prepared.

Put your phone away. I think we’re all becoming a bit more aware of the downsides of excessive screen time, and I recognise the irony in suggesting we reduce screen time while advocating for online learning. But smartphones are often the biggest distraction students have to effective learning. Apps like TikTok and Instagram are incredibly well-designed to suck you in, and often people find themselves grabbing their phones and opening these apps without even realising they’re doing it.

I find it curious, humans have an incredible capacity to make things interesting, but tend to gravitate towards the most convenient form of entertainment and dopamine. By removing distractions around you during lessons, you engage with the lesson more effectively.

Cameras on. Anyone reading this who has ever worked from home will probably be familiar with the cameras on vs. cameras off debate. The main benefits of cameras on, in my opinion, are more effective communication through the use of facial cues and body language (studies say 71% of communication is non-verbal, after all), subsequently greater engagement, and a reduction in temptation to multitask during the lesson.

I understand some people feel anxious about having their private space visible, and with that in mind remember you can always use virtual backgrounds. Personally, alongside my collaborative whiteboard, I use Skype on my desktop to converse directly with students, and can personally attest to the fact a tutor can often tell how well a student is absorbing information from their facial expressions alone. Help us help you!

Record lectures. Learning requires reinforcement and repetition for it to be transferred from our short term memory to our long term memory. Having content presented to you is not enough to fully grasp it, it’s important to practise articulating and applying it yourself shortly after you’ve first learned it. But I know that’s hard at times, sometimes life gets in the way. If only there was a way to replay the lesson you had when you’re revising it. Well, now there is.

A feature on the Explain Everything boards I use is the option to record and download lectures. From there, they can be saved wherever you like, such as Google Drive. All it takes is about 5 clicks. Online learning doesn’t just mean you’re buying an hour of a tutor’s time, speak to them about taking their knowledge home with you in the most effective way possible.

Organise your notes. This is important no matter how or where you’re learning, but often becomes something of an afterthought with online lectures. With in person lessons, the temptation can be to make notes on paper for the duration, then put them in an unsorted pile, and forget about them. By the time revision season rolls around, it’s so hard to find what you’re looking for you may as well start from scratch.

Speak to your tutor about the best methods for organising notes. For me, I’m a big enthusiast for compartmentalising chapters, and building connections to other chapters towards the end. This can very easily be done with online learning too. Explain Everything, for example, gives each student their own whiteboard, which can be broken down into individual named slides. For me, I like to give each chapter of the syllabus its own slide, so at any point students can open the board and know exactly where to find what they’re looking for.

I firmly believe enacting all seven of these pieces of advice can make online private tuition more effective than face to face. But don’t just take my word for it, book a lesson with one of our online tutors today and let them show you how it’s done.