Live Tuition

What is online live tuition?

 

The word tuition means ‘to teach’ in general. However, this word is generally used to indicate private tuition. Private tuition is a supplementary mechanism for students to learn and perform well in exams. Traditionally, knowledgeable people in a neighborhood used to conduct private tuition classes to help students learn in small groups or to get individual attention. Such attention is not possible in large classes of the school. Tuition classes proved to be quite effective for students. Students with private tuition often outsmart other students in exams. They tend to have a better grab of the concepts than the others.

With technological advancement, live tuition classes have become online live tuition classes. There are three major components of a live tuition process. The teacher, The student, and the technological platform through which they come together and interact.

The teacher usually schedules the class and sends a notification to the concerned student or students with time and other details of the class. Teachers come prepared for the class with PowerPoint presentations, videos, and other documents to teach.

The students get notification of the class from the teacher with details to join the class. They too come prepared for the class. Student’s primary responsibility is to make themselves available during the class and be attentive.

The technology platform in which the teacher and student come together is enabling the entire process. A good online classroom will have an option to talk, show video, screen sharing option, recording option, time tracking, Raise hand, Chat/texting option. Optimum utilisation of these features ensures the effectiveness of online live tuition classes.

Other vital factors determining the quality of an online tuition class are the internet connectivity and devices used by the teacher and students for attending classes. Devices must be of fair configuration. Internet bandwidth must also be reasonably good to ensure seamless connectivity without distractions and disturbances.

How good is online live tuition?

Online live tuition is the attempt to replace real classroom tuition with the help of technology. The technology platform is trying to create a real classroom feel. It tries to create options for students and teachers to interact as they are in the real classroom. Chat options, video, audio, whiteboard, screen sharing, options to write are all intended to create a real classroom experience for the participants. If active participation is ensured, online live classes can ensure the same result of tuition happening in real classrooms. Online live tuition has the advantage of cost and time convenience. Conducting online live tuition is easy compared to conducting classroom tuition. A real classroom requires infrastructure, travel, and other related expenses. Online live tuition has advantages over other forms of digital learning such as pre-recorded videos, animation videos, etc. Live interaction between teacher and students helps students to clarify doubts during the session. Teachers will also get to know the level of understanding of the students after each session.

To make online live tuition effective, participants need to ensure the following:

• 1. Active attention:- There is a fair chance that students tend to attend classes without active attention. It’s easy to get distracted in an online live class. The teacher may not get to know that easily, especially if the number of students is more. Students must attend the classes with undivided attention.
• 2. Preparation:- Teachers need to be prepared to take classes. Compared to real classroom tuition, online live tuition demands teachers to come prepared with ppt slides videos, documents, and other study materials to make learning easier online. Know the platform and use the platform:- Teachers and students must be familiar with the platform being used for conducting classes.
• 3. Ensure personal touch:- In an online tuition class, teachers and students are physically far away at the comfort of their home. However, they meet and interact as if they are physically together. Students must be ensured personal touch and care as they would get in a real classroom. The teacher must be able to address the varying learning needs of students. This may not be possible in large classes. Individual online classes and classes in small groups can ensure that such a personal touch is possible. Online live tuition class providers such as Learners Note give a lot of importance to such personal care. Most of the classes conducted by Learners Note are individual classes or in groups of small numbers. This gives the teacher the opportunity to come to the level of the students and twitch accordingly. Students have different learning styles. In individual class, this could also be addressed.

Online live classes going wrong

There are many instances that online live tuition classes gone wrong is different aspects. Let us examine how they go wrong and how we can prevent it from going wrong.

1. Poor internet connectivity:- The main villain of online live tuition is the poor internet connectivity experienced by teachers and students. Broken classes kill the joy of learning online. In order to avoid the same, please make sure that the participants have reasonably good internet connectivity and they sit at a place where the connection does not go off frequently.
2. Lack of experience of teachers:- Teachers must be trained well in conducting online classes. The platform must be very familiar to them. Teachers should use all the options available as and when required to make the class lively. Poor knowledge and experience of teachers in conducting online tuition makes the classes boring and ineffective.
3. Lack of attention of students:- The chances of students getting distracted is more in online classes. Since monitoring is not possible beyond a level, students have a tendency to deviate and indulge in other activities or engage in wandering thoughts. Teachers need to be careful to deal with this concern. They must think about ways and means to engage students in the sessions more. More engagement results in less distraction. Gamification is a great means to capture the attention and interest of students.
4. Lack of opportunity to socialise:- Lack of opportunity to socialise is a major criticism raised against online tuition. Students do not get the opportunity to meet peer students before or after classes as they would get in a real classroom scenario. This affects the socialising skills of students. Most of the online learning platforms and learning management systems try to address this concern through student forums and communities. Students can hang out with their pee students, make some friends and discuss subjects of common interest. Teachers can also be a part of such platforms. This results in discussions and learning beyond classrooms.

The hotcake called online live tuition

Thanks to the pandemic! Online live tuition classes are no more a concept but a part and parcel of the education system now. Practically, for all the learning and teaching purposes, online live tuition is being used. In India, almost all the schools except the government schools and government-aided schools have launched online live tuition classes for their students. In addition to this, the private tutors also have launched classed online to supplement the gap created by the lack of local tuition classes. Later, local private tuition vendors also have learned the trick and started giving their classes online. Students of all the classes starting from grade 1 to 12 resort to some or other tuition services in addition to the classes from their schools. For example, the preparation for National Talent Search Examination (NTSE) is through online tuition services by experts in this area. Students of class 9, class 10 are using online live tuition to score the extra marks to be competitive. The scenario is not different for students of class 11 and class 12. While passing out of plus two, students prepare for NEET or JEE depending on their interest and aptitude. Online live tuition is their resort in preparing for these exams. Institutes such as Learners Note provide excellent online live tuition classes for students appearing for NEET and JEE with highly experienced teachers.