Online Tutoring Services Are Not Created Equally

You may have heard a lot about online tutoring services.  The concept certainly has been increasing in popularity lately.  What’s the entire buzz about?  Well, it’s simply the most convenient form of learning and tutoring out there.  In our world today, more families depend on dual income parents, longer hours are more of the norm, and kids are involved in sports, drama, band, dance, and countless other personal enrichment activities.  There’s just not enough time to fit in a trip to the tutoring center, too.  Well, online tutoring services provide a convenient option for extremely busy families.  However, you must be careful when making your selection of an online tutoring service.  Online tutoring services are not created equally.

Homework Help: Helpful or Hurtful?

There are some online tutoring services that offer exclusive homework help services.  They charge very little for the service.  The fees can range from $89-100 per month for unlimited homework help.  What seems to be an economical choice, BEWARE!  The homework assistance provided to your child through these services are often through email where your child types a question about a homework problem, and a tutor answers the email with a worked out solution for your child’s homework problem.  Sure, your child has received help for the homework assignment, but has your child learned anything in the process? 

Personal or Impersonal?

There are some online tutoring services that charge an hourly rate usually $ 25-45 per hour for help in any subject matter imaginable at anytime.  Sounds great?  Be careful!  If you utilize this type of service for your child regularly, your child may be paired with many different tutors over the course of time.  There’s no bond that develops between tutor and student, teacher and pupil.  Developing a bond during the learning process encourages confidence in the child.  Signing up instantly online with any available tutor waiting at the time may not encourage continuity and development in your child’s academic and social skills.  These types of tutoring services will have no knowledge of your child’s educational background and often do not communicate with your child’s teacher or you to measure progress.

Student Focused or Business Focused?

While it is true that an online tutoring service is in fact a business, this should not be its only driving force.  Ultimately, the needs of the child should be the primary focus.  Unfortunately, there are some online tutoring services that do not assess formally or informally what you child’s needs are.  There a few good ones that will assess your child either formally with a series of diagnostic tests or informally through an interview of the parent, student, and the teacher.  Based on the information gathered, these tutoring services will provide a personalized program of instruction fitting the needs of your child.

The Decision

Whatever choice you make regarding online tutoring services, make sure you do your research first.   I would suggest you talk to a representative of the company to get a feel for how they conduct their online tutoring services.  Ask questions. Keep in mind the type of online experience you would like your child to have, and let it be your driving force in making the best decision.