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The idea of online tutoring is gaining in popularity in recent times. This is ideally because of the ease of being able to connect with a quality tutor at a very short notice. This is particularly effective when a student is preparing for an exam which is very close or if a student is confused with a particular problem. The online tutor comes up to rescue these students on demand or scheduled. Not all the online tutoring companies offer an on—demand tutoring services. Majority of well established companies prefer to impart online scheduled tuitions to the students, where the students can communicate with the tutors. The common tools used in this learning process include whiteboard, chat and other specialized applets which make it easier to convey information back and forth.
In the rapidly growing online education field, the online teachers are responsible for providing personalized online tuition and expert assistance so as to meet the diverse requirements of the students. In the recognized online education institutes, teachers are selected only after rigorous tests and screening. The professionals and the subject matter experts cater to the needs of competitive examinations to daily assignments. The audiovisual interaction pattern used in this type of education, makes learning easier and comfortable to the students. From examination preparation to home work help to standardized test preparation from K-12 to college in various disciplines including Math, Science, Statistics, Physics, Chemistry, Economics, Biology, Accounts, Finance and many more.
Skills of an Online Tutor
To become an effective online tutor, an individual should possess some critical skills. The skill sets required to become a successful online tutor are listed below.
- Gathering Information
- Planning
- Teaching
- Organization
- Innovation
- Empowering
In the first place, a good teacher should be a good researcher. The process of researching and gathering lesson plans is very important. The study materials should be tailor made to deliver to the online audience.
Quality and effective online tutors work behind the scenes. They regularly evaluate the performance of the students and adjust their study materials accordingly. In some cases, additional exercises are incorporated in the study materials so as to target the weak areas of the students.
The teaching methods adopted generally depend upon the online tutors. Some of them may prefer the material laid out before them, with step-by-step teaching instructions, useful teaching tips and optional games and activities. On the other hand, some teachers may prefer to design their own curriculum, test it, refine it, and continue to improve the study materials. This is indeed an important consideration to make—it may lead you to apply for work in an organization with established teaching procedures or to set up your own online tutoring business.
Careful thought and a lot of time should be devoted in planning, creating new ideas and presenting information in a way that will help the students to learn better.
The online tutors will be constantly exposed to new technologies such as web-conferencing and VOIP. One should be accommodative and technologically sound to comfortably use these equipments.
What is very important is coaching and mentoring online students. The empowering of the students just means giving words of encouragement every now and then.
Hiring an Online Tutor
Traditionally, students were forced to opt for teachers located in the nearby city or town. However, for the people who are staying in remote locations or studying a highly advanced or specialized subject, it may not be easy to get an on site teacher. Fortunately, the internet has changed it altogether and anyone with access to internet can easily find an online tutor meeting his or her requirements. Again, in recent times, numerous online tutors are available in the market place. Some of these teachers may not serve your purpose to the extent that you desired. So before hiring an online tutor one has to be very much careful and judicious. Before hiring an online tutor, we advise you to follow few steps. These steps are described below.
- Determine your needs
- Explore your options
- Interview your tutor
In the first and foremost place, the students have to determine their own needs. The students should have the clear idea about the background, shills and the experience that the tutor should possess. Certain aspects should be made clear such as how much one is willing to pay for the service, the exact turnaround time and few other things. One may be interested to interact with the individual tutor directly or may be willing to hire a teacher from a tutoring company.
You may come across a variety of tutoring communities or individual tutors who can meet your education requirements. But before selecting any, you are advised to get a good grasp about the package offered by them and of course the price charged. There are few handy websites such as Tutor.com, Brainfuse and Sylvan Online, which provide detailed information about online tutoring companies. You can also conduct a simple Google search by simply typing ‘online tutor’ along with the name of your subject and then look through the results. In some cases, classified ads in the newspaper or online classified sites provide useful information on online tutors.
It is recommended that one should conduct thorough research before hiring a tutor. One can directly contact the tutor or the company over phone or mail and ask them questions what you feel pertinent to your situation. If you are not satisfied with the answers provided by them, you can surely move on to the nest option. The process goes on till you find an individual teacher or company who fits your bill.
Latest Developments in Online Tutoring
Online tutoring is moving beyond those offered by discussion technology. The latest developments in this field are marked by the usage of Web 2.0 and multi-user virtual environments.
- Web 2.0
- Multi-user Virtual Environments
This encourages the usage of web in increasingly interactive ways. The two critical benefits of this latest technology are user-generated content and social networking. The social network channel can be ideally used to connect students and tutors. This allows the students to help each other on a peer-t0-peer basis. The usage of Web 2.0 technology has added to flexibility of the online tutoring programs.
Thorough research has begun on the use of multi-user virtual environments as Second Life tutors and learners.
Last Updated: 04/22/11
Good day! I am a filipino
Good day! I am a filipino based in UAE and currently unemployed. I am interested for online teaching or tutorial jobs, My qualifications and experience will be shown in my cv, please give more details on how I can contact you to send my application. Thank you.
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