Thanks to technological progress, the modern age has changed our habits when it comes to various aspects of our lives, including learning habits. While some believe that the knowledge they have acquired in school is sufficient for their further mental and professional development, others want to continue to expand their knowledge and acquire new ones from some other areas that enter the sphere of their interest. Also, while some students manage to concentrate on school lessons and manage to understand their teachers, others fail, which is why they need private lessons. Private classes twice a week with a teacher who lives on the other side of town have become a thing of the past. Thanks to the Internet, online tutoring services are becoming increasingly popular.
However, many people are skeptical when it comes to the reliability of such services. Is the quality of the knowledge provided at the expected high level? Is the absence of personal interaction a problem? Does this way of learning require a certain discipline and seriousness? You will easily answer all the questions and doubts after you see the following advantages and disadvantages of online tutoring.
Pros
1. Saves time
The main advantage of such services is that they won’t take you too much time. When we say that, we mean the time that you would otherwise lose in transportation to the place where the classes will be held and back. Also, those who attend online classes and who are busy due to several obligations that need to be done in one day will save a lot of time thanks to the possibility of learning from their home.
This advantage makes it easier to organize and certainly leaves more free time at the end of the day that you would lose in transportation if you decided to learn with traditional methods.
2. Flexibility
The desire for additional personal development shouldn’t jeopardize the time reserved for your business or regular school obligations. Online tutoring is perfect precisely because it gives you the opportunity for additional education and at the same time doesn’t require you to leave other activities and obligations to dedicate yourself exclusively to it.
You are offered complete flexibility in terms of class time. Depending on when you are not busy, you can choose the term that you will most easily include in your daily schedule. According to FineGrades, platforms like this can be available to you in the late evening and early morning, whenever you require it.
3. Adapting to your pace of learning
Online tutoring involves a one-on-one class between your tutor and you. This means that this concept of work eliminates the presence of other people, which is great because so your tutor can be focused exclusively on you. In this way, they will easily gain insight into the level of your acquired knowledge so far and will know in which direction they should continue to educate you. Also, the speed of education will be in accordance with your pace.
On the other hand, it leaves you free to ask at any time for a better explanation of what you didn’t understand. Some people are ashamed to do it in front of a full classroom for fear that someone will think they aren’t intelligent enough, which is why this one-on-one online option will be perfect for them.
4. You can choose a tutor according to your needs
Unlike the school that decides which teacher to get, online teaching is different. You can decide on that, depending on your needs. This leaves a very wide range of possibilities and so you can more easily find a professional and highly educated tutor who will really provide you with the education you expect for your money.
The Internet is a huge market in which you have a better chance of finding exactly what you need, which is understandable considering the elimination of geographical restrictions. When you get a teacher at school whose lectures you don’t understand, after that you will be left with holes in knowledge and you can’t change that. But you can easily solve this by hiring reliable tutoring services.
Cons
1. Requires more money
Every quality service requires to be well paid, so it is the same in this case. Of course, you can always find online tutoring services at a more affordable price on the market, but in any case, you have to expect that you will need to save some money to pay for it. So, you can’t expect free education like in regular school conditions.
Besides, you must consider additional costs. This way of education implies certain technical equipment. Okay, you may not need a high-performance computer, but a video camera and microphone are inevitable. If for some reason you don’t currently have a computer, laptop, or tablet, you can expect even higher costs.
2. Technical problems
When working or studying online you must be prepared for factors that may affect the technical ability of your device to meet your requirements. Poor internet connection, current problems happening to your ISP, occasional disconnection are just some of the factors that can ruin your encounter with an online tutor.
Technology is not always at the level we expect and this is a risk that always exists in such cases. Sometimes a network failure can occur and sometimes some equipment can break down. These are circumstances on which we often cannot have an influence and on which we depend and we must be ready for them.
3. Risk of fraud
As always when looking for some services over the internet, we must be prepared for the risk of fraud. Specifically, we must be careful when searching to avoid being deceived by internet predators. Considering that we cannot be completely sure who is on the other side, we must include the precautionary factor.
Of course, there are ways to find reliable services. There are a lot of forums on the Internet where previous users share their impressions, and here we can see whether a website is reliable or not. So before you make a final decision about who you will trust and where you will invest your money, be well informed.
Now that all the cards are on the table, it will be easier for you to decide whether online tutoring programs are the right thing for you or not. With enough caution, you can find reliable service providers and get the desired education and tutor with whom you will want to work again in the future.