November 1, 2018

3 Reasons Why In-Home Tutoring Is Better Than Online Tutoring

As the world moves faster and faster towards online meetings, working remotely, and nearly everything online — we’ve found that in-home tutoring still works best for most students. One things we’ve discovered over thousands of hours of tutoring is that each student learns a bit differently. We all have different strategies for learning and solving problems.

In-Home Tutoring is Still The Best Option For Students K-12

1. Each Student Learns Differently

Everyone has their own way and method of solving problems. And this means using a wide-array of educational techniques is the best way to help students realize their inner-genius. In our experience, switching between different styles of teaching and learning is simply harder to do online. One student might learn best with diagrams, writing, or through visualization. And when the tutor and student are both sitting at the same desk, it’s much easier to switch back and forth between different learning styles. Eventually picking the one that works best.

Through our many years of in-home tutoring, we’ve learned that if something isn’t working – teach it a different way.

2. In-Home Tutoring Has A Greater Emotional Understanding and Connection

Human psychology and understanding is a big part of what we do at Tutor Portland. And it’s just harder to do online. During in-home tutoring, it’s easy to read a student’s nonverbal communication and body language. Maybe they didn’t understand something. Maybe they are feeling down on their abilities. One of our tutors would be able to see this in a student’s body language, and take the appropriate steps to correct it.

We call this Tutoring In The Moment. We are able to stop our students and provide a redirect, re-framing their thinking from a negative view of their own capabilities to one of possibility, desire, and hope.

Maybe a student, when you use a particular style of teaching, starts to lean in and becomes visibly more interested in what you are saying. This is a clear sign to our tutors that this particular style of education is working.

3. In-Home Tutoring is Convenient + Online Tutoring is Easy to Skip

I’ve personally done online tutoring in the past. And it seems like 25-30% of the time is spent waiting for the computer to load, or for the internet to refresh.

Can you imagine having a personal trainer over skype? It would be better than nothing. But having a trainer in person is much better. You are much less likely to skip the session or blow it off.

When you know a tutor is coming to your house at 5:00PM, it’s easy to prepare and make it happen. There is something less formal about online communication appointments. They are much easier to skip.

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These are just a few reasons why we believe in-home tutoring is better than online tutoring. We encourage you to contact us, if you have any questions about your child’s education.