Tips from Charlie: 5 Quick Tips for Online Tutors

Tips from Charlie: 5 Quick Tips to Make the Most of E-Tutoring

Online tutoring is growing in popularity, and it is important that tutors know the subtle differences between online tutoring and in-person tutoring. It is not just the technology that sets these tutoring styles apart, but the approaches and communication methods used.

Below are 5 quick tips you can use for polishing up your online tutoring skills. You'll most likely recognize a lot of these tips from in-person tutoring scenarios, but with some very subtle changes to make them more fitted to online tutoring.

Enjoy!

Tip #1: Adapt to the comfort level of your tutee. Don't overload him or her with a bunch of different types of technology and communication methods (i.e live chat, email, message board, etc.) before your tutoring even begins; ask what types of communication preferences your tutee has. If he or she likes live chat tutoring, then go for that approach. If your tutee works best via forum posting, then use that tutoring approach. The point is that you want the tutoring session to be comfortable for your tutee so that he or she can focus entirely on the learning, and not on the technology.

Tip# 2: Be patient with your tutee. If you are live chat tutoring, or tutoring in some other way that allows instant discussions, allow ample time for your tutee to answer your questions. There is nothing more frustrating for a tutee than attempting to work through a problem only to be cut off by the tutor.

If a significant amount of time has passed, you may want to check in with your tutee to make sure that he or she is still working, but make sure that you give the tutee plenty of time so that he or she doesn't feel rushed. A rushed tutoring session is never successful.

Patience on the part of the tutor is even more important in online tutoring situations that involve email or forum postings - make sure your tutee feels heard, but never make him or feel rushed. Not every silence needs to be filled in by the tutor. Sometimes your tutee is contemplating a concept, or the next step of the problem.

Tip #3: Keep your online tutoring time relaxed, friendly, and open. Your tutoring session should put your tutee at ease, and make him or her comfortable enough to try new concepts, answer questions, etc.

The dialogue between you two during tutoring also doesn't have to be perfect in spelling or grammatical structure (with the exception of English, language arts, etc.). Often, typing quickly into live chat can yield a few typos; don't worry about these, just stay focused on the tutoring. If you are tutoring math, for example, you shouldn't spend time correcting the tutee's live chat sentence structure when you could be helping him or her with algebra. Focus on the subject at hand, not just how your tutee phrases questions and answers. This will not only make the tutoring more productive, but it will also keep your tutee from feeling self-conscious about his or her participation during he tutoring session.

Tip #4: Be flexible during tutoring, just like you would be in a traditional tutoring environment. You may expect a set number of problems or things to be done during the tutoring session, but it is important to move at the pace that your tutee is most comfortable with. Let your tutee's knowledge and progress drive the tutoring session. If that means getting a bit less, or a bit more, done than you had planned, then so be it.

Tip #5: Keep your tutoring fresh and interesting. Try contributing new discussions, activities, and thought provoking exercises for your tutee during each tutoring session. Come up with ways of opening up dialogue with your tutee that gets him or her thinking about the subject in a bunch of different ways. Ask questions that make your tutee think. Talk about new, innovative ways of solving problems.

An enthusiastic tutor keeps tutees excited about learning, so never underestimate your attitude - it can make or break a tutoring session!

Good luck out there in tutoring cyberspace!
-Charlie