A Student’s Perspective – Benefits Of Online Tuition

In the recent wave of COVID many schools have been forced to take their lessons online. Initially this caused a lot of difficulty as educators had to find ways of teaching their students online. This process, in conjunction with the technical illiteracy of older teachers, has made it a difficult transition for many students.

Despite the difficulties of distance education, some students have found advantage in their newfound learning environment. The technology used to conduct lessons has been leveraged by some students to improve their grades.

Rewinding online lessons

Not everyone picks everything up the first time. Often students miss things in the classroom because of distractions, day-dreaming, the teacher talking too quickly or not explaining a concept in sufficient depth. Online lessons allow for screen capture, which allows students to record lessons and save them for later. This lets students rewind lessons and relisten to sections they may have missed.

This is a game changer for students with ADHD or with otherwise short attention spans that might drift in and out of attention. Recordings can also be watched at a faster speed and so can save time during revision – as they can be used as video notes to refresh a student’s memory. This can be done by timestamping videos with subtopics.

Travel time and breaks in online tuition

Online education allows for a better use of time in general. Student’s save time when traveling to and from school. Moreover, breaks can be better used to cool off between lessons. Teenagers especially can benefit from naps during the day to refresh themselves and sharpen their focus between lessons. Sleep is proven to help with concentration and memory and can be a huge factor in helping students absorb information.

School is also full of administrative tasks such as role calls, assemblies, and other unproductive activities. By having lessons online, these unproductive tasks are eliminated, which allows students to focus solely on their education. By channelling more time into study, students are able to learn their material better.

Money saved in online tuition

Student’s may find they have a few extra dollars saved now that they don’t need to pay for public transport, canteen food and going out with friends. This is a perfect opportunity to invest this money into bettering their education. Learning resources can do wonders for student’s in science and math related fields by offering more practice problems to solve.

Additionally, the saved pocket money can be used to hire a private tutor to help with a difficult subject. Private tutors can make a huge difference in a student’s performance by helping explain difficult concepts, guiding students through practice problems, explaining solutions, giving tips about what to expect on an exam and much more.

Using online resources more effectively

Many schools have a tight lock on student’s learning, however in many cases this is counterproductive. Many students, especially those in high school, are able to learn things independently and would prosper with more freedom of learning.

Schools typically use firewalls to prevent students from using resources on websites such as Youtube, as they feel these websites would be misused. As it turns out, however, students will always find ways around these firewalls using proxies and similar methods.

 Websites such as Youtube afford many useful educational resources such as Khan Academy, that could greatly benefit students if they had access to them. When students are at home they are not subject to such online policing and can use the full arsenal of resources at their disposal without limitation. This only serves to ingrain discipline and autonomy in student learning, important skills for when they advance to university.