Online Tutoring Is Good - As Long As It Mimics Offline Tutoring
There is no lack of concern about the effects that technology is having on school-age kids. If you have any doubt, read The Greatest Generation (of Networkers). Among the various problems is that students seem to have very short attention spans, and it should come as no surprise - they are tethered to data delivery devices as a way of life.
I've been a full-time private tutor for the past nine years, and I'd be hard pressed to think of a single high school student I have tutored who would open a math or science textbook to try to learn something, even with the book within arms reach. It is disturbing to realize students now feel that if it can't be found within seconds at the click of a mouse, it's not worth the effort. Online tutoring has become part of the problem.
Most online tutoring services make tutors available on a stand-by basis, any hour of the day or night. Such "on-demand" services sound great on the surface, but it turns out that the very nature of instantaneous online tutoring creates ineffective and unsatisfying help sessions for students. The reason this type of service is widespread has to do with the fact that it fits so nicely into the current culture of "give-it-to-me-now-or-I'll-go-somewhere-else" that permeates the thinking of school-age kids. If technology has created the mindset, online tutoring has adapted itself to fulfill such needs.
Unfortunately, on-demand internet tutoring is effective only for students who have simple questions that can be answered quickly and easily by just about anyone. But then, this is not really tutoring, is it? For material that is somewhat more academically complex or subtle, or for students who need to learn an important skill or concept that may require some practice or thinking, instantaneous online tutoring normally fails to provide the necessary level of quality.
A highly productive tutoring session, where the student actually learns something, requires this strange, forgotten thing called an appointment. Effective online tutoring, like effective classroom teaching, can occur only when the student and instructor come to the session prepared. Before the session begins, students need an opportunity to upload materials that may include quizzes, tests, homework assignments, and review sheets. At the other end, the tutor should have the chance to review those materials and bring any additional items that might be useful. In a practical sense, this can happen only when appointments are made in advance. Ironically, then, effective and productive online sessions occur when the services that provide them support mechanisms that mimic offline tutoring, something that disappoints students looking for a quick fix.
I have had the opportunity to set up such on-demand online tutoring systems for the last two years here at 24HourAnswers.com, but I consistently refuse to do so. While it may be beneficial for increasing revenue, as hundreds of students with short attention spans constantly jump onto the site for brief periods of time to get quick answers, I continue to feel that such activity is at odds with the fundamental goal of achieving high-quality educational exchanges. I am quite sure that for every one online session we conduct, we lose nine sessions due to the perceived inconvenience of having to make appointments in advance.
Students need to approach education with a little bit of forethought and seriousness, and there is no reason why online tutoring cannot play a useful role in helping to foster that kind of behavior. After all, this type of tutoring retains its great strengths - it can cost as little as one-tenth what private tutoring costs, it is as convenient as the nearest laptop, and it can be scheduled to suit the needs of even the most nocturnal students. When was the last time you tried to convince a private tutor to come to your dorm room at three o'clock in the morning?
We here at 24 HourAnswers.com have a true desire to help students learn and break their superficial, impulsive educational habits. Time will be the judge of our success or failure.
Lowell Parker, Ph.D.
Empire State College
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