What materials do you use for exclusive-online classes for online tutoring websites?

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jesl
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Joined: Fri Feb 15, 2008 7:30 am

What materials do you use for exclusive-online classes for online tutoring websites?

Post by jesl » Tue Aug 27, 2019 4:51 pm

Hi guys, I have a question for those of you who are teaching for those online tutoring platforms.

Over the last couple of years I have noticed a downtrend in the number of face to face students who contact me. It was inevitable that a lot of this business was going to move to online platforms. I am showing my age here, but I need to address the issue. As much as despise those online platforms and how they run their business I am left with no choice but to join them... It is a sad fact, but it is happening.

What is difficult for me is that I am not 100% confident I know what I need to teach them because the mentality is different and the amount of time you have with any one student is so limiting that nothing you do is trackable. Although I have some ideas about what to teach, the problem faced is that nothing you do is trackable, the students will change day to day, week to week, and you may never have the same student again. The companies don't give you materials, and I wonder how any of these students actually progress. I feel that most of them won't, having multiple teachers over a short period of time has some benefits, but overall it is sort of useless. Of course there are the messages that go back and forth with the student to try to understand what they want, but to me it is not as good as sitting down with a student face to face, having that initial interview and understanding more clearly what they want and how long they and you have to attempt to achieve their goal. I have taught online classes before, and even do until now, but all of them are longer term students, and I know what their problems are, and we have a schedule of what we are going to do in every class. There is nothing about these online platforms in place to insure that the students actually make progress. Ok so I am rambling and complaining now, so... with that....

I am curious, I would like to hear from especially those of you younger folks or heck even the middle aged folks who do a lot of your teaching on those online platforms, what do you actually teach your students during those 45-60 minutes you have with them? How do you engage them? And how do you deal with students who cannot really talk to you when that camera comes on? Maybe you were not quite prepared to have to change gears immediately once the class starts... Where do you get the materials from? What frustrations do you have? What problems have you encountered, and how do you get them to come back to your class again? There is such a short amount of time to do much that really helps in my opinion. Thank you!

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