Online Tutoring Essentials

Tips for in-person tutors during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond

In the wake of COVID-19, I’ve had tons of people reach out to me asking about online tutoring. Many of them tutor on their college campus and are unsure how to proceed now that classes have moved online.

I can’t cover all the differences between in-person and online tutoring in one post. Instead, my goal here is to list what I see as the online tutoring essentials:

High Speed Internet Connection

This is table stakes. Without a strong internet connection, online tutoring is simply impossible. Students are paying you by the hour, so an outage of even a couple minutes is a big deal to them!

You can check your internet speed for free (just type “Internet speed test” into Google), but you’ll also want to try out whatever tool you choose and pretend like you’re actually running a live session. Ask a friend or family member to get online with you and make sure that there are no issues.

Video Conferencing & Whiteboarding Tool

Note I didn’t say Video Conferencing & screensharing tool. A digital whiteboard allows both of you to collaborate together simultaneously. If you rely on screensharing, you’ll have to pause sharing your screen every time in order for your student to present (and vice versa). It can also eat up your bandwidth, slowing your connection to a crawl. Finally, if a student forgets to stop sharing, they can accidentally navigate away to an embarrassing page, leading to an awkward situation for both of you. This is why I don’t recommend Skype/Google Hangouts for online tutoring! They offer sceensharing but not a built-in whiteboard.

Instead, I use Wyzant’s whiteboard tool. I do most of the writing using my stylus, but if a student wants to add things to the board, they can do so easily. They can also upload files, insert formulas, graph functions, lookup content using Wolfram Alpha encyclopedia search, and much more.

Best part: if they want to easily save what’s on-screen at the moment, they can download the whiteboard to an image with one click:

Touchscreen Computer & Stylus

You don’t need a touchscreen computer, but I find that having one makes online tutoring much easier. My personal favorite is the Google Pixelbook. It’s lightweight, has great battery life, and flips into a tablet seamlessly.

If you don’t have a touchscreen computer and don’t want to purchase one right now, you can instead invest in a stylus trackpad that plugs into your computer. I haven’t used these personally, but I know Wacom makes these for under $100.

Either way, you’re going to want to invest in a decent stylus. The Pixelbook nicely pairs with its own Pixelbook Pen stylus, but there are many other models out there on the market. Don’t go for the cheapest option here. I’ve tried them and they usually stop working or fall apart within a few months.

Professional Backdrop

Make sure there’s nothing in the background that could distract your student during the session. Seeing clothes on the ground in the background is not a professional look and can really cheapen your value in their eyes. Also, make sure pets are in another room so that they can’t wander into the shot during the session!

Ideally, you want to run your sessions from a desk with a plain wall behind you so that there are no distractions. Also, if there’s a window on that wall, run a test to make sure there’s not too much light streaming in. Seeing a dark silhouette instead of your face leads to an impersonal experience that can scare away students who might already be hesitant about online tutoring.

Pro tip: If you’re going to tutor online from a cramped apartment or dorm room, try pushing the side of your bed against the wall, putting a pillow against the wall and using that as your backdrop. That way it looks like you’re at a desk, even when you’re in bed. There’s just something weird about being tutored by someone that seems to be laying down in bed 😂

Recording Capability

This is a great way to get students who are used to in-person tutoring on board with online sessions. Normally they were relying on their memory, notes, and your session summaries to look back on what you covered in a session. With recordings, I’ve found students get more from sessions because they now don’t have to take as many notes! They’re focusing on your every word, because they know they can refer back to the recording if they need to. You can then use your recap of the session to cover the most crucial, high-level takeaways.

This is another reason to use a tool like Wyzant! They automatically record your session, but also allow students to opt-out for privacy reasons if they choose, giving them the best of both worlds. Google Hangouts only lets paid enterprise customers record calls, and Skype allows recording but doesn’t offer an opt-out option to those on the call, meaning you have to either record sessions without asking (illegal in some states) or ask your student for permission to record them (which is a bit awkward).