Interactive Online Tutoring Services

January 20, 2010

Two new students

Filed under: student updates,Tutoring — Rob @ 9:45 pm

I have two new students. One is studying probability and statistics at Queen’s University. The other is a grade 10 student in Aurora.

November 9, 2009

Police records check

Filed under: police vulnerable sector checks,Tutoring — Rob @ 6:24 pm

Police records check

October 7, 2009

Improvements

Filed under: Tutoring,tutoring history — Rob @ 9:20 pm

I have updated my website. I added another demonstration, changed the text somewhat and added a letter of recommendation. I have described my teaching method and updated the pricing tab to include the new charges for offline work.

August 21, 2009

Oxford Learning letter of recommendation

Filed under: letter of recommendation from Oxford Learning Centres,Tutoring — Rob @ 1:18 pm

Letter of recomendation from Oxford

August 19, 2009

New student from Toronto

Filed under: student updates,Tutoring — Rob @ 1:39 pm

It looks like I may have an adult student from Toronto. He is interested in taking engineering in university but needs to learn calculus, physics and some civil engineering. He has sent me two electronic books on calculus and I selected the best one for us to be working from. I suggested he go through the first chapter and attempt some of the problems on functions, before I teach him about limits and  the derivative.

He has a lot of the equipment he will need already including a writing pad and a scanner. So I think we will have no problem communicating. I am looking forward to meeting him online.

He had no problem with my charging for offline work.  I think this is a good way to work. He sends me his attempt at some problems, then I work on them offline, then we meet online and I address his concerns. This way he will learn more if he makes an attempt at the problems, rather than me going over the solutions.

July 21, 2009

Advantages of distance education for adults

Filed under: Tutoring,tutoring articles — Rob @ 6:23 pm

In the past, adults who took advantage of distance education programs were referred to as non-traditional students. Today this term no longer applies, because distance education is part of most college and university programs to meet demand. Every year more and more degree programs are being offered for those who want to continue their education.

Individual Advantages of Distance Education
The advantages for individuals in this education alternative method for learning for adults include:

•Courses for those with time limitations for various reasons.
•Flexibility to study in any convenient location with an Internet connection.
•More opportunities to study the most current material available.
•Flexibility for those with irregular work schedules.
•Study materials at own speed, without having to wait for slower pace of the average classroom or being overwhelmed in fast paced classroom.
•Those with physical challenges which prevent attendance.

Technology Advantages of Distance Education

Many adults, when thinking about enrolling in distance education, wonder if they will receive the same level of teaching and learning opportunities as traditional education. The answer is yes, because course requirements are not reduced and they have plenty of opportunity to interact with their instructor. Communication is typically accomplished through the use of a range of technological options, all of which take advantage of anyone’s specific situation, such as:

•Voice – audio tools include the interactive technologies of telephone and video/audio conferencing (one-way or two-way video with two-way audio).
•Video – video tools include still images, pre-produced videos (film and videotape), and real-time videos combined with audio conferencing.
•Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI) – uses computers as a teaching tool to present individual lessons.
•Computer-Managed Instruction (CMI) – uses computers to organize and deliver instruction using the Internet has the prime method of delivery.
•E-mail
•Fax
•Real-time computer conferencing
•Internet applications
•Web-based resources such as online textbooks, study guides, workbooks, syllabi, case studies, reading resources, and more.

July 16, 2009

Adult learning

Filed under: Tutoring,tutoring articles — Rob @ 3:41 pm
30 THINGS WE KNOW FOR SURE ABOUT ADULT LEARNING

By Ron and Susan Zemke
Innovation Abstracts Vol VI, No 8, March 9, 1984

A variety of sources provides us with a body of fairly reliable knowledge about adult learning. This knowledge might be divided into three basic divisions: things we know about adult learners and their motivation, things we know about designing curriculum for adults, and things we know about working with adults in the classroom. 
Motivation to Learn
  1. Adults seek out learning experiences in order to cope with specific life-changing events–e.g., marriage, divorce, a new job, a promotion, being fired, retiring, losing a loved one, moving to a new city.
  2. The more life change events an adult encounters, the more likely he or she is to seek out learning opportunities. Just as stress increases as life-change events accumulate, the motivation to cope with change through engagement in a learning experience increases.
  3. The learning experiences adults seek out on their own are directly related – at least in their perception – to the life-change events that triggered the seeking.
  4. Adults are generally willing to engage in learning experiences before, after, or even during the actual life change event. Once convinced that the change is a certainty, adults will engage in any learning that promises to help them cope with the transition.
  5. Adults who are motivated to seek out a learning experience do so primarily because they have a use for the knowledge or skill being sought. Learning is a means to an end, not an end in itself.
  6. Increasing or maintaining one’s sense of self-esteem and pleasure are strong secondary motivators for engaging in learning experiences.
Curriculum Design
  1. Adult learners tend to be less interested in, and enthralled by, survey courses. They tend to prefer single concept, single-theory courses that focus heavily on the application of the concept to relevant problems. This tendency increases with age.
  2. Adults need to be able to integrate new ideas with what they already know if they are going to keep – and use – the new information.
  3. Information that conflicts sharply with what is already held to be true, and thus forces a re-evaluation of the old material, is integrated more slowly.
  4. Information that has little “conceptual overlap” with what is already known is acquired slowly.
  5. Fast-paced, complex or unusual learning tasks interfere with the learning of the concepts or data they are intended to teach or illustrate.
  6. Adults tend to compensate for being slower in some psychomotor learning tasks by being more accurate and making fewer trial-and-error ventures.
  7. Adults tend to take errors personally and are more likely to let them affect self-esteem. Therefore, they tend to apply tried-and-true solutions and take fewer risks.
  8. The curriculum designer must know whether the concepts or ideas will be in concert or in conflict with the learner. Some instruction must be designed to effect a change in belief and value systems.
  9. Programs need to be designed to accept viewpoints from people in different life stages and with different value “sets.”
  10. A concept needs to be “anchored” or explained from more than one value set and appeal to more than one developmental life stage.
  11. Adults prefer self-directed and self-designed learning projects over group-learning experiences led by a professional, they select more than one medium for learning, and they desire to control pace and start/stop time.
  12. Nonhuman media such as books, programmed instruction and television have become popular with adults in recent years.
  13. Regardless of media, straightforward how-to is the preferred content orientation. Adults cite a need for application and how-to information as the primary motivation for beginning a learning project.
  14. Self-direction does not mean isolation. Studies of self-directed learning indicate that self-directed projects involve an average of 10 other people as resources, guides, encouragers and the like. But even for the self-professed, self-directed learner, lectures and short seminars get positive ratings, especially when these events give the learner face-to-face, one-to-one access to an expert.
In the Classroom
  1. The learning environment must be physically and psychologically comfortable; long lectures, periods of interminable sitting and the absence of practice opportunities rate high on the irritation scale.
  2. Adults have something real to lose in a classroom situation. Self-esteem and ego are on the line when they are asked to risk trying a new behavior in front of peers and cohorts. Bad experiences in traditional education, feelings about authority and the preoccupation with events outside the classroom affect in-class experience.
  3. Adults have expectations, and it is critical to take time early on to clarify and articulate all expectations before getting into content. The instructor can assume responsibility only for his or her own expectations, not for those of students.
  4. Adults bring a great deal of life experience into the classroom, an invaluable asset to be acknowledged, tapped and used. Adults can learn well -and much – from dialogue with respected peers.
  5. Instructors who have a tendency to hold forth rather than facilitate can hold that tendency in check–or compensate for it–by concentrating on the use of open-ended questions to draw out relevant student knowledge and experience.
  6. New knowledge has to be integrated with previous knowledge; students must actively participate in the learning experience. The learner is dependent on the instructor for confirming feedback on skill practice; the instructor is dependent on the learner for feedback about curriculum and in-class performance.
  7. The key to the instructor role is control. The instructor must balance the presentation of new material, debate and discussion, sharing of relevant student experiences, and the clock. Ironically, it seems that instructors are best able to establish control when they risk giving it up. When they shelve egos and stifle the tendency to be threatened by challenge to plans and methods, they gain the kind of facilitative control needed to effect adult learning.
  8. The instructor has to protect minority opinion, keep disagreements civil and unheated, make connections between various opinions and ideas, and keep reminding the group of the variety of potential solutions to the problem. The instructor is less advocate than orchestrator.
  9. Integration of new knowledge and skill requires transition time and focused effort on application.
  10. Learning and teaching theories function better as resources than as a Rosetta stone. A skill-training task can draw much from the behavioral approach, for example, while personal growth-centered subjects seem to draw gainfully from humanistic concepts. An eclectic, rather than a single theory-based approach to developing strategies and procedures, is recommended for matching instruction to learning tasks.

The next five years will eclipse the last fifty in terms of hard data production on adult learning. For the present, we must recognize that adults want their learning to be problem-oriented, personalized and accepting of their need for self-direction and personal responsibility.

June 29, 2009

Belgium student update

Filed under: student updates,Tutoring — Rob @ 10:53 am

It is going well with my student from Belgium. He is getting 92% now!

In order to improve the audio we removed the video component. Now we can communicate much better.

May 20, 2009

New Student from Belgium

Filed under: student updates,Tutoring — Rob @ 2:08 pm

I Just had three successful online tutoring sessions with a student from Belgium. He is a Canadian taking an online course and needs some extra help with grade 11 math.

At first I used the online chat feature of the software I am using to communicate. We then tried to connect with audio, but it turned out his bandwidth was too small. He changed from wireless and that seemed to solve the audio problem. Now we are communicating in audio, I am using the whiteboard to write to him. He has tried writing to me with his mouse, and it works okay-but I suggested he might get a tablet so that he could write to me more easily.

I like being able to display files using the whiteboard one of the supported files is pdf, which is quite common I suppose. My scanner will save a document in this format so it makes it more useful to me.

The teaching is going well I think he is able to understand what I am explaining to him and the time seems to go by fast for both of us. I will see him online again on Wednesday May 27th.

July 21, 2008

Online Tutoring

Filed under: Tutoring,tutoring articles — Rob @ 3:38 pm

The Benefits of Tutoring Online

July 14, 2008 – 9:29 am by GlobalScholar

Online tutoring started in the late 90s and has quickly expanded since then. Some remain skeptical of online learning and claim that it is less effective than face-to-face instruction. I admit, change can be a scary thing, but evolution is what makes the world live on, and often works out for the better.

Below I have compiled a list of the benefits of tutoring online.

 Saves time and money
Tutoring online will save you time and money commuting, since you can have the session from the comfort of your home. You can prepare for a session in 5 minutes and stay in your pajamas and slippers.

 Online tutoring costs are usually 30-40% less than face-to-face
Since tutors can accommodate a higher volume of students through online tutoring, they often charge less for their sessions. They also get to cut transportation out the equation and can send files and resources electronically for free.

 Easy access to subject specialists
Online tutoring also allows you to hire multiple tutors in different disciplines all from the same place, cutting out the hassle of going from agency to agency.

 Instant trouble-shooting – get help right away, when you need it
Say you need help with a complex math problem in advanced calculus, it is 10pm on a Tuesday night, you live in a remote farming community and you need to know how to solve it for your test the next day. Easy, connect with a tutor online anywhere in the country at any time. This is where online tutoring takes the cake and face-to-face tutoring just can’t compete.

 Security
The safety of online tutoring is far superior to that of face-to-face. First of all, no tutors have to come to your house and your children don’t have to travel from home to receive tutoring. No personal information needs to be exchanged and money transactions take place through a safe, encrypted connection.

 Great for shy students
Most children are shy about their tutoring needs and usually aren’t too eager to ask for help. Online tutoring makes it easier for shy children to asks questions and engage more in the conversation. That allows for more open channels of discussion and promotes and comfortable learning environment.

So there you have it, a list of reasons to try online tutoring. The only real difference between online and face-to-face tutoring is the medium. With the use of voice over Internet protocol, verbal communication is possible online. Pair that with file sharing abilities, interactive whiteboards and messaging and you’ve got the same abilities as you do face-to-face.

« Previous Page — Next Page »

Contact us today to get started