5 Tools To Become An Effective Tutor right away!
Teaching is one of the most rewarding professions in the world. Aside from a sense of fulfillment in helping others learn, it’s also a lucrative career that you can perform almost anywhere. Professional and reliable tutors were in demand even before there was a global pandemic. As more people continue to stay indoors to protect their health against the coronavirus, online tutorial services have grown increasingly popular.
Essential Skills Of An Effective Tutor
You should develop several skills if you want to be an effective tutor, such as:
- Communication skills: Having great communication skills is a must-have for almost any type of industry. As a tutor, you enhance your listening, verbal, and writing skills with every session with your students. An effective tutor knows how to explain in words and writing and be a good listener to their students.
- Confidence: Being confident is a trait that many people covet. There’s no room for fear of public speaking when you are a tutor. One of the benefits of working as a tutor is that you gradually boost your confidence in what you do.
- Creativity: Seasoned educators know that every learner is different. A professional tutor will use various resources and techniques to help students learn.
- Dedication: Tutoring can be discouraging at times, especially when you’re not seeing good results right away, but it’s not a thankless job. This profession instills dedication and perseverance in your very core.
- Patience: You’ll encounter different types of learners, and dealing with each of them will help you become patient and calm.
- Organization: An educator must learn to be organized to ensure that time and other valuable resources are not wasted. The right online tools help you improve your capabilities and productivity as a tutor.
If you’re a teacher or a professional tutor, there are many ways to take advantage of your knowledge and skills to teach others. Fortunately, some tools will help you become an effective tutor to your students.
For example, traditional tutors can use flashcards to help young pupils become more familiar with specific information or memorize faster. Online tutors nowadays also have a wide array of electronic tools to utilize to make learning as smooth and effective as possible.
Key Tools For Effective Tutoring
Every reputable tutor knows that the key to effective tutoring is a combination of knowledge, skills, and tools. The mastery of topics and skills are acquired through your years of study and experience as a professional. However, you can be a better tutor by knowing which tools will help you and your students in every online tutoring session.
1) Communication Tools
There are many kinds of communication tools that tutors can use for teaching online students. Some are available for free, while others require paid accounts. Because online learning is all the rage nowadays, you should determine what kind of communication tools you can use for online tutoring.
It doesn’t matter if you’re using open source or a subscription-based communication tool; the application must be something that you and your students can navigate easily. Online communication allows teachers and students to engage in video calling, which helps reduce anonymity and bring a sense of personal touch.
If you tutor young students, a communication tool like Skype seems fitting because making it work is not too complicated to understand. However, when you’re handling older students and professionals, you may want to use a feature-rich communication tool such as WebEx or GoToMeeting.
As an educator, you must check on your students and ask for their recommendations or feedback, especially when it comes to communication tools. It should be your goal to ensure that learners feel comfortable using your preferred tool for online communication.
2) Virtual Board
It can’t be easy to hold students’ attention when they cannot visualize or interact with their tutor during the lesson. Virtual blackboards and whiteboards allow students and teachers to discuss the lesson more proactively. Students can participate better during class, especially for math and science, that require an actual application for better understanding.
3) Collaboration and Sharing Tool
Online tutoring has become more collaborative, thanks to technology. As an online tutor, you will likely require your students to share their work samples so you can provide feedback for improvement.
You’ll need a collaboration and sharing tool such as Google Docs, which is free to use. Other known alternatives to Google Docs are Microsoft Office and Dropbox Paper. These online tools allow easy sharing of documents with significant storage space for different file types.
4) Learning Management System (LMS)
A learning management software or system, also known as LMS software, is an online application that allows educators to deliver training and educational materials to students seamlessly. An LMS is essential for keeping track of modules and courses for easy accessibility to learners.
Free-to-use LMS software includes Google Classroom, Moodle for Free, TalentLMS, and Schoology. User experience is essential when choosing a suitable LMS for your students. A learning management system is an essential tutoring tool to achieve consistency of learning materials and create engaging modules and courses for learners.
5) Screen Capture And Recording Tools
Tutors will find screen capture and recording tools helpful in ensuring students get a visual explanation of the lesson or a review of the previous sessions.
OBS Studio, Screencastify, and Screencast-O-Matic are examples of tools that can help you capture the current session to review it at their preferred time. It’s not just your students or learners who will benefit from screen recording tools. You can also use it to assess your teaching methods so you can improve or make changes to your teaching style.
Takeaway
Technology has undoubtedly influenced the way learning is accomplished nowadays. With the help of productivity, communication, recording, and collaboration tools, online tutoring has become more effective, providing students with an excellent way to learn during uncertain times. As an online tutor, you are no longer location-bound since technology has made it possible to reach out to students near you or across the globe.