Key Takeaways
- Online tutoring platforms fall into three categories: tutor marketplaces, learning management solutions (LMS), and specialized platforms, each catering to different teaching needs.
- Platforms like EdisonOS offer advanced features, such as replicating real test experiences for Digital SAT prep, bridging the gap between teaching and effective learning.
- Choosing the right platform depends on your tutoring goals, from managing classes to creating authentic test environments and scaling your teaching business.
The first challenge to finding the best online tutoring platforms is to know where to start. It's not that there aren't any great tutoring services out there; it's just that there are not one but at least three different types of tutoring platforms.
Consider Tanya. She has some spare time left after her day job and thinks she can be a great tutor for SEO. She has neither the team nor the resources to do everything herself. Naturally, she's looking for a done-for-you solution in tutoring. Her needs are unique.
At the other end, you have Phil. He and the tutors he employs offer SAT coaching, the kind you see with organizations like The Princeton Review. He isn't just looking for a platform that will merely record and broadcast every math lesson he delivers. His requirements are complex: proctoring, assessment, lesson plans, only some of the more advanced and specialized learning tools will meet Phil's requirements.
Now you see that Tanya and Phil will explore different tutoring platforms. So a simple, vanilla list of top 10 online tutoring platforms will not be of use to either of them.
Types of Online Tutoring Platforms
Because technologies and education delivery are evolving forever, the answer to a question like what is an online tutoring platform is different depending on the context. Across various platforms, students access coaching opportunities differently, educators deliver sessions differently, and learners progress differently. The entire experience and even the outcomes have changed.
Today, educators come in all types. Some are part-timers, like Tanya above. Then there are small businesses that wish to leverage learning management solutions (LMS) to grow. And finally, there are focused learning tools or platforms that are capable of replicating certain learning environments and test-taking experiences.
1. Tutor marketplace
Such platforms provide on-demand online tutoring. Many of them provide high-school academic tutoring. Some platforms provide college academic tutoring. Their educators also offer help with homework. They supplement professors and conduct teaching sessions so that students develop proficiency in the courses they have chosen.
These tutoring platforms aim to help students make academic gains and improve their grades.
Tutoring platforms under this category are characterized by high-frequency tutoring: often 3 or more sessions a week (the first lesson is sometimes offered free). The live, online classes are curriculum-driven and restricted to smaller groups, which improves student engagement and outcomes. For high school students, the instruction is tailored to meet state standards.
2. Learning management solutions (LMS)
At the core, they are tutor management software providers meant for tutoring centers and test-prep centers.
They provide a platform for all kinds of tutoring professionals, from private tutors to small test-prep center owners. In fact, someone who's traveling and giving lessons on the go to learners at any grade level will also find this solution extremely helpful.
They perform in the background by letting the tutor utilize their entire infrastructure and features. From sending text messages to making fee collection easier, such platforms provide all the support an educator needs to become a digitally perfect tutor.
3. Specialized learning platforms
Teaching for test prep isn't just about a good tutor and a few tests; there's a lot more. For instance, it's important to provide learners with the environment they'd see in an actual test-taking scenario. Then there's the challenge of providing proctoring, which will make sure test-takers do not engage in any form of cheating.
Online tutoring platforms like EdisonOS go way beyond all this. They successfully replicate the Bluebook experience. By the time SAT applicants sit for the actual SAT, the replicated experience has made them completely familiar with the testing environment.
Instead of making a head-to-head comparison of the players in each category, we'll select two or three of them and list their features. That will help you better understand how these services are changing student outcomes.
Tutor Marketplace: An Overview
A tutor marketplace is a business model with tutors available for specific subjects and academic help. The platform provides support for better student outcomes. For instance, you may have tutors offering help with math homework that schools assign students.
We will look at two such tutor marketplace entities: Tutor and Chegg. That will give you a clear idea of the kind of services and features such a business offers.
Tutor.com
In addition to working with students at K-12 levels, Tutor.com works with colleges and a range of organizations. The variety of subjects they cover (currently 250+) is impressive: from US history to epidemiology, and from physics to finance.
Their tutors’ expertise helps learners build focus and makes them more passionate about the subject they’ve chosen to learn.
Their service delivers 24x7 classes that are one-to-one and on-demand. What’s more, their program also assists parents in grooming their children for academic success.
Students often ask, ‘What is the best website to find tutors?’. Well, Tutor.com would be a good place to start with.
Chegg.com
Chegg specializes in helping students improve their college assignments. In their endeavor to provide a comprehensive tutoring solution, Chegg offers books for sale and for rent - over 400,000 titles are currently accessible.
Whether you're looking for an expert proofreader, or whether you are looking for a platform where you can choose among multiple math solvers, Chegg could be the platform you want to check out. And if you’re wondering what kind of solutions their expert teachers offer, you can review the list of their recently asked questions, along with their responses.
Learning management solutions (LMS): An overview
A learning management solution is software that helps tutors manage while they teach. Because tutors are focused on bringing about student success, it's only natural that they want to spend as little time as possible on other tasks.
The LMS, therefore, helps tutors manage the entire tutoring business: enrolling, collecting fees, tracking student progress, sending messages, scheduling classes, managing any independent contractors they might hire, engaging students, providing support, building and operating a student community on social media, ...
The modern LMSs are characterized by a rich set of features, a friendly interface, and high efficiency. Here, we compare the LMS offered by two organizations:
TutorBird features
Their tutor management software aims to help tutors and tutoring centers free themselves from other activities and focus solely on helping students perform better.
As a web-based application, TutorBird offers considerable flexibility with which you may customize the way your students get an education. Here's a small example: Tying student attendance with billing may take up quite some time - and yet confuse tutors or tutoring center owners. TutorBird lets you set up several conditions on how you wish the student to be billed.
TutorPlatform features
A great learning management system connects students, tutors, and the managing team seamlessly - and that's what TutorPlatform does too. From enrollments to attendance, from virtual coaching to marketing, TutorPlatform has the software to help you - of course, some features may be more effective than others.
Some coaching institutes prefer to screen students before admitting them. TutorPlatform lets you do that too. That way, you'll know where each student stands and what kind of support you'll need to extend to each of them.
There's one more thing that you'll find different about TutorPlatform. Besides the software, you can use their ready-made courseware. You can sell any of their ready courses or use their courseware (and even make additions to it).
EdisonOS features
If you're into teaching or offering help with homework, you know students have diverse needs. And only the best LMS platforms understand this.
You can see the key strength of EdisonOS comes from its simple promise: scale your coaching without a coding team. If teaching is your calling, EdisonOS provides you with the backbone for everything else. With their help, you can create new courses and sell them online, distribute and proctor tests, provide select students with access to live classes, build and manage a community, and efficiently onboard students when they join you, ... EdisonOS will take care of the technology behind all this.
The best part is you don't need any coding knowledge. Their user-friendly, intuitive interface will guide you with everything tech so that you can focus on your core strengths.
Specialized learning platforms: An overview
Learning how specialized learning platforms differ from the above tools would be interesting.
We'll first look at CodeMonkey, a platform dedicated exclusively to helping students learn coding.
CodeMonkey overview
Founded in 2014, CodeMonkey is committed to making coding fun for school students. Because coding requires strong math skills, CodeMonkey emphasizes on improving math skills right from grades 2 through 4. As the students advance in grades, subsequent levels of coding are introduced and taught.
Their courses are designed to help learners in preschool and kindergarten to grade 8. It's a completely web-based learning program. Instead of targeting individual students, CodeMonkey partners with schools and entire districts.
EdisonOS for the Digital SAT
There’s a huge difference between merely teaching math or language and preparing test-takers for exams like the SAT. Beyond training students on the core subjects of the Digital SAT, only a platform like EdisonOS can accurately recreate a genuine test-like experience.
The extent to which they have gone to provide a true Bluebook-like experience is exceptional. CollegeBoard, as you probably know, is the body that conducts the SATs and Bluebook is their free, official application through which students may take the official practice SATs.
EdisonOS has created mock SATs that are the most accurate mock SATs you’ll ever see. These mock SATs use the original SAT questions, mimic the original SAT question distribution, and match the precise difficulty level of actual SATs. Even the interface is identical. This article describes how EdisonOS achieved it when no one else could.
If you’re a student, you can take mock SATs for free (with original questions).
If you’re a tutor or you run a tutoring business, there’s a lot more for you. You may have some courseware ready. You may have teaching experience. You may even have some LMS solutions.
Yet, that wouldn’t be enough.
You’ll need to create an actual test-like atmosphere for your students. Proctoring, real SAT-like screens, actual SAT questions, tests that accurately mimic the difficulty level of the real SAT… A simple LMS cannot come close to delivering any of this.
Frequently asked questions for online tutoring:
What is the best platform for online tutoring?
Now you know online tutoring is an umbrella platform that has at least three categories. If you're looking for a specialized test-prep solution, there's no doubt EdisonOS is what you should explore.
Can I tutor online for money?
Sure. Tutoring is a great idea to make money on the side. However, teaching is a serious profession, so you'll need commitment, training, passion, and the right tools. That's how you can carve out a career out of teaching.
How do I start an online tutoring business?
You need to figure out answers to a couple of basic questions first: will you work for test prep or will you help your learners take their letter grades to the next level? After that, do some research online and find out what it takes. You can check out what our comprehensive learning management solution (LMS) offers.
How do I become a virtual tutor?
We'd say you should begin by asking if you have the aptitude and skills to become a virtual tutor. For instance, a tutor needs a great deal of patience and compassion, in addition to domain knowledge. Also, some people start out by first teaching a cousin or a friend to see how it goes for them. Others may take a more structured route.
Check if there are any courses you can join. Remember that a good deal of this might fall outside of the traditional courses universities offer to those aiming to pursue a teaching career.
Teaching a real class and a digital classroom are two different experiences. Exploring the various platforms out there is a great idea before you commit to becoming a virtual tutor.
Comparing online tutoring platforms
We believe that by now you’re clear that tutoring platforms fall into at least three categories. Further, each of these categories has several players.
So if you’re looking to compare online tutoring platforms, now you know what you're looking to compare.
Would you want to juxtapose two tutor marketplaces that connect students and teachers? Do you have an LMS in mind which will make your life as a tutor easier? Or perhaps you may consider a specialized test-prep solution? Or how about one that not only gives you access to actual test questions but is also formatted like an actual test?
With this analysis, you're now better equipped to compare such solutions. Go ahead and check out the ones that you think best serve your requirements.
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