Face-to-face vs. Online Tutoring: A Rose Is A Rose

I recently presented at the Education Industry Investment Forum in Phoenix on the challenges and opportunities of online tutoring. An audience member asked if online tutoring is as effective as face-to-face tutoring. Jim Hermens, president of Educate Online (formerly eSylvan/Sylvan Online), said that Educate had determine that online tutoring was as effective as face-to-face as measured by post- vs. pre-test gains on standardized tests. I can vouch for that as I conducted the three year effectiveness study 1999-2002 at Sylvan Learning Centers (now Educate) which looked at the gains of over 500,000 students who took Sylvan center-based (face-to-face) tutoring in reading and math vs. online tutoring.

The good news is that online tutoring is as effective as face-to-face and the better news is that online tutoring is more convenient, flexible and affordable than face-to-face tutoring. It’s not surprising that online tutoring should be equally as effective when both face-to-face and online tutoring are conducted using the same instructional model.

Our goal now is to push the online environment further to go beyond what was possible in a face-to-face world. Rather than be tethered to books, worksheets and static problems, online tutoring makes it possible for students to use engaging electronic/eLearning tools such as simulations, animations, videos and virtual experiments. Soon we hope to demonstrate conclusively that online tutoring with its rich resources and tools is more effective than face-to-face tutoring.

Fix the Blame or Fix the Problem?

Elissa Gootmany in her NY Times article Passing Eighth Grade Gets a Little Harder describes how the Bloomberg administration won approval for a new policy that will not permit eighth graders to move to the next grade if they don’t have minimum basic skills in math and English. Parents were opposed to this new policy.

Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein defended the policy – “In the end, passing kids through the system without making sure they’re ready for the next grade level is not a formula for success,” he said. “Our job is not to move a kid out of middle school; our job is to move a kid from middle school to high school, prepared for high school.”

Four years ago the Mayor announced tougher new promotion criteria for the third grade to end social promotion (moving a child from grade to grade with his or her peers regardless of their mastery of the current grade’s material or readiness for the next). That and subsequent policies for fifth and seventh graders resulted in fewer students being held back than before. Some students took and passed summer school.

Opponents of tougher policies claim that tougher hold-back policies is can frustrate and embarrass students so they more likely to drop out. Some parents believe this might be especially true for eighth graders who are not allowed to advance to high school. Others suggest that some students need the extra year to master the appropriate material.

We’re all into blame these days, aren’t we? The kids don’t know their stuff so who should we blame…the teachers? The administrators? How about we fix the problem and not the blame. Educators believe all kids can learn. What this policy rightfully proposes is that it can take some students longer to learn things than other students and they should be given that chance before moving on to the next grade where they are unprepared and start off the year behind and frustrated.

Dr. John Stuppy, john@tutorvista.com