Paro Tuition’s Response to Covid-19
BY FAZAL
Like everyone else, we’ve had to respond quickly to the circumstances brought about by coronavirus. This has meant closing our premises and taking our tuition services online.
After teaching online for a couple of weeks now, we’ve managed to learn a great deal but the main thing we’ve realised has to be the fact that online tuition can still be very effective.
It’s just as well, as schools could be closed until September. This is based on:
- Long term closures in countries like South Korea with no date to reopen
- Extra online education content provided by BBC only available until the Summer holidays
- The unprecedented cancellation of the GCSE and A Level exams due to take place in May/June. The fact that delaying these had not been considered is the most telling thing for me.
The lockdown has also been (unsurprisingly) extended recently.
As with any alternative, there are various pros and cons when comparing online tuition to traditional in-person tuition. We’ve outlined our experiences below:
Disadvantages
- Some younger students can find the technology distracting and focus too much on the screen, mouse etc instead of the work in front of them
- More preparation time for parents of primary aged children to ensure work is ready, printed and the students have all of the appropriate stationery
- More preparation time for us as we need to upload documents for each session
- Reliant on a fast and stable internet connection as well as adequate hardware
On the whole, a lot of these disadvantages can be controlled. For the younger primary students, this means limiting numbers in certain sessions and monitoring attention closely.
Advantages
- Some students, particularly secondary school students, are more attentive to the whiteboard explanations
- The use of a learning management system means that worksheets/homework can be accessed at any time
- No travel, no traffic and no need to leave your home
- Extra virtual whiteboard tools make it easier to teach particular topics and go through questions as a group
- Students are free of any distractions and in a comfortable environment
After weighing up our experiences so far we’d say it’s similar in effectiveness to in-person tuition for most students as long as the lesson delivery is adjusted.
We’ve certainly learnt a lot over the last couple of weeks and whilst we prefer the increased interaction of in-person tuition, we’re looking forward to keeping some of the new additions. These include our new learning management system so that work can be accessed later and the use of annotations on work documents.
In addition to taking our services online, we’re also in the process of compiling a lot of resources and worksheets for parents as well as writing our own guides to home schooling. These will be sent out to everyone in due course so keep an eye on your emails!
If you’re not currently on our mailing list then click the link below to sign up and we’ll send you relevant resources straight to your inbox.
If you’d like to find out more about how we can help you and your family during this difficult time then fill out the contact form at the bottom of the page and we’ll be happy to get back to you.