Aside from being pretty cool and a potentially fun learning experience :), online tutoring with West Indies Tutor comes with benefits to students, tutors and any parents, especially of younger students, who usually have to make sure your children get to and from tutoring sessions each week.
So what are some of the benefits?
COVENIENCE AND FLEXIBILITY:
Convenience is one of the first and most clear cut benefits of online tutoring for a number of reasons. You can now have tutoring sessions at times that may have once been inconvenient, extremely difficult or seemingly impossible to facilitate before. It may have been difficult before to arrange tutoring sessions during the week, later in the evening, night or in the early morning hours, but that isn’t a problem with online tutoring at all.
Any parents with younger school aged students who face the school day ending during working hours will probably already have the benefits flowing to mind.
There is no need to worry about how to get to tutoring sessions and back, how to arrange locations or how to find convenient times to suit the schedules of everyone involved, all of that disappears with the comfort and convenience of online tutoring.
LOCATION:
Location (in this case also the lack of a need to travel to a fixed location) as mentioned also adds to the convenience for everyone perhaps especially for people with younger children and even teens. You can have them tutored online at the office for example while you work just as easily as from the comfort of your own home or the home of a relative or friend. As long as there is access to the internet and a system that meets the requirements you are all set.
Some students may even be able to receive tutoring sessions at school, which may be convenient for older students at tertiary level institutions just as one example. The only extra accessory required may be a pair of earphones or headphones to avoid disturbing any other students!
This is also convenient for tutors who may not have had an adequate location to offer tutoring services before or perhaps could not offer tutoring to the number of students they would like too because of space constraints.
SAVE TIME:
Combining convenient any time tutoring with flexible and convenient locations you can also save time.
Want a tutoring session at 7 am on a Saturday? No need to get up and prepare and possibly rush, simply get up when you need to and stroll to your desktop or laptop and you are ready for your session. No driving to and from a location, no extra time getting everyone prepared. Now both students and parents can sleep a little longer or spend the time you save before and after your session to do something else and get the day started. Time is an extremely valuable commodity and online tutoring can result in large amounts of time saved for students of all ages and parents of students.
In addition, tutors who may have once had problems offering tutoring because of time constraints based on their schedules, can now have a wider range of times available which may be suitable. The opportunity also exists to offer more tutoring sessions on any given day because of this convenience.
SAVE MONEY:
You pay for online tutoring just like traditional tutoring, but in some instances the possibility now exists to make small to moderate savings since as you may eliminate additional trips if driving or bus fare if you use public transportation to and from tutoring locations. We have been hit with rate hikes and will likely face more but when compared to money in petrol/diesel or bus fare it may still be more cost effective to take classes at home. This is without even taking into consideration other elements such as pressing and washing additional clothes you may wear out to the sessions!
With an online search for energy consumption for particular electronic devices (e.g a computer) or for a power consumption by device list you can find some typical values per hour. We searched to find the list below.
- A typical computer uses roughly 250 watts or 0.25 Kilowatts
- Modem between 3 to 20 watts
- LCD monitor (between 17” to 22” sizes) 20 to 40 watts
- Laptop with 15″ screen 15 to 60 watts
*Remember there is a monthly customer charge for electricity here in Barbados regardless of your consumption level so this is not part of the calculation as you will pay this even if you had zero kWhs. (see the current customer charge/minimum bill here: https://www.blpc.com.bb/images/pdfs/Domestic_Tariff_Residential_Services.pdf). Costs may vary by a value in cents depending on the fuel adjustment clause for the month and the amount of energy usage in your location over the entire month as this affects the base energy charge.
*Note the BL&P may change their website so the pages listed above may change or become unavailable in the future and is not within our control. Please also note rates are subject to change.
So for an example with a computer, 22 inch LCD monitor and modem the power consumption for an hour of tutoring using the an estimation of the high/maximum power consumption from our list above would be 250 watts+30 watts+20 watts= 300 watts (0.300 Kilowatts).
Using the BL&P bill calculator (https://www.blpc.com.bb/index.php/billing/estimating-your-bill) which is based on kilowatt hours we can see that the 0.300 watts will generate a cost in cents. For January 2023, the estimated cost was 14 cents before VAT to utilise the above listed equipment to receive an hour of tutoring .
This will vary based on the energy supplier in your island. For Barbados the calculation is based on the base energy charge that increases based on the amount of electricity used, a minimum payment based on the kWh Range and the fuel adjustment clause for the month.
SAFETY:
This is a big advantage for young students, especially those who utilise public transportation. Knowing you have your child/children at home with you while they are being tutored can be a big relief and very desirable to parents. In addition, this can now make later tutoring hours available while ensuring the safety of your children. You can have a session at 6pm or 8:30 pm just as examples, and know your child is safely at home. Even for older students, being safely in the comfort of your own home is a nice convenient benefit of online tutoring.
TECHNOLOGY UTILISATION:
Younger generations were and continue to be born into an age of more advanced technology, making the use of computer based devices second nature and a part of everyday life. Online tutoring combines the traditional tutors with technology to create a way of learning that will be familiar and engaging to students. This can prove to be an exciting way to learn utilising the draw of technology many students feel comfortable with from an early age.
The use of technology can allow advantages such as real time integration of information from the web, sharing documents, images, website links for references, 3d representations, videos and much more. Students can participate and really feel engaged and part of the learning experience. Additionally as we continue in this computer and internet age, online tutoring with West Indies Tutor can provide a good practical and professional preparation for higher education and the world of work where advancing technology continues to play an integral part.
Engaging in online tutoring is a good way to embrace technology practically and this can either augment the level of comfort as progression to other stages in life begins (even if it’s looking ahead to retiring in a more computerised world for some of our adult learners), or it can help to alleviate some of the discomfort some may feel when they enter situations where they must utilise computers/computerised equipment on a daily basis in their studies or in the execution of their duties at work.
Even though technology is all around us, not everyone is comfortable and adept or perhaps not used to engaging it beyond leisurely or social applications. Therefore, online tutoring can be beneficial regardless of your level of comfort.
These are a few of the benefits of online tutoring, so if you can see the benefits to you, join the West Indies Tutor family as a tutor or student and move forward into the future together!
