We teach both, so we have no particular interest in selling you one over the other. What follows is what we have actually observed.
Where online works as well or better
Senior students who already work independently. A Grade 11 or 12 student who can sit down and attempt something without supervision generally loses nothing online. The session is the same conversation.
Short, targeted sessions. If a student needs forty minutes on one topic before a test, the travel time in each direction can easily exceed the session. Online removes that entirely.
Anything involving a screen anyway. Graphing, spreadsheets, essay drafting. Sharing a screen is better than two people leaning over one laptop.
Consistency through disruption. Snow, illness, a family car in the shop, a week away. The session still happens, and continuity matters more than most people realise – a fortnight’s gap undoes a surprising amount.
Families outside Surrey. We teach students across Greater Vancouver online, in Burnaby, Richmond, Langley, Coquitlam and elsewhere, for whom the drive to our centre would be the deciding factor.
Where in person is clearly better
Younger students. Broadly Grades 1 to 7, though it depends on the child. Sustained attention on a screen is genuinely harder at that age, and a tutor in the room can read body language that a webcam flattens.
Students who need the room to concentrate. For some students, home is where the distractions are. Physically going somewhere to work is half the benefit.
Heavy diagram work. Physics free-body diagrams, chemistry structures, geometry. It can be done online with the right tools, but watching a student draw over their shoulder and correcting mid-stroke is faster.
Anyone whose difficulty is starting. If the real problem is avoidance, an online session is easier to be half-present in. A room makes that harder.
The thing that decides it, more than anything else
Not the technology. Whether the student is writing during the session.
A student who watches a tutor work through problems online has learned very little, and online makes that failure mode easier to slip into – the tutor talks, the screen fills, the student nods. The same risk exists in person but is more visible.
So the question to ask about any online session is simply: was my child holding a pen? If the answer is no, the format is not the problem, but it is making the problem easier to hide.
Making online sessions work
A few things make a genuine difference:
- Paper and pen, not just the screen. Working on paper and holding it to the camera is low-tech and effective.
- A second device or a tablet for the student’s own work, so the tutor’s screen is not the only surface.
- A fixed place in the house that is not a bed, and a door that closes.
- The phone in another room. Not on silent. In another room.
- Camera on. A tutor needs to see whether a student is stuck or lost, and those look different.
What we usually suggest
Elementary students in person where possible. Senior students, whichever fits the week – a lot of our Grade 11 and 12 families mix the two, coming in for the regular session and going online when the schedule breaks.
Either way the teaching, the tutors and the price are the same. Details on the programmes page, or come and see the centre at 8806 141A Street. Call 604-725-6845 or book a $50 trial class.
