{"id":3833,"date":"2026-05-03T19:01:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T17:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.robinglauser.ch\/blog\/?p=3833"},"modified":"2026-05-03T19:01:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T17:01:34","slug":"what-i-learned-from-a-year-of-online-tutoring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.robinglauser.ch\/blog\/2026\/05\/03\/what-i-learned-from-a-year-of-online-tutoring\/","title":{"rendered":"What I Learned From a Year of Online Tutoring"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the last year I have done quite a bit of online tutoring, mostly one-on-one lessons in math and programming with students around 13 to 15 years old. Most lessons are one to two hours long and usually with the same students over a longer period of time.<\/p>\n

This post is partly a personal reference for myself and partly a collection of tools and tricks I can share with others who tutor online.<\/p>\n

The biggest lesson<\/h2>\n

Online tutoring should not become a private livestream where I solve tasks and the student silently watches.<\/p>\n

The student has to stay active. They need to write, explain, try things, make mistakes and notice when something does not make sense.<\/p>\n

In person, you often see confusion before the student says anything. Online, you have to design the lesson so confusion becomes visible.<\/p>\n

What works well online<\/h2>\n

The biggest advantage is flexibility. I do not need to travel to the student, so lessons are much easier to schedule. I can tutor from home, reuse digital material and quickly share links, whiteboards or exercises.<\/p>\n

The downside is that it is harder to read facial expressions and body language. If a student does not understand something, they might hide it more easily. Because of that, I try to make them explain their thinking much more often.<\/p>\n

My favourite teaching trick<\/h2>\n

After I explain something, I give the student a similar task and say:<\/p>\n

Imagine I am a younger student and you have to explain this to me. How would you do it?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then they try to explain the topic back to me. This quickly shows whether they really understood it or only followed along.<\/p>\n

If they make a mistake, I try not to say \u201cwrong\u201d. Instead, I ask questions like:<\/p>\n

Would this still work with another number?
\nCan we check whether this answer makes sense?
\nIs this a general solution or does it only work here?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The goal is that they notice the gap themselves.<\/p>\n

My lesson structure<\/h2>\n

A typical one-hour lesson looks roughly like this:<\/p>\n