Is Online Learning the New Normal? What Stayed After 2020, What Went Back, and Why

Article 183 · Parents

In 2020 every school on Earth went online in a fortnight, and every education company announced that online learning was the new normal. Six years later the honest answer is that part of it was. This page says which part, why, and what it means for a parent deciding in 2026 how much of a child's learning should happen on a screen.

What went back, and why

Full-time remote schooling for children went back to the classroom as soon as it could, and the research explains why. The studies of 2020 and 2021 found that most children learned less during remote schooling than they would have in class, with the largest losses for the youngest children, for maths more than reading, and for children without a quiet space, a device of their own or a parent at home. A classroom of thirty moved onto a screen is a worse classroom: the teacher cannot see thirty children's work, cannot hold thirty children's attention through a camera, and cannot supervise a seven-year-old who has wandered off.

So the thing that was announced as the new normal, school on a screen, was the thing that did not work, and it went back. That is the main reason the phrase "online learning" now sounds, to many parents, like a failed experiment.

What stayed, and why

Four forms of online learning did not go back, because they worked.

Recorded lessons. A lesson that can be rewatched before a test is better than one that cannot, and schools and tutors kept recording. For a child revising a method, the recording is the single most useful thing the screen added.
Hybrid study for senior students and adults. Lectures online, discussion and practical work in person. For students old enough to manage their own attention, it is now the normal pattern in universities and much of the senior-school revision market.
Online tutoring. One teacher with one child on a shared whiteboard, after school, from anywhere. This grew through 2020 and kept growing after, because the studies that compared it with in-person tutoring found similar results, and because it made a qualified teacher affordable and available to families who could not find one locally.
Exam preparation online. Practice tests in the official apps, timed practice, marked papers, a tutor for the weak question types. The digital SAT itself is now taken on a screen.

The pattern is clear: what stayed is what suits the screen. A screen is bad at supervising thirty children and good at putting one teacher in front of one child with a whiteboard and a recording.

Remote school and online tutoring are not the same thing

This is the distinction the phrase "online learning" hides, and the one that matters for a parent.

	Remote schooling, 2020	Online tutoring, 2026
Who	One teacher, thirty children	One teacher, one child
What the teacher sees	Thirty muted tiles	Every line the child writes, on a shared whiteboard
Attention	Impossible to hold for young children	Held, because the child is doing, not watching
Pace	The class's pace	The child's pace, from the child's gap
Supervision of young children	None	A parent alongside for the young ones; a 30-minute class
What the research found	Learning losses, largest for the youngest	Results comparable to in-person tutoring, when the tutor is trained and the curriculum is the school's

The research on the second column, and the four features that make tutoring work in any form, is in does online tutoring work.

What it means for a parent in 2026

School is in the classroom, and should be. Nothing in the evidence suggests otherwise for a child under the senior years.
The hour after school has moved. For a growing share of families, the drive to a tutoring centre or the kitchen-table algebra lesson has been replaced by a 1-on-1 online class, because for that hour online works as well and is easier to keep up for months, which is what the research says matters.
Recorded is better than not recorded, for school lessons and tutoring alike. Ask for the recording.
Judge any online learning by the form, not by the word. A group class online is a small classroom with the classroom's problems. A 1-on-1 class on a whiteboard is tutoring.
Judge it by results within a month, not by whether the child likes the screen or dislikes it. Homework quicker in three weeks; a test better in six to eight.

Making online learning work for your own child

Age	What works online	What does not
5 to 7	A 20 to 30 minute 1-on-1 class with a parent alongside; reading and number work	Anything longer; anything the child does alone; whole-class remote lessons
8 to 11	A 45 to 60 minute 1-on-1 class on a shared whiteboard; recorded; a fixed weekly slot	Group classes; recorded courses with no teacher
12 to 15	1-on-1 tutoring in the subjects with gaps; recorded school lessons for revision	Self-directed online courses, which most children this age do not finish
16 plus	1-on-1 tutoring for exam subjects; hybrid study; timed practice in the official apps	Nothing in particular; the senior student can use any of it, and the question is discipline

Then the setup, which decides more online classes than the content does: a shared space with the door open, headphones with a microphone, the camera at eye level, a way to write that the teacher can see, and a fixed time. What device and accessories a class actually needs, at three budgets, is in best device for online classes. Which children and subjects still suit in-person, honestly, is in online tutoring vs in-person.

So, is it the new normal?

For school, no, and the evidence is why. For the hour after school, for exam preparation, and for anything that can be recorded and rewatched, yes, and the evidence is also why. The sensible position for a parent in 2026 is neither the 2020 enthusiasm nor the 2022 backlash: the classroom in the day, a screen used for the forms that suit it, and a close look at results after a month. Where the forms that suit the screen are going next is in the future of online tutoring.

Where to get help

A free 30-minute 1-on-1 class on a shared whiteboard with a tutor who holds a master's in the subject, with you in the room, which is the form of online learning the research supports: one teacher, one child, recorded, on the child's own curriculum. The same tutor every week, monthly billing, and a note after every class. How a class is built is on the 1 on 1 online tutoring page.

Questions parents ask

1Is online learning the new normal?

Partly, and the part that stayed is the part that works. Full-time remote schooling for young children went back to the classroom, because the evidence showed it cost most children months of learning. What stayed and grew is online learning in forms that suit the screen: recorded lessons to rewatch, hybrid study for senior students and adults, and 1-on-1 online tutoring and exam preparation, which the research finds as effective as in-person. In 2026 the normal is a classroom in the day and, for many families, an online tutor after school.

2Is online learning as effective as classroom learning?

It depends entirely on the form. A classroom of thirty moved onto a screen, which is what remote schooling in 2020 was, is less effective than the classroom for most children, and the studies of that period found learning losses, largest for the youngest and the most disadvantaged. One teacher with one child on a shared whiteboard, which is what online tutoring is, produces results comparable to in-person tutoring in the studies that compared them. "Online learning" is not one thing.

3What are the disadvantages of online learning for students?

For whole-class remote schooling: attention is hard to hold through a screen, the teacher cannot see thirty children's work, young children need an adult physically present, social learning is lost, and children without a quiet space or a good connection fall behind fastest. Most of these disadvantages disappear in a 1-on-1 class, where the tutor sees one child's work and holds one child's attention, which is why the two forms had such different results.

4Will online learning replace schools?

No, and the experience of 2020 is the reason. Schools do things a screen cannot: supervise young children, teach them to work alongside others, and give a structure to the day. What online learning is replacing is not the school but the hour after it: the drive to a tutoring centre, the worksheet from a book, the parent explaining algebra at the kitchen table. That hour has moved online for a large and growing share of families, because for that hour online works better.

5How do I make online learning work for my child?

Choose the form that suits the child's age: short 1-on-1 sessions with a parent alongside under about 8; 1-on-1 on a shared whiteboard from about 8; recorded lessons and hybrid study only from the senior years, when the child can manage their own attention. Then fix the setup: a shared space, headphones, the camera at eye level, a way to write that the teacher can see, and a fixed time. And judge it by results within a month, not by whether the child likes the screen.

See how we teach this, 1-on-1 online →

written by

Shobha

Founder and lead tutor, Science with Shobha

Teaching maths, science and English to children online since 2018. 500+ students, 20+ tutors, families in nine countries.

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