Online tutoring vs in-person: which works for which child, subject and age, what the research and our own results show, and the five questions that decide it for your family

Online tutoring vs in person is usually argued as a matter of taste, and it is not; it is a matter of the child's age, the subject, and the format of the class. A 1-on-1 online class on a shared whiteboard with the camera on is as effective as an in-person hour for maths, science and English from about age 7, and better on several things parents care about. In-person wins clearly in a few situations. This post lays out where each wins, what the research and our own results show, the costs, the time-zone advantage nobody mentions, and five questions that decide it for your family.

Where online wins

The same tutor every week, wherever you live. In-person tutoring is limited to who lives within twenty minutes; online, a family in Canberra, Glasgow or Dubai has the same choice as one in London. The single strongest predictor of tutoring working is one tutor who knows the child, for a whole year; online makes that easy.

The recording. Every class recorded and sent to the parent. The child re-watches the step they missed without asking; the parent sees what was taught without sitting in. In-person tutoring leaves nothing behind but a page of notes.

Consistency. No travel, no cancelled sessions because of traffic, no "let's skip this week". The class is at 4:30 every Tuesday and Thursday, and it happens. Tutoring works through regularity, and online is more regular.

The shared whiteboard. Text enlarged for a struggling reader, a diagram drawn and redrawn, a worked example that stays on screen while the child copies it, the past paper on one side and the mark scheme on the other. For maths and the sciences the board is a better tool than a kitchen table.

Price. The tutor does not travel, and can live anywhere; a master's-qualified teacher in India costs a fraction of a local agency hour in the US, UK or Australia, for the same 1-on-1 class. The bands are in is online tutoring worth it.

Safety and transparency. The parent is in the room or on the recording; the tutor never sees the child alone in a physical sense. Many families find this more comfortable than a stranger in the house.

Where in-person wins

Under 7. A 5 or 6 year old attends to a face on a screen for ten minutes at a time. Online works at that age for a specific 20-minute goal with a parent beside the child; for general early learning, a person in the room, or a parent with a book, is better. What works at each age is in online tutor by age.

Handwriting and fine motor skills. Cannot be taught through a webcam. A pencil grip needs a hand.

Lab practicals. A chemistry practical beyond the kitchen, a physics experiment with real apparatus. Online teaches the theory of the practical, the data and the exam questions about it; the doing needs a lab.

The child who will not sit at a screen. Some children, at any age, need physical presence to stay engaged. It is worth trying online with a shorter class first, and honest to stop if it does not take.

A bad connection. Online tutoring on a connection that drops is worse than no tutoring; it teaches the child that the class is frustrating.

What the evidence says

Comparisons of online and in-person 1-on-1 tutoring, including the large tutoring programmes run in schools since 2020, find no meaningful difference in learning outcomes when the online class is one to one, live, with the camera on and a qualified tutor. The differences that matter are the ones above the medium: 1-on-1 against groups (1-on-1 wins by a wide margin online and in person), a consistent tutor against a rotating one, and regularity. Where online tutoring has performed badly, it has almost always been online groups, recorded lessons, or platforms where the tutor changes; those fail in person too.

Our own results say the same: across the families we have taught since 2018, the children whose marks moved were the ones with two classes a week and the same tutor for a year, whether the family was in Chandigarh or Chicago.

The time-zone advantage

For families outside India, the time difference is an advantage in disguise. After-school in Australia, the UAE, the Netherlands and the UK is a normal working afternoon or evening in Chandigarh, so a tutor is available exactly when a local one is at their busiest. For the US, before-school mornings and weekend mornings line up with Indian evenings. The slot the family wants is usually free.

The five questions that decide it

1. How old is the child? Under 7: in person or a parent. 7 and over: online works.
2. What is the subject? Maths, science, English, languages, exam preparation: online. Handwriting, lab practicals, instruments: in person.
3. Will the child sit at a screen for 25 minutes with a person talking to them? Try one free class and watch. If yes, online; if not, in person or a shorter online class.
4. Do you want the same tutor for a year? If yes, online gives you the choice of a country, not a postcode.
5. Do you want to see what was taught? If yes, the recording answers it; in person leaves you with a report at best.

The honest summary

In-person tutoring is the right choice for the very young, for hands, and for the child who cannot engage with a screen. For everything else, a 1-on-1 online class with a qualified tutor, the same one every week, with the recording, does the same job for less, more regularly, with more choice. The medium is not the decision; the format is. A group class is worse than a 1-on-1 class online or in person, and a rotating tutor is worse than a consistent one anywhere.

What we do

One tutor, one child, on a shared whiteboard, camera on, the same tutor every week, recording and notes after every class, from Year 3 to Year 12, in English, Hindi or Punjabi, at the family's after-school time in nine countries. The free 30-minute class is the answer to question three above: a real lesson, and you watch whether your child engages.

Questions parents ask

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