What online tutoring programs can do for kids

Like many 6-year-olds, Maria Baker from Yonkers, New York, has trouble with math. "I do strugglesometimes," she said. "Sometimes I don't do it right, sometimes I get it wrong." Her father Ryan, acognitive scientist who studies digital learning, signed her up for an online tutoring system calledReasoning Mind.

"I've seen major effects from my daughter in her command of math since we started workingtogether at night with Reasoning Mind," Baker said. He said the software helped her develop andimprove on specific skills like subtraction. "It's like, magic," Maria said. " It explains stuff to me thatI don't know how to do. The math games are really good."

The online tutoring industry is growing, as parents seek more convenient and affordable alternativesto the traditional in-person tutor. Many parents cite the convenience of not having to travel to andfrom a tutoring center. For kids, there is the extra incentive of using technology to make learningmore fun. And proponents of online tutoring argue that it could make education more accessible anddemocratic for children in disadvantaged areas.

Reasoning Mind offers a monthly subscription plan at $20 or a one-year plan at $200. The softwareuses games and animated characters, like a genie, to teach children math skills. There's no humaninteraction involved. Instead, the program adjusts the student's learning path based on whichproblems they answer right or wrong. "Let's say a kid is struggling with a specific type of problem,"said Dr. Baker, "The system can figure that out in real time and give the kid different math problemsin real time."

If the child is really struggling, however, a parent or teacher will have to get involved. "Whenever Ido something wrong, the sign gets red," said Maria. "The next step is that daddy shows me how todo it."

Baker carried out field research, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in three Texasschools that used Reasoning Mind. It found 71 percent of students displayed engaged concentration,and they were on-task 82 percent of the time when using the program. Baker said these results showthe software can increase a child's educational engagement.

There are similar online tutoring systems available, such as Cognitive Tutor. By providing instantfeedback and guidance, the Cognitive Tutor software helps students learn at their own pace both inthe classroom and at home.

Of course, the technology does have its limits. "The software by nature can't be as sophisticated as ahuman being or an expert tutor working one on one with a kid," Baker said.

Parents can hire real, human tutors online for that personal touch. Debbie Debbie Stier from NewYork City turned to Tutor.com when her daughter needed math help. "I could feel her frustrationrising," Debbie said. "It was a very gnarly-looking algebra problem. I wasn't even in the realm ofbeing able to help."

Tutor.com has tutors available 24/7 to help students work through a specific study problem, in anysubject ranging from Calculus to English. It works on any device connected to the internet, and at$39.99 per hour, it's a bargain compared to the hourly rates of most in-home tutors.

"You take a picture of your problem and then within a minute I have a tutor there saying 'hey, so Ithink I see what the problem is,'" Stier's daughter, Daisy Gumin, explained. The tutor and studentcan then communicate online using an interactive whiteboard and instant messaging. "I drew out(the problem) and we went through it step by step," Daisy said. "It was similar to how it feels whenyou're face to face with someone."

Daisy said the tutor helped her realize she had "completely forgotten about a step," and she felt asthough a lightbulb had gone off. "They didn't just give her the answer, they led her to the answer,"her mother said.

16-year-old Daisy Gumin uses the online tutoring service Tutor.com.

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Then there's the iPad app Tabtor, which also allows students to interact with a human tutor. Thehttp://privatetutoring.biz/ difference is that Tabtor is just for math, and its board-certified instructorstailor a long-term study program for each student. Kari Yates has three kids signed up.

"It's dynamic interaction," said Yates. A child completes worksheets, which are assessed and graded.Tabtor can record every "pen" stroke the child makes, enabling the tutor to see where they wentwrong. "Then the next work that comes for the next day is actually adjusted according to where thechild grew."

Tabtor's most popular subscription, which costs $60 per month, features a biweekly videoconference with the tutor, as well as phone and email support.

Tabtor, like Reasoning Mind, is designed to work in the classroom as well as at home. The companysaid its pilot program at Greenbrook Elementary School in New Jersey improved students' math testscores by an average of 70 percent.

Yates found that her children enjoyed learning with a tap of a screen. "Where I might prefer aperson," she said, "my kids happen to enjoy that it's technology." Her 9-year-old daughter Carolineagrees. "You're doing it on a iPad, and I think personally that that's a little bit more fun than doing iton paper. So it makes it fun to do your math."

9-year-old Caroline Yates uses a tutoring app called Tabtor to help her with math.

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A potential downside Yates mentioned was that she doesn't have the accountability of a setappointment each week, as she would with a physical tutor. "So you do have to self-monitor, but thetutors do check in if they haven't seen your child in a while," she said.

In addition to the growing selection of on-demand tutoring services on the internet, there are alsofree online services like Khan Academy, which provides video tutorials to anyone with an internetconnection. The company's founder Salman Khan told 60 Minutes in 2012 that his mission was toprovide "a free world-class education for anyone, anywhere."

No online tutoring system https://www.care.com/math-tutors is designed to be a full, stand-alonesolution. But when paired with parent and teacher assistance, online tutoring could help students -

in any location - keep up in the classroom.

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