Does Online Tutoring Work? What the Research Says

If you are weighing up tutoring for your child, you have probably wondered whether online sessions can really do the job. It is a fair question. The good news is that researchers have studied it carefully, and the results are encouraging. The honest answer is that online tutoring can work very well, but how it is done matters a great deal.

Why families are choosing online tutoring

Between work, school pick-ups, sport and everything else, finding time for extra learning support is hard. Online tutoring removes the drive across town. Your child can log in from home, at a regular time that suits the family, and work with a tutor who is chosen for their needs rather than for their postcode.

Convenience only matters if the learning is real, though. So what does the evidence say?

What the research says

A careful study of online maths tutoring in Spain

One of the most useful studies comes from Spain. Researchers Lucas Gortazar, Claudia Hupkau and Toni Roldán ran a randomised controlled trial, the same type of fair test used to check whether a new medicine works. Students were randomly placed either in the tutoring program or in a comparison group, so the researchers could see what difference the tutoring itself made (EsadeEcPol).

Here is how the program ran, according to the program's executive summary:

It was 100% online, after school, for eight weeks.
Students aged 12 to 15 met three times a week for 50 minutes.
They were tutored in pairs, mostly by qualified secondary maths teachers.
The 378 students came from schools in disadvantaged areas of Madrid and Catalonia.

The results, reported in the full research paper:

Scores on a standardised maths test rose by 0.26 standard deviations.
End-of-year school maths grades rose by 0.48 standard deviations.
Students were less likely to have to repeat the school year.
Students reported trying harder at school, and were about a third more likely to say they planned to continue on the academic pathway after compulsory schooling (the paper reports 33%, and the executive summary 31%).

What does "0.26 standard deviations" actually mean?

Researchers use "standard deviations" so they can compare results from different tests. Here is an everyday way to picture it. Imagine lining up 100 students in order of their maths test scores. A student standing right in the middle is in 50th place. A jump of 0.26 standard deviations would move that student up to roughly 60th place, ahead of about 10 more classmates. The 0.48 increase in school grades is bigger again, roughly from 50th place to 68th.

That might not sound dramatic, but it is a meaningful shift for only eight weeks of tutoring. The program's executive summary describes the improvement in school maths grades as the equivalent of about six months of learning.

Large reviews of tutoring research

One study is never the whole story, so it helps to look at reviews that combine many studies. The UK's Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) publishes a widely used summary of the research for schools:

One-to-one tuition adds an average of about five months' extra progress over a year, based on 123 studies. The EEF notes that studies using digital technology show broadly similar effects.
Small group tuition adds an average of about four months' extra progress over a year. The EEF's rule of thumb is that the smaller the group, the better.

An honest note: tutoring is not a magic wand

Not every tutoring program gets these results. Here in Victoria, the government's large in-school Tutor Learning Initiative was reviewed by the Victorian Auditor-General, who found that in 2023 it did not significantly improve students' learning compared with similar students who were not tutored. The Grattan Institute's response was titled "Small-group tutoring is not a magic wand", and its point was that results depend on how well tutoring is put into practice.

In other words, the question is less "does tutoring work?" and more "what kind of tutoring works?"

What makes tutoring effective

Across the research above, a few things keep coming up:

Regular sessions. Steady, scheduled sessions work better than occasional cramming. The Spanish program met three times a week, and the EEF found short, regular sessions over a set period work well.
One-on-one or very small groups. The smaller the group, the more attention each student gets. The EEF notes that effectiveness drops noticeably once groups grow above six or seven.
A link to what is happening in class. The EEF found tuition is more likely to make an impact when it is explicitly linked to normal lessons, so students are not learning in two separate worlds.
A good relationship with the tutor. In the Spanish program, tutors were trained in student motivation and set aside at least ten minutes of each session to talk through students' worries or concerns. Pairing students was also meant to help them keep each other going.

Think of it like learning to swim. A few lessons a year will not do much, and a crowded pool makes it hard for the instructor to see what each child needs. Regular lessons with the same instructor, in a small group, practising the strokes they need for their next swim, is what makes the difference.

How we approach it at Avin Learning

We built our tutoring around the things the research points to:

One-on-one or small-group sessions online. Our small groups have three students. Parents organise the groups themselves, so the children are at a similar level and already know each other.
Tutors matched to your child. We match each student with a tutor who suits them.
The same tutor, at the same time, every week. Weekly sessions build a steady routine and a real working relationship.
Progress tracked in and out of sessions. We use the Avin Learning Scores app to keep track of how your child is going.
End-of-term progress reports. You receive a clear update on your child's progress at the end of each term.
Free VCE accountability sessions. We also run free accountability sessions for VCE students.

The bottom line

Well-designed research shows that online tutoring can lead to real gains in maths and in how students feel about school. It is not automatic, though. The best results come from regular sessions, one-on-one or small groups, a close link to classwork and a tutor your child gets on with.

If you would like to talk about whether tutoring is right for your child, from Year 4 through to VCE, we would be happy to help. Book a call with us.

Sources

Gortazar, L., Hupkau, C. and Roldán, T. (2023). Online tutoring works: Experimental evidence from a program with vulnerable children. EsadeEcPol.
Gortazar, L., Hupkau, C. and Roldan, A. (2023). Online tutoring works: experimental evidence from a program with vulnerable children. CEP Discussion Paper No. 1908, Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics.
EsadeEcPol. Executive Summary | Menttores: tutoring for educational equity.
Education Endowment Foundation. Teaching and Learning Toolkit: One to one tuition.
Education Endowment Foundation. Teaching and Learning Toolkit: Small group tuition.
Hunter, J. and Haywood, A. (2024). Small-group tutoring is not a magic wand. Grattan Institute.