Online vs In-Person Tutoring: What the Evidence Actually Says

Does the research say online or in-person tutoring works better?

The honest answer on online tutoring vs in person is that the evidence does not pick a winner. What it does say, consistently, is that one-to-one tuition works, and that the ingredients making it work — a capable tutor, regular sessions, one child at a time — matter far more than whether that tutor is sitting in your kitchen or on your screen. The decision in front of you is not which method is better in the abstract. It is which one fits your child, your home and your budget.

The Education Endowment Foundation's Teaching and Learning Toolkit rates one to one tuition at five additional months' progress on average, drawn from 123 studies. Buried in the same entry is the line that settles most of this argument: “Studies involving digital technology show broadly similar effects.” Same intervention, different delivery, comparable results.

The EEF reached the same conclusion from a different direction when it reviewed 60 systematic reviews and meta-analyses on remote learning in 2020. The first of its five key findings was blunt.

“Teaching quality is more important than how lessons are delivered.”

Education Endowment Foundation, remote learning rapid evidence assessment

That is the sentence to keep in mind while any tutoring company, this one included, tells you why its format is superior. If a tutor is weak, being physically present does not fix it. If a tutor is strong, a video call does not undo it.

Two other Toolkit numbers are worth having. One to one tuition has a larger impact in primary schools (+6 months) than secondary (+4 months), and in literacy (+6 months) than maths (+2 months). Small group tuition comes in at +4 months, which tells you the ratio is doing real work: one child at a time beats two or three, whichever room they are in. Both distinctions matter more to your child's result than delivery mode does.

Where does online tutoring actually fall down?

It would be easy to stop there. But the same evidence base contains findings that are inconvenient for anyone selling online lessons, and you should see them.

The EEF's National Online Tuition Pilot ran during the 2020 school closures, reaching 1,425 learners across 65 schools through around 9,800 sessions. It concluded that online delivery was feasible and that learners enjoyed it. It also concluded that online tuition lacked some of the benefits of in-person delivery, that tutors found it harder to build rapport with learners online, and that face-to-face tuition was preferred by both tutors and learners. Access to equipment and a reliable internet connection were named as key barriers, particularly for children learning from home rather than at school.

Then there is the trial that found nothing. The EEF's randomised controlled trial of Affordable Maths Tuition put 600 Year 6 pupils across 64 schools through 27 weeks of online one-to-one maths tutoring. It found no evidence of an impact on Key Stage 2 maths results. The process evaluation offered a clue: some pupils were interrupted because the tutor could not see they were still working on a problem, which the evaluators linked to the lack of face-to-face contact. Sessions also ran once a week, and children were sometimes distracted by noise from other sessions in the same room.

Online tutoring vs in person: how do they compare, dimension by dimension?

Five of those eleven rows do not favour online, and that is the accurate picture. What tips the balance for most families is that the online advantages are structural (cost, travel, tutor pool) while the in-person advantages apply to particular children and particular kinds of work.

When is in-person tutoring the better choice?

When is online tutoring the better choice?

For the wider question of whether tuition is worth paying for in the first place, our guide on whether private tutoring is worth it covers the money side properly, and how much a tutor costs in the UK has the current market rates.

What should you check before you book either?

The same questions apply to both formats. Use them on us as readily as on anyone else, and see how to choose a tutor for the longer list.

What does one-to-one online tutoring cost at TutorMint?

Lessons are 1 hour, on Google Meet, in the browser with nothing to install. All you need is a laptop or tablet with a camera and an internet connection. Lessons start from £15 per lesson for the 11+, from £15 at KS3, from £20 at GCSE and from £25 at A-Level. Your first demo class is free, there is no sign-up fee and there is no contract, so you can pause or stop whenever you like. See our pricing for the full breakdown, or how it works for the process from first message to first lesson.

Parents are welcome to sit in on any lesson without notice, and after each lesson you get an update covering what was taught, what homework was set and what comes next. Message us and we reply within 2 hours, 9am–9pm UK time, seven days a week. If you want the detail on how the lessons themselves run, our online tutoring page walks through the shared screen and whiteboard setup.

If, after the demo, the honest answer for your child is a tutor in the room, we will tell you so. That is the point of a free trial lesson.

The only reliable way to answer the online versus in-person question for your child is to watch one lesson and see how they respond. Your first class is free, there is no payment detail required to book it, and if we think a tutor in the room would serve your child better, we will say so.