More young using guided learning online

More schools are working with virtual providers to allow for cost-effective educational support at home, according to the Telegraph. While tuition outside of the traditional classroom setting has traditionally been the remit of more affluent families, virtual learning resources have opened up access to tuition tools, with children able to log into an online portal and make the most of interactive lesson plans and tutorials.Research recently published by Ipsos MORI indicated that as many as one in four young people from the UK have received some sort of private or home tuition at least once during their education. However, the move towards online guided learning is expected to see this figure rise significantly in the future.According to the newspaper, online tutoring services that make use of virtual resources are already proving to be a hit with parents, particularly in rural areas where physical access to educational tools may be more limited. With the switch to online systems on the other hand, youngsters are able to interact with specialist tutors and learning resources that they would not be able to find in their local area.These "virtual classrooms" allow for more interaction than many people imagine - with students able to speak with tutors, share files, draw diagrams and also swap messages. The newspaper states that one of the key strengths of this approach is also that, once a lesson is over, pupils are able to play it back again in order to "reinforce their learning" - something that would not be possible with traditional classroom learning and only with tuition through the purchase of additional sessions.Adrian Markovac, a 15-year-old student who is home tutored using such tools, was quoted saying: "It's very easy setting up a tutorial. My online tutor leads me through lessons just like any normal teacher would in school and we both upload things to the whiteboard so that we can see them at the same time."