"A university should be a place of light, liberty, and of learning." -Benjamin Disraeli

The university years are filled with wonder, exploration, and discovery. Further education studies prepare students with the necessary knowledge to work in their desired fields and enjoy a career that doesn't feel like it's a dead-end job. Nonetheless, taking classes at a higher education stage isn't always easy. So, what can be done? Hire a private tutor.

On many well-known and frequently used tutoring sites, there are plenty of academic instructors offering remedial lessons to university students regardless of the degree program that they are studying. Do tutors have to adapt their techniques and methods for university students? Well, it's important to state that students of further education tend to be more driven and generally keener than the typical student whose parents may have hired your services after one too many disappointing school reports. Also, they have higher expectations and demand a far more specialised level of knowledge from their tutor, which means that there is generally a lot more pre-lesson preparation involved.

Without further delay, let's consider a few ways tutors can adapt and offer lessons to university students.

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How Can Tutors Offer Tutoring Lessons to University Students?

Depending on the student, their level of expertise, and their age, tutors have to jump through hurdles to ensure that their students are getting the best remedial help possible. While younger students at a primary or secondary school stage might not be as demanding, young adults going through university studies want to ensure that they get the most bang for their buck. Therefore, they expect a lot from tutors and want them to provide excellent academic assistance.

But, how can successful tutoring sessions be guaranteed class after class? Let's take a look at the following methods to find out.

First, Learn How to Tutor 

teaching themselves to teach
Tutors need to learn how to effectively conduct remedial lessons before they can start offering them. (Source: Unsplash)

Before anything else, aspiring tutors need to ensure that they are good teachers. While further education degrees from universities might not be required, tutors should consider taking short-term courses to become experienced at instructing university pupils.

But, where and how? It's worth stating that many Universities offer courses on how to tutor such as Oxford’s Effective Online Tutoring programme which focuses on the social, administrative and pedagogical techniques that make a good academic instructor.

Along with highly recommended tutoring courses, aspiring educators should not be afraid to ask experienced instructors for assistance and practical suggestions.

Ensure You're the Right Fit For the Student

In many cases, for university students to succeed during remedial training sessions, they need to have good chemistry with their tutors. Therefore, it's recommended to offer the first lesson or consultation for free and during this time you, the tutor, can determine specific areas where the student needs support and how you can effectively deliver it.

It wouldn't be in the student's best interest to continue offering them academic assistance if you don't have the skills they need to succeed and similar personalities or learning objectives. Ensuring you're the right fit for the student makes everyone a winner.

Be Flexible

adaptation is essential
The best academic instructors are extremely flexible to the needs of their university students. (Source: Unsplash)

If you've been a uni student, you know that schedules are rather irregular with free hours interspersed between long blocks of classes in the morning or afternoon. So, for your student to do well, they will need to be effective time managers and make the most of their free time and sometimes, this will be late at night or early in the morning. Be flexible and try to adapt to their changing routines.

If you're comfortable with the matter, you might even consider teaching remedial classes in the late evening or early hours of the morning to accommodate the needs of your student.

Use Software Programmes

using technology
It's highly recommended that tutors use alternative means to instruct their students such as software programs. (Source: Unsplash)

Since we're living in the digital age, teachers need to frequently be using digital tools such as apps, software, and virtual systems. Technology complements the learning experience for university students and makes it much more enjoyable and interactive. The following are a few software systems to regularly utilise:

  • Kaltura, 
  • Vedamo, 
  • BigBlueBottom, 
  • LearnCube, 
  • ElectaLive.

All of the previously mentioned software systems were designed with tutors and students in mind to make things easier and more interactive for both parties involved.

Be Helpful and Encourage Independence

Teaching university students is much different than instructing primary school kids since they don't need to be so closely watched and managed. Nonetheless, private tutors need to be extremely helpful with clients that are going through university yet, at the same time, encourage them to be independent thinkers and learners.

For example, if a student is seeking help with essays, rather than rewrite crucial passages for them, point out flaws in the grammatical structure, flow or style of particular sentences and ask the student to learn to edit their work. The suggestions rather than the direct assistance will become a skill that uni students will continue to develop in the future.

Also, by not giving your students the immediate answer, you're encouraging them to research independently and find the answer by themselves which will be a great asset for them to possess in their professional lives.

Prepare Them For Exams

One of the greatest helps that private tutors offer their university students in their exam preparation expertise. Therefore, tutors should do their best to try to obtain past exams and simulate exam-style conditions for their students in the weeks leading up to their assessments.

Tutors can explain the importance of allocating specific times to each section of the exam and can teach them a few tricks that will help their exam stand out such as using interesting quotes, introducing and concluding arguments with effective phrases, etc.

Special tips and tricks such as teaching students to established techniques that will help them recall a large body of facts will go a long way. Also, don't miss the importance of using visual aids like mind maps and thinking/learning maps which enable users to digest large amounts of information and retain the information more efficiently.

Change Things Up

Instead of always doing the same thing, it's highly recommended to shake things up a bit and try to make positive learning experiences that are equally important to the skills you are trying to teach your students.

For example, if you are tutoring a student on languages, suggest seeing a film in their target language or taking them to a venue where there are likely to find native speakers.

There is little point in spending every moment of a tutoring session on grammatical rules and boring theory when, sometimes, the best thing to do is to go out and learn in the open world!

Broaden Your Student’s Horizons

As most veteran tutors would explain, academic instructors always do much more than solely impart knowledge of a specific topic; they are also counsellors! Therefore, don't be afraid to counsel your students to broaden their horizons.

For example, if you are tutoring a student that is majoring in Psychology, you may find that they display a keen interest in medicine you should see whether they could enrol in a couple of subjects that offer credit for the department of Medicine.

By helping your student see that education isn't linear without any movement, they feel more engaged to try new things and broaden their knowledge of important topics that could become relevant to them. 

In conclusion, we sincerely hope that you found this blog post illuminating and there were enough tips mentioned to help you so that you may be able to become an outstanding teacher to university students!

Want to give private lessons?

Join the Superprof community and share your knowledge with interested and motivated students.

Create an advert

Want to give private lessons?

Join the Superprof community and share your knowledge with interested and motivated students.

Create an advert

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Brentyn

Avid movie-goer, reader, skier and language learner. Passionate about life, food and travelling.