While Schools and Colleges have long been offering summer courses during the summer break, the current global pandemic has seen most of them move their curriculums online. They are usually short courses in which a good amount of material is compressed so that it can be covered in a short period of time.
Summer Programs enable students to complement their regular academics with advanced learning of their interest. Some students also enroll in online summer programs to enhance their understanding of the subjects they find hard in school.
No matter what online summer program your child signs up for, there are several benefits to them. However, it is crucial to do your homework and compare multiple summer programs to find the one that best suits your child. If you are hoping to increase productivity during the summer and enroll your child in an online summer program.
Things to Consider Before Choosing Summer Programs
Here are the 4 things you must consider before starting the Summer Courses:
1. Does it offer an interactive learning experience?
While schools offer K-12 online summer programs, they usually have online courses wherein students watch videos and learn more about a subject. There are also live sessions where all students come together over a Zoom call and attend class like they usually do in a brick-and-mortar institution. Although such courses can definitely benefit your child, he/she would achieve a greater learning experience through an interactive online summer program. This one-to-one, live sessions make it easier for students to understand concepts as they will receive the undivided attention of their tutor for the entirety of the course, thus giving them the advantage of absolute learning.
2. Can your child study at their own pace?
Since summer programs compress a lot of topics and cover them in a short span of time, they can be demanding and intense, especially for kids who take their time to grasp concepts. It is therefore crucial to find a course that will allow your child to study at their own pace without rushing through topics. An interactive learning session will ensure that your child is not left behind. Moreover, most online e-tutoring services offer diagnostic tests through which they evaluate the learning potential of your child after which they create a learning schedule, thus ensuring that your child learns at their own pace.
3. What does the course cover?
Before enrolling your child into a summer course, go through the suggested curriculum to check the kind of topics that will be covered. For instance, if your fourth grader needs an online summer math program, check the topics covered by the course (advanced multiplication, fractions, etc.) to find out where your child stands with regard to these topics. It is also crucial to ensure that your child is aware of the elementary math concepts that are pre-requisite to the program. A conversation with the tutor before starting the course can help you identify this.
4. How qualified/experienced is the tutor?
The ability of a student to grasp concepts will depend largely on the tutor. If you are interested in enrolling your child into a particular course, find out more about the tutors who could teach them. Learn about their qualifications and level of experience. Read through reviews of other students and parents who have availed their services in the past. It is also important to talk to the tutor directly before the start of the course to understand their teaching style and determine whether or not they can help your child complete the summer program with maximum efficiency.
An online summer program has the ability to not only help your child catch up with topics they may have missed in school but can also introduce them to concepts that will be taught in the new academic year, thereby giving them an edge and helping them perform better in school.
