Benefits of Online Tutoring: What the Research Shows, and When It Works

What the studies actually found

Search this question and most of the first page comes from tutoring companies listing their own advantages. The research is more useful, and more mixed. This table sets out the trials that matter most for a Canadian family.

A note on the units. Researchers report gains in standard deviations (SD). A standard deviation is a different unit from a percentage. A gain of 0.2 SD does not mean 20 per cent better. The Education Endowment Foundation converts its results into months of progress, which is easier to picture, so that figure is in the table too.

The headline number for tutoring in general is 0.288 SD. That comes from the peer-reviewed version of Nickow, Oreopoulos and Quan's meta-analysis of tutoring experiments, published in the American Educational Research Journal. An earlier working paper by the same authors, which pooled 96 studies, reported 0.37. If you see 0.37 quoted online, it is the older estimate.

The benefits that hold up

You can choose a qualified teacher who does not live near you. This is the real advantage, and it is about who teaches. The screen is only the way the lesson arrives. On average, the evidence on who tutors points one way. The peer-reviewed meta-analysis found that the effects "tend to be largest for programs that use teachers or paraprofessionals as tutors". In the 2020 working paper, programmes run by teachers averaged 0.50 SD, those run by paraprofessionals 0.40 and those run by volunteers 0.21. The working paper says the teachers' edge over paraprofessionals comes mostly from first-grade programmes, and in large part from one of them, Reading Recovery. The Education Endowment Foundation says programmes using teaching assistants or volunteers "can have a valuable impact, but may be less effective than those using experienced and specifically trained teachers." These are averages, and the Italian volunteers above did well with three hours a week. Online removes the need for any of these tutors to live in your town.

Where formats were compared, online held its own. In the New York trial, children entering Grades 1 to 3 were randomly assigned to in-person or remote tutoring with tutors hired and trained by the same programme, and the authors found "no statistically significant differences in students' literacy outcomes by instructional modality." They add that "the advantages of having a proficient tutor greatly outweigh these disparities." In the Education Endowment Foundation's summary, studies that involved digital technology showed broadly similar effects to the rest. A 2023-24 study across eight large U.S. school districts compared in-person, virtual and computer-assisted tutoring and found the virtual models "just as impactful" as the in-person ones. Overall impacts were small at that scale, 0.06 to 0.09 SD.

No travel makes regular sessions easier to keep. Frequency matters. The meta-analysis found the largest effects for programmes that "occur at least 3 days per week", and the working paper says "There is little evidence of once-weekly tutoring sessions generating large effect sizes." The Education Endowment Foundation's best results came from short sessions, about 30 minutes, three to five times a week. Three half-hour lessons a week are much easier to fit when there is no drive in between.

It can follow the course your child is taking. The Education Endowment Foundation found that tuition "is more likely to make an impact if it is additional to and explicitly linked with normal lessons." A teacher who knows the provincial curriculum can work from your child's own unit and assignments. That is not special to online lessons. It is the main thing to look for in any tutor.

Where online tutoring falls short

When the child does not turn up. The Toronto trial is the most useful Canadian evidence, and its lesson is about attendance. Only 45 per cent of the students offered tutoring reached a first session in the first year. After the researchers simplified enrolment, 83 per cent started in the second year, but weekly attendance stayed below half. The average gain was 0.06 SD. In the New York trial, too, children assigned to remote tutoring attended fewer sessions than those tutored in person. Online lessons at home are easy to skip. A fixed time each week and an adult who checks it happened do more than any feature of the platform.

When there are too few hours. The U.S. trial with college volunteers found 0.07 SD in math, which was not statistically significant. Those tutors had a three-hour training before the programme and weekly peer mentoring during it. The paper's own evidence is consistent with hours mattering more. Students could attend at most about nine hours of tutoring over 12 weeks, and on average they attended 3.1 hours, while 18 per cent never attended at all. The authors report evidence "consistent with a dosage model of tutoring where additional hours result in larger effects." The Toronto programme offered about an hour a week, attended intermittently. Compare the Italian volunteers, who gave three hours a week and saw 0.22 SD.

For the youngest children, without an adult nearby. The first randomized trial of virtual tutoring for Kindergarten to Grade 2 found positive gains, smaller than typical in-person reading programmes. Its sessions ran during the school day, for 20 minutes, four times a week, with school tablets and headphones. The authors note that the online studies with the largest effects ran after or outside the school day, so that comparison mixes the setting with the format. In the New York trial, remote sessions took place at a summer programme site, managed by a site coordinator. Neither trial tested a young child doing lessons alone at home. For a child in Grade 1 or 2, an adult in the room makes sense. The Canadian Paediatric Society advises parents to "Continue to be present and engaged when screens are used".

When the lessons are once a week and nothing else changes. Most of the research tested tutoring three or more times a week, in school, for younger children. In the working paper, only 7 per cent of the programmes involved students in Grade 6 and up. A weekly evening lesson for a teenager is a different thing, and the evidence for it is thinner. It can still help. Just do not expect the meta-analysis average from it.

Online or in person: how to decide

The one direct comparison we found, in New York, found no statistically significant difference in reading gains, but in-person children came to more sessions. It was one summer programme for young readers, and the authors say small differences could have gone undetected at that scale. The choice comes down to the conditions. Neither format wins on its own.

Rural and remote families

The case for online tutoring is strongest outside the cities, and so is the main practical problem.

The case is simple. Online lessons need no teacher in your area. For a family far from a city, or one looking for a teacher for a single senior course, the choice is no longer limited to the teachers who live nearby.

The problem is the connection. Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada reports that in 2024, 87.4 per cent of rural households had access to internet speeds of 50/10 Mbps, against 99.8 per cent of urban households. The CRTC, using the same speeds with unlimited data, reports 65.7 per cent of households on First Nations reserves and 69.6 per cent in the three territories. Rural access has risen fast. It was 38.1 per cent in 2017, and the federal target is full coverage by 2030. But a live video lesson with a shared whiteboard needs a steady connection, and many rural families still do not have one.

We looked for a Canadian figure on how many rural families cannot find a local tutor or specialist teacher. We found none from Statistics Canada, the CRTC or the ministries. So we do not quote one. Before you book, run a video call at the time of day the lessons will happen, on the device your child will use. That one test tells you more than any national figure.

Ontario teens already learn online

If your child is in an Ontario secondary school, online learning is not new to them. Under the ministry's Policy/Program Memorandum 167, students who started Grade 9 in 2020-21 or later must earn at least two online credits for their diploma, unless they have been opted out or exempted. A parent or guardian can opt out, as can a student who is 18 or older, or one who is 16 or 17 and has withdrawn from parental control. Public online courses, such as TVO ILC, give full credits. Those are school courses rather than tutoring, but they mean many teens are already used to learning on a screen.

Keeping one-to-one online lessons safe

A one-to-one video lesson with an adult your family has not met is a reasonable thing to check. Three checks are worth doing.

• Check the certification yourself. In Ontario, the Ontario College of Teachers has a public register, the Find a Teacher search. Our guide on how to check whether a teacher is certified shows how, province by province.
• Know what certification includes. To be certified in Ontario, a teacher must provide a Canadian Criminal Record Check. The College states that "A vulnerable sector check is not required but will be accepted."
• Keep lessons on the platform. The Ontario College of Teachers' advisory on electronic communication tells its members to communicate with students "through established education platforms" and to avoid "exchanging private texts, phone numbers, personal email addresses, videos or photos of a personal nature with students." It applies to members of the Ontario College, so a teacher certified only in another province, or a tutor who is not certified, is not covered by it.

Where Genie fits

Genie works only with Canadian Certified Teachers, licensed by a provincial governing body such as the Ontario College of Teachers. Lessons are one teacher and one student, taught online over video, and built around the course the student already takes at school. You choose the teacher yourself. Each teacher sets their own hourly rate, and a summary, a homework list and a progress update follow every lesson. Teachers can plan which courses a student needs for a target programme, then focus the teaching on the subject areas that get them there.

No study has tested Genie's lessons, and the figures above are not a promise about them. For costs across Canada, see how much a tutor costs in Canada. For a comparison of services, see the best online tutoring services in Canada. And if you want free help first, homework help in Canada lists what is free.