When Online Tutorials are Better than Your Traditional Learning

Is Online Tutorial Better Than Self-Study?

Absolutely. It combines the students’ perseverance and intrinsic motivation to succeed through self-study while complementing the students’ weaknesses in some subjects through online tutorial reinforcement. It combines the expertise of a review center while enjoying the benefits of studying on their own.

Is online tutorial better than A face-to-face entrance exam review?

Definitely. On the onset, you avoid the Manila traffic that eats up precious time. It also results in savings due to its affordability paired with savings from not spending for travel.

Online Tutorial: Just in Time Education

If you are embracing what you learn in high school and college as your ticket to a higher career path – the only way to be admitted in college or master’s degree, for example – then you’ are doing it the hard way. You need an online tutorial in any form you can think of. Don’t get me wrong, knitting all snippets of knowledge together in an instant can get you in your desired university.

Well, It’s the surefire way as our parents suggest.

However, with the world’s increasing distractions and the flawed education system make it more difficult for students to pass that vaunted entrance exams. You jam 4 years of knowledge into your head and hope you can retrieve it later when you need it.

It’s possible but very difficult to master on your own.

Imagine the thought of reviewing for an entrance exam that encompasses all lectures and topics you went through for 4 years? Try to recall all the concepts you had in the 40 or more subjects you had in high school and college.

Well, you guess is as good as mine.

It’s D.I.F.F.I.C.U.L.T.

Key in Just in Time Education.

One of the things I do remember from my MBA degree is the concept of Just in Time Inventory. Instead of storing up a bunch of products in a storage facility and sending them out when there is an order, you only order what you people purchase from you. In fact, the supplies you order only pass through your hands very quickly because you need to send them right away to customers. This is the epitome of efficiency as you don’t need a storage facility. It decreases costs and gets you more profits (or results).

What is Just in Time Education?

So what, then, is just-in-time education? It’s education on a singular mission: to impart a set of in-demand competencies and skills geared toward helping learners get results. An immediate impact is passing a college or master’s degree entrance exams. For long term impact, It may be for landing your dream job or be good at client calls.

According to the Learning House, just-in-time education is viewed as more important than a degree in some industries.

Instead of relying on just a bachelor’s degree or high school diploma, pay to go to tutorial services. Spend on an online course. Hire a coach for your weakness as well as building your strength. Learn from experts: people that teach you real skills or people who went through the same experience.

Things happen so fast and situations change quickly. Much like in college entrance exams, you only take them once. Results are irreversible. If you fail, you’ll carry that result for a lifetime but if you pass, it’ll change your life forever.

These experts are always sharp because they’re always in the game.

Quite simply, they know things you don’t learn in schools.

The Value of Just in Time Education

Just-in-time education comes in many shapes and sizes, including reinforcing artifacts such as certifications, badges and on-demand learning such as tutorials and reviews both online and offline.

In short, the value of just-in-time education is:

  1. Instruction that prepares learners with skills that meet immediate demands;
  2. Affordable if compared to the ROI brings; and
  3. Education that is directly tied to outcomes and objectives.

Online Tutorials as Complement to Traditional Education

For the Philippines to excel on the world stage, it’s not enough that the student should just excel in schools. The environment they are in should mold them to the best that they can be. The country’s educational system should improve.

With the Philippines’ educational system flaws, just in time education in the form of online tutorials in the perfect complement for face-to-face instruction.

According to Vanderbilt University, Just in Time Teaching (JiTT) is a teaching and learning strategy designed to promote the use of class time for more active learning. JiTT relies on a feedback loop between web-based learning materials and the classroom.

A study of the National Research Council in Washington, moreover, states that learning indicated that all new learning depends on the learner’s prior knowledge and the current state of understanding. If students’ initial understanding is not engaged, they may fall grasp to new concepts that are taught or they may revert to their preconceptions outside of the classroom.

This is the very reason the Philippine educational system is flawed due to the way courses are taught. Take high school students, for example, algebra is taught in their 1st year, geometry or statistics on their 2ndyear, geometry on the 3rd and calculus or trigonometry on the 4th.

With this instruction method, students are doomed when they take entrance exams of universities. Not only students are forced to remember all these concepts in one summer, but the time needed to accomplish such daunting feat is also insurmountable.

Online tutorials incorporate active learning approaches

By moving the knowledge understanding and retrieval of lessons using different mediums, online one-on-one tutorial encourages active learning approaches that have been found to promote learning better.

Objective-based learning and real-world application of concepts are better explained in tutorials due to the focused learning that is designed to achieve results.

Tutorials are heavy on activities that are suited depending on student’s learning styles and not just relying on auditory styles much like in your typical four-cornered classroom.

Online Tutorials enable students to construct new knowledge from prior knowledge

Pre-existing misconceptions can serve as barriers to the development of new, more accurate mental models. The “constructivism” theory state that learners build new understandings in existing attitudes, experiences, and knowledge.

An online tutorial, most especially for taking entrance exams, requires that students uncover and address pre-existing knowledge and misconceptions. These barriers – mostly developed in years and years of sitting in a chair and hearing what their teachers discuss – can make or break a student’s proficiency in retrieving knowledge in times of distress such as time and pressure exams.

Online Tutorial provides prompt feedback

The best learning environments are assessment-centered and emphasize that formative assessment is particularly valuable for learners because it provides opportunities for learners to adjust or clarify their thinking prior to a summative assessment such as a university entrance graded exam.

Since most tutorials are done one by one, this is a key element of online tutorials that make them good at providing on-demand feedback.

Online Tutorial Case Study

Take my case for example.

I was never an honor student during all those years of elementary education. In fact, I was never in the top student list in my section! Except for one time in grade 4 where I ranked number 10 in the section I am in. The primary school has 8 sections with 40 students each. Imagine, I was already happy with that rank considering there are many sections. I’m thinking now that maybe I got into that top 10 list because all of my classmates didn’t study that school year quarter.

I was more into playing in the streets. I was studying that time but not scrambling just to get high grades. I’m contented with the so-so grades and wasn’t really keen on striving for grades that are comparable to the best in our class.

The surprise was when I need to take the University of the Philippines Rural High School (UPRHS) entrance exams. I was shocked that only 160 students are to be accepted out of the thousands wanting to be admitted. I was pressured to pass the UPRHS entrance exams (I’d get spanked if I didn’t) because tuition fee is only P225.00 per unit and a year would only cost us around P4,000.00 – P5,000.00.

At first, I tried to review on my own – trying to recall every concept and trying to read through math problems. It’s not that hard. Reading stuff makes you recall things you’ve taken for granted during those sleepy time on your desks.

However, when I tried to do a diagnostic test, it all fell apart. I knew that the results were not sufficient enough to get me into UPRHS.

What my family did was to enroll me in a UPRHS review services provider – a perfect example of just in time education. It was a different experience teaching you test-taking skills while summarizing up what you learned in school. I was never a fan of that decision before.

In fact, I was a reluctant student just obeying what my parents sent me in.

Cut the long story short, I passed the UPRHS entrance exam.

I was surprised to rank #81 in the entrance exam. I never thought that the review would be one of the best things I did. That review got me at the University of the Philippines system.

Looking back, that decision changed my life. It started my journey at the University of the Philippines. That small just in time education decision planted the seed of the career that I now enjoy.

It was just a simple entrance review, right?

Yes. But that same simple review changed my life forever for the better.

Online Courses Address Present Day Issues

While just in time learning and education like online tutorials and reviews have a great impact on retrieving and efficient utilization of acquired knowledge, it also addresses key societal issues in the form of traffic, expenses, and scheduling.

Online tutorial – like most digital phenomena such as e-commerce and e-learning – is good at solving specific kinds of problems: time problems, distance problems, and cost problems.

For traffic problems currently experienced by all Filipinos in Metro Manila, valuable time is getting eaten by being stuck in cars while doing nothing.

NO ONE WANTS TO BE IN THIS SITUATION.

Why not eliminate the constraint altogether by skipping travel. Through just in time learning and education, one can use time more productively.

This effect also spillover costs problems. Imagine eliminating transportation costs and the opportunity cost of doing nothing as compared to personal and professional development through online learning.

More importantly, most parents and students alike forget the impact of online tutorials in terms of its Return on Investment.

Filipinos think just in time as education as expenses and not investment. It’s a saddening fact.

I’m here to tell you that it’s an investment.

Why?

Because there is a return for just in time education spending.

Indeed, online tutorials cost a fortune as compared to the savings and opportunity cost incurred in traffic. But using ROI in this framework totally fails to measure the true impact of just in time education much like in online tutorials and reviews.

Take for example a case of two students graduating in the same high school.

They both want to be admitted to one of the premier schools (i.e. UP, Ateneo, La Salle) in the country for the future opportunity it brings.

Student A prepared for the entrance exam by self-reviewing his notes and books collected in High School. COST = PHP 0

Student B prepared for the entrance exam by enrolling in the best online tutorial services. COST= PHP 36,000

For purposes of simplification, let’s assume that the probability of passing the entrance exam by self-reviewing is 20% (statistic from usual entrance exam results) and 80% if enrolled with tutorial services (statistic from the success rate of AHEAD tutorial services). Let’s also assume that the monthly average salary of a graduate from a reputable university in the Philippines is PHP100,000. The average years of a professional staying in the workforce are, let’s say 40 years.

Now, let’s compute for the expected return factoring the cost of investment.

For Student A, the Return on Investment for his self-reviewing method based on an expected return computation is only 800,000.

800,000 = 100,000 x 20% x 40

For student B, the Return on Investment for his online tutorial based review method based on an expected return computation is a whopping 3,164,000!

3,164,000 = 100,000 x 80% x 40 – 36,000

On face value, availing online tutorials as a just in time education method is costly.

But remember: if gauging investments, you look at the future value of the investment and not the cost at the year of investment.

Just in Time Education for Professionals

Just in time education and learning is not only useful in students taking entrance exams, but it is also better suited for professionals in climbing the corporate ladder and taking on better-paying jobs.

I remember my journey as a new graduate from the University of the Philippines Los Banos. I thought that the premier education I have is enough to propel me to higher levels in the corporate field. I thought I can conquer anything with just my 4-year diploma.

As I was immersed in the grueling reality of employment, I realized that I was being naïve.

Eventually, you’ll learn that what you know is only the tip of the iceberg. Young professionals need continuous learning to equip themselves for bigger responsibilities and enrich them for personal development and skill-based competencies.

Continuous Education through Online Learning

Trying hard to ascend into higher corporate levels involves time and effort. There is no debate in this fact. Learning is a commitment and it is even more difficult to pursue them given the traffic and cost constraints.

The good thing is that there are just-in-time education avenues for enrichment. With the vast options for learning through online tutorials and courses, there is really no reason not to learn.

I think the most taken for granted skill in pursuing a dream job or promotion is communication skills. With English being the mode of communication in most jobs, being good at this skill will bring you closer to your objectives.

Taking online English proficiency skills training should be one of the most important investments a young aspiring professional can have. Business English has and always been a foundation of great professionalism.

It is not enough to read through books and articles to be good in English. Yes, it helps but constant feedback and learning from experts are better suited to break barriers and make more structure to what you already know.

Apart from studying Business English, you should take more than enough courses to accelerate your development.

In my case, for example, I was burning my ass off through hard work during my early years in the corporate world. I really had no time to go through classes and bracing the traffic day in and day out.

What I did was to enroll in online continuing education programs starting off with certificate programs in Personal Entrepreneurial Development, New Enterprise Planning, and E-Commerce at the University of the Philippines Open University. It’s a win-win situation for me. I was working full time (I still can’t go to the traditional face-to-face classes) but reaping the same benefits as a full-time student all through e-learning technology.

Distance learning education fulfilled a need to learn and also equip me for a future that I was still searching for during that time. My love for learning made me take more online courses and certifications like the Six Sigma Green Belt Certification taken via an online training provider located in India. Currently, I often get on-demand learning through online tutorials and courses for whatever skill and knowledge I wish to study.

Indeed, technology became my friend in professional development.

You may be asking what impact did it resulted in my life.

I just became a professor at the University of the Philippines Open University for entrepreneurship and e-commerce.

A huge feat thanks to online enrichment.

Online Tutorial as an Option for MBA Aspirants

I made my MBA application experience public through the popular post that I made four years ago. Ever since that post, I’ve been flooded by inquiries about how I passed the entrance exams. I’ve been contacted by most, if not all, MBA aspirants wanting to be admitted to the University of the Philippines Diliman (see the long list of comments on the post).

I actually have written study guides and sample questions just to help MBA aspirants pass the famous Graduate Program Admission Test (GPAT).

SEE: How I Passed UP MBA GPAT
SEE: Sample UP Proficiency Exam Questions

In my experience, I had to fend for my own since there were no online review and tutorial services available specifically for GPAT. I was lucky to pass the exams. But when I talked to some of the professionals I mentored, they weren’t lucky to pass the exams.

I imagine the opportunities that closed following the failed entrance exam setback.

Anyone can always try the trial and error method I did in passing UP MBA GPAT. But for those who want more probability of success, you should try out the online tutorial services focusing on Abstract Reasoning, Mathematics and Reading Comprehension.

This is just a recommendation based on the research I did on this Just in Time Education article.

This answers the million-dollar question:

How Can I Pass the MBA Entrance Exam?

  1. Follow the method on how I self-reviewed for MBA Entrance Exam. See Article Here: How I Passed UP MBA GPAT
  2. Take a Time-Pressured Diagnostic Exams for Reading, Math and Abstract Reasoning in Ahead Online (Contact AHEAD Online for Customized Exams Here)
  3. You should know your weaknesses at this point. Now, enroll a few hours in Academic Tutorial focusing on your weaknesses. View Academic Tutorials Here (Note: You can enroll on Speed Reading Tutorials to breeze through the Reading Comprehension of the exam. As a plus, you’ll also read more book in less the time)
  4. Take an actual Face-to-Face time-pressured exam simulations in AHEAD for Math, Reading and Abstract Reasoning. The purpose of this exercise is to be familiar with exam taking. (Doing work 8-5 for years surely made your exam skill a bit too rusty)

* Only AHEAD Tutorial and Review offer online review, online tutorial and simulated entrance exams in the Philippines. For more information, contact them through http://online.ahead.edu.ph/. Online tutorials are priced approximately PHP1,470 per hour ($30 Dollars).
**Visit AHEAD on their official website at
 http://www.ahead.edu.ph/.
***AHEAD Contact numbers and addresses are located here:
http://www.ahead.edu.ph/contact-us/

Online Tutorial Philippines Benefit AHEAD

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