Is online learning optimal for your family? Are you seeking quality tutoring for your learner but live outside of the St. Louis metro area? Are you homeschooling your child and seeking distance learning enrichment?

There are a variety of reasons why remote learning is the best option for some families. They might include geographic location, schedule requirements, special needs, health and safety … or simply what works best for a particular student or family. Fit Learning St. Louis offers one-on-one online instruction, and the results are just as impressive as those from our in-person learning. Here’s the lowdown on how Fit’s online program works and why it’s a great option for some learners.

Fit’s Online Instruction Garners Unsurpassed Learning Outcomes

Fit Learning’s method gets serious results, with students gaining an average of 1-2 grade levels after 40 hours of instruction. Research-based Science of Learning practices serve as the foundation for Fit’s technique, and we use these to transform students’ learning in a way that you don’t see with other tutoring options.

What’s more, the successful use of science-based strategies – and their stellar outcomes – extend beyond traditional in-person learning sessions to include our online program as well. Here is just one example of how student outcomes in the online program mirror those of sessions administered in our Creve Coeur-based learning lab.

Online Learning at Fit is Interactive and Effective

So, how do we get these results? It may seem daunting to try and engage young learners through online instruction. After all, getting kids’ focus and attention during in-person learning is challenging enough, right? However, there are some established best practices for making remote learning engaging and effective, and Fit’s online synchronous tutoring fully aligns with these.

Online Learning Best Practice: Individualize the Experience

One way to engage young learners online is to customize the instruction as much as possible for each learner.

At Fit, our instruction is always 1:1 – it’s just the child and the learning coach. So, Fit learners reap all the benefits of private tutoring, but in a particularly fun and supportive setting. We start each Fit enrollment with a comprehensive skills assessment to pinpoint the learner’s areas of strength and weakness. Then, the student’s learning goals and curriculum are tailored to their specific skill deficit areas, with the goal of attaining fluency, or mastery, in those areas.

Personalized instruction is time efficient because the learning sessions zero in on exactly what that student needs at that time. Once they’ve mastered one skill (and celebrated their achievement!), they move seamlessly on to the next.

Online Learning Best Practice: Incorporate Variety

Another best practice for online instruction is to change things up periodically versus using the same teaching techniques all the time.

Fit Learning’s instruction is multi-modal and inherently varied. So, for a given skill, the coach might incorporate listening, touching, writing, and seeing. They might also use the “teach-back” method, where the tables are turned and the student “teaches” a skill back to the learning coach, to help reinforce the student’s own understanding of the concept.

Online Learning Best Practice: Make it Interactive

Interactivity is huge when it comes to making students active participants in online learning.

At Fit, the very nature of our teaching method is dynamic, with an ongoing back-and-forth dialogue between coach and learner. It’s fast-paced, requiring the student’s active participation. Time flies, and there simply isn’t time to get bored. And all sessions are synchronous (via the Zoom platform), so instruction is “live” in real time.

Further, sessions are made even more interactive (and personalized) by involving the learner in setting goals, tracking their own progress, and celebrating together when those goals are achieved.

Online Learning Best Practice: Provide Immediate Feedback

It’s recommended that online instruction include immediate feedback and positive reinforcement.

At Fit, immediate feedback is integral to our data-driven precision teaching method. It gives the learning coach the real-time data they need to see how a student is progressing, assess their understanding of key skills, and tweak the instruction accordingly. The use of immediate feedback also allows the coach to quickly identify any errors and reinforce the correct content, while also recognizing the learner’s efforts and achievements.

Online Learning Best Practice: Use Positive Reinforcement … and Make it Fun!

Finally, a sure way to engage students in online learning is to be generous with positive reinforcement and to make it a fun learning experience.

Fit’s learning coaches are energetic, enthusiastic, and supportive. They make every learning session a positive, stress-free experience, something to be enjoyed instead of dreaded. This instills confidence in students and fosters a love of learning.

As for fun, we take it very seriously at Fit. It’s one of our core values and it’s part of what makes our method so effective. Fit learners regularly receive rewards (prizes), reinforcement, and celebration of their accomplishments. We even integrate aspects of gamification – such as tracking personal bests and leveling up – so learning feels less like work and more like a game.

And a bonus: There is never homework. All the learning takes place during sessions; there is no “offline,” or asynchronous, work involved. So evenings and weekends are free for kids and parents.

Fit’s Distance Learning is Available for Core Subject Areas

Fit’s synchronous online instruction is available in the following core subject areas: reading, writing, math, logic, spelling, and school readiness. We also offer academic summer camp, a study skills program, and an Intensive Alternative Educational Placement designed especially for homeschoolers.

It’s recommended that online learners have access to a computer, iPad, and iPad pencil to help sessions run as efficiently as possible.

All Kinds of Learners Benefit from Remote Learning at Fit

Fit is highly unique among other St. Louis online tutoring solutions in that it works for all kinds of learners, regardless of age or current skill level. Our 1:1 customized virtual learning yields amazing results for:

• Learners struggling academically in school – in general or in a certain subject area
• Homeschooled students or those whose parents are considering homeschool
• Children with diagnoses (e.g., learning disabilities, special education needs, ADHD or ADD, dyslexia, slow processing speed or other processing disorders, developmental disabilities and/or developmental delays, anxiety, speech/language delays, and autism spectrum disorder)
• Students who could use summer instruction to prevent skill regression or prepare for the upcoming school year
• Gifted learners seeking enrichment or a more challenging curriculum
• Children with difficulty retaining what they’ve learned or whose executive functioning skills could be stronger
• Young learners who would benefit from school readiness tutoring

How Fit’s Online Instruction Works

Fit Learning’s virtual learning program is a great solution for learners in and out of the St. Louis metro area, including communities such as Columbia, MO, and Springfield, MO. It’s also an excellent solution for Metro East families, in communities such as Edwardsville, IL, Belleville, IL, O’Fallon, and others.

Note that Fit’s instruction is also available as a hybrid option, where students do some learning sessions online and others (usually once a week) in person, in our lab. Some families enroll their learners in all in-person learning or all online learning, while others opt to take this hybrid approach. We work with parents to develop a game plan that best suits their needs.

After all sessions – both online and in-person – the Fit learning coach is available to provide a debrief to parents with highlights of the session and answer any questions.

Enroll Your Learner in Fit Learning’s Virtual Learning Program

To get your child started with remote learning at Fit, just contact us and speak with our Director, Janice Smith. She can provide additional information and arrange for an intake assessment for your child. Then, let the (online) learning begin!