A level physics tutoring

[Dr Jon P Harris]

I would like to make contact with others who perform A level physics tutoring in the UK, especially those who are online providers
I have tutored AS/A2 students over a period of time and would like to share ideas and information with others doing the same
Dr Jon P Harris

 

[Prateek Kumar Jain]

I am a A level physics Tutor but not online. I am from India. I am interested to in tutoring online. Please guide me.

 

[dpopchev]

I have been an A and IGCSE level physics tutor for the past 3 years in a school in Bulgaria. Also I am on the CIE examination reserves.
I am interested in developing my teaching skills in this syllabuses also on several similar as Pre-U and etc.

EDIT: also math related as I am theoretical physicist and currently doing a PhD in that field with topics in alternative theories of gravity, in which I am using mathematical as well numerical approaches in solving my problems.

 

[Kajal Sengupta]

I am an Online Physics tutor and teach A level Physics for courses taught in UK. I am from India. I use the virtual classroom of WizIQ to teach. I have been teaching for past several years in face to face classes. I switched to online tutoring in 2008 and have been doing it since then. I am enjoying my work and have built up my resources to some extent.

 

[ZapperZ]

One of the classes that I teach is a college level "blended" class. It means that it has a mixture of onsite class and online lessons. I know that this isn't A-level physics, but since you all have done online tutoring and lessons, I want to know how you accomplish this effectively when tackling physics. This is because, as someone who used to be familiar only with direct communication, doing and teaching physics involved lots of drawing/sketching and lots of mathematics. I find that it is a lot more tedious to do those online due to the limited capability of the interface that I'm being given. I end up having to draw something first in Powerpoint, and then uploading the image file online to either the lesson page that I made, or to the discussion forum. And entering mathematical expression is also tedious because one has to keep on using the equation editor.

So how do you tackle those? I'm not familiar with WizIQ. Does it make everything that I stated above easier to deal with?

Zz.

 

[Kajal Sengupta]

I am basically an online tutor. I use a virtual classroom which consists of a whiteboard and many mathematical tools. You can upload your previously prepared files. It supports all kinds files. Voice and text chatting both for student and teacher is possible. To teach online I use a digital pen called pen tablet . It is a device attached to the computer. When I write on it then it is shown on the white board. I do not have to use equation editor or any such thing. It is just like writing on a white board with a sketch pen. For obvious reasons I am not posting links to the site but you can search on the net for WizIQ .com and get all relevant information there.They offer 30 day free trial period so you can test whether it suits your purpose. Happy teaching.

 

[ZapperZ]

I am basically an online tutor. I use a virtual classroom which consists of a whiteboard and many mathematical tools. You can upload your previously prepared files. It supports all kinds files. Voice and text chatting both for student and teacher is possible. To teach online I use a digital pen called pen tablet . It is a device attached to the computer. When I write on it then it is shown on the white board. I do not have to use equation editor or any such thing. It is just like writing on a white board with a sketch pen. For obvious reasons I am not posting links to the site but you can search on the net for WizIQ .com and get all relevant information there.They offer 30 day free trial period so you can test whether it suits your purpose. Happy teaching.

Thanks very much for the response. I think WizIQ sounds like it might make the task a lot easier.

I'm in the committee to revamp our online lessons, and I've been looking at several other options and ways to make these things simpler. I think that I'm the first member of this committee representing a STEM subject, and we definitely have a different set of problems that other non-STEM students and instructors never realized ("What? You have to draw a sketch every time you discuss something?").

I'm guessing that you are using WizIQ for a live interaction with your online students?

Zz.

 

[Kajal Sengupta]

Yes. I teach students in real time where in my class both me and my student are present. It is just like a classroom with a difference that we are not physically present at the same location. One can use video camera to see each other too.

 

[ZapperZ]

Yes. I teach students in real time where in my class both me and my student are present. It is just like a classroom with a difference that we are not physically present at the same location. One can use video camera to see each other too.

Do you also do non-real time lessons and discussion?

The way we are set up is that students are asked to participate in online lessons and discussions, but they do this on their own and whenever it is convenient for them. The online discussion is very much like this forum, where they, or I, may post something, and we go back and forth. The current format that we have makes it very tedious to include a sketch and mathematical equations, as you can guess. This is more relevant to our situation, and what I want to tackle first, since we do almost no real-time online interaction with the students (I meet them once a week in class).

Zz.

 

[Kajal Sengupta]

Oh your situation is slightly different than me. To avoid writing mathematical formulae etc on my presentation I devised my own method. I use the paint option and open a file. Using their pencil tool I use my pen tablet to write on the file and then save it. It can be copy pasted on ppt or word file too. I do not know whether you will be allowed to do that. It saves me from immense hassles. I use Wacom pen tablet ( model CTL 471 )

 

[ZapperZ]

Oh your situation is slightly different than me. To avoid writing mathematical formulae etc on my presentation I devised my own method. I use the paint option and open a file. Using their pencil tool I use my pen tablet to write on the file and then save it. It can be copy pasted on ppt or word file too. I do not know whether you will be allowed to do that. It saves me from immense hassles. I use Wacom pen tablet ( model CTL 471 )

I can do that already on my iPad, which I've done before. However, this is still not ideal, because I have to save that as an image file, and the paste it in the discussion post. I'm hoping someone here is familiar with another interface that can make this easier and flow smoother as part of the editor itself.

Zz.

 

[MidgetDwarf]

There is an app for ipads. It is called Doceri. It's pretty neat. It allows you to upload the things you write on it on the internet. It offers easy uploading to youtube.

 

[ZapperZ]

There is an app for ipads. It is called Doceri. It's pretty neat. It allows you to upload the things you write on it on the internet. It offers easy uploading to youtube.

Unfortunately, this is not meant for the "internet". The interface that the students work in are within the University's website, and it only open to students enrolled in that class.

Zz.

 

[MidgetDwarf]

You can also save it as file.

 

[ZapperZ]

You can also save it as file.

But I can already do that, and this is what I'm trying to skip, as I've described a few times on here already.

Zz.

 

[MidgetDwarf]

It replicates a whiteboard. Meaning you can draw on the whiteboard. There is even a toolbox to draw lines. There is nothing easier and better to use for this task. You are finding a magical unicorn that does not exist.

 

[ZapperZ]

It replicates a whiteboard. Meaning you can draw on the whiteboard. There is even a toolbox to draw lines. There is nothing easier and better to use for this task. You are finding a magical unicorn that does not exist.

Thank you for your suggestion, but this is not the source of the issue that I'm trying to address.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

@Kajal Sengupta : The WizIQ interface, do you use this for real-time one-on-one tutorial only, or does it also have the capability to interact with a large group of students at the same time? In other words, can it be used as a typical virtual classroom with a larger number of students having a real-time interaction with the instructor?

Zz.

 

[Kajal Sengupta]

Yes, You can use this for real time interaction with large number of attendees. Though I do one to one tutoring but have attended classes where number of attendees were more than fifty. Technically speaking you can use it for even hundred students. You have the control of enabling or disabling chats from attendees just in case you do not want interruptions for a certain period of time. If there chats are disabled then they have the option of raising their hand ( shown by an icon at your end) and you can address their issues if you want.You can talk freely with any student and it is just like a real classroom. At one time there can be live video streaming from 6 students meaning you be able allow video chat also with them. The classes are recorded and hence the students can view them as many time as they want. In fact you can record your classes and the students can view it at any time they want by logging into it. It is convenient because any writing can be done on the whiteboard easily with your pen tablet ( or similar apps) and you need not prepare files separately. Drawing tools, graphs are some of its features which makes your work so much easier. The students can download the class if you allow them. Feel free to ask if you need any help.

 

[ZapperZ]

Thank you for the information. I may need to suggest that we add this capability to our online lessons.

I'm still looking for anyone having an experience with a web interface that allows for easy drawing and math editing on a forum-type format like this, i.e. not real-time interaction. It would be nice to have those capabilities seamlessly incorporated into the same interface without having to resort to a 3rd party application.

Zz.

 

[ChrisXenon]

I am a private A level physics tutor. I'm also interested in speaking to others; I have a couple of active threads right now about problems I'm seeing with ambiguous questions and bizarre marking schemes from OCR Physics A. I'd really like to know what others think - If I am not wrong, then there is quite a lot wrong with OCR's physics examinatiojn process.