Keep your students coming back with free lesson recordings.

The popularity of online lessons continues to grow, and Wyzant will continue to feature online tutors more prominently in search results (read more about that here). To make lessons on our online platform more valuable to tutors and students, we’ve launched lesson recording.

We have been testing a free new feature that gives users on both sides of the online lesson opportunities to access private streaming video of their completed online tutoring sessions from any web browser, anytime. Now we’re finally ready for every user to give it a try.

How it works

Both tutor and student will need to opt in at the beginning of their next scheduled online session in order for the lesson to be recorded. You’ll see a pop-up asking for your consent - just click “Yes, I agree” and begin your lesson! Your lesson will begin recording automatically. Opting in to lesson recordings will also not affect your bandwidth in any way.

You’ll always have the option to manage your recording preferences at your discretion: just visit your Lesson Recordings page and update your preference to allow or disallow recording.

Streaming video of your recorded lessons will be available to you and your student within 24 hours of completing the lesson, and you’ll have the ability to replay your recording as often as you’d like on Wyzant for a period of 30 days. Note that lesson recordings cannot be downloaded or shared, and that access is limited strictly to your private Lesson Recordings page.

How does lesson recording help tutors?

Along with the ability to review past sessions any time you wish, lesson recordings can help you plan future lessons by allowing you to review a student’s understanding of materials in real-time. You’ll have access to the entirety of work done during an online lesson, helping you to locate opportunities for improvement for your students and yourself. And since online tutoring is quickly becoming the go-to lesson format for busy students, lesson recording is a tangible incentive you can offer potential students that may have reservations about the effectiveness of online tutoring.

Recording offers an alternative follow-up review option for both tutors and students. It’s a convenient source of online self-critiques for improvement. - Mary W., Tutor

It can also grow your business

The most recent data available illustrates more potential for improving and expanding your tutoring business by utilizing lesson recordings:

• Demand for lesson recordings is growing: More than 85% of students on Wyzant opt-in to lesson recordings. Since students want their lessons recorded and have expressed that the availability of recordings would affect their choice of tutor.
• Students who opt-in to lesson recordings take more lessons: Provide lesson recordings, and students will likely have more lessons with you since they get more value out of them.
• Students give higher and more frequent ratings for lessons that are recorded: Since lesson recording became available at Wyzant, online students have shown their appreciation by rating their recorded lessons higher…by almost 10%.

A valuable tool for students

Ever heard of the spacing effect? It’s a phenomenon that suggests that if you take a break between learning something and reviewing it, your long-term memory of that information will be stronger than if you cram it all in at once. Reactivating what you learned earlier enhances your understanding and improves your ability to apply that knowledge to different contexts. By opting in to lesson recordings, students are asking for an incredibly versatile - and free - study material that is essential to helping them retain what they learn and apply it later.

I think they are extremely helpful for students. ESL/pronunciation students need to improve their listening and self-correction skills. Recorded lessons are a very valuable post-session self-directed learning tool. - Maggie H., Tutor

There’s a reason that video tutorials are so popular: students want access to important information when it works for them. The problem? Run-of-the-mill video tutorials are to lesson recordings what freshman lectures are to expert, private tutoring: all the information is there, but none of the wisdom.

Central to Wyzant’s lesson recordings is the personal and professional connection between a student and tutor. Lesson recording allow your students to continue to benefit from your unique insight and methods by providing an easy-to-access educational aid: the ability to review their lesson in entirety in order to reinforce concepts, and a chance to discover new areas of focus for their next lesson, whenever is convenient for them.

If you’re interested in getting started with recording your lessons, opt in today. If you are having trouble, or have any questions, please check out the Lesson Recordings FAQ or let us know and we’d be happy to assist you.