Most tuition centres went online for a while and then came back to the classroom with relief. Fair enough — a room full of students with a whiteboard is still the best way to teach most subjects.
But online classes are worth keeping as a tool, not a replacement. A heavy-rain day, a revision session the night before an exam, a spoken-English batch for students in another town, a teacher travelling for a wedding — these are all days when an online class is far better than a cancelled one.
The trick is to make online classes feel as organised as the offline ones. That mostly comes down to three things: easy joining, reliable attendance, and parents who know what's happening.
Why Google Meet
You don't need a special video platform. Google Meet is free with a Google account, works in the browser and on any Android phone, and most students already have it installed. Sticking with what people know removes most of the technical problems before they start.
What usually goes wrong isn't the video — it's the link. It gets shared in one WhatsApp group, lost under fifty messages, forwarded to someone who shouldn't have it, and nobody knows who actually attended.
Put the link where students already look
Instead of pasting the Meet link into a chat, attach it to the batch itself. In Viyazhaa, you add a Google Meet link to a class for a batch. Students and parents see the class in their Viyazhaa app with a Join button at the right time. No scrolling, no "please resend the link."
Because the class belongs to the batch, only students in that batch see it.
Attendance that marks itself
The most tedious part of online classes is attendance. Reading out thirty names on a call wastes five minutes and half the students are on mute anyway.
When students join the class from the Viyazhaa app, joining marks them present automatically. You see the list after class, alongside your normal offline attendance. Parents see it too.
A good habit: start the class two or three minutes early so the join-and-attendance happens before you begin teaching, not during the first problem.
Keep online classes short and specific
Online attention spans are shorter. Plan online sessions differently:
- 45 minutes, not 90. If you need more, split into two sessions with a break.
- One clear goal. "Chapter 7 exercise 7.2 doubts" is better than "Maths class."
- Ask students to keep notebooks ready and hold work up to the camera when asked.
- Use the chat for quick checks — "type the answer to Q3" — so quiet students participate.
Homework and test marks close the loop
Online or offline, students need practice between classes. After an online session, assign homework to the batch and record test marks when you check it. Parents can see both in the app, which answers the question every parent eventually asks: "How is my child actually doing?"
Over a term, the record of attendance, homework and test marks gives you a far better parent-teacher conversation than "he's okay, needs to work harder."
Parents need to trust it
Parents are usually the ones paying, and they're understandably cautious about online classes. A few things help:
- Tell parents in advance. Use an announcement in the app: "Thursday's class will be online due to heavy rain. Join link will appear in the app at 5:55 PM." Everyone gets a notification.
- Keep timings the same as the offline batch so routines aren't disturbed.
- Share attendance honestly. If a student didn't join, parents should see that.
Where online classes work best
Online sessions tend to be especially useful for:
- Revision and doubt-clearing sessions before exams.
- Spoken English and language classes, where conversation matters more than a whiteboard.
- Abacus and vedic maths practice, with short, frequent sessions.
- Music theory and other subjects where demonstrations work well on camera.
They work less well for young children who need hands-on supervision, and for subjects that depend on lab work or physical practice.
The takeaway
You don't have to become an "online tuition centre" to benefit from online classes. Keep the classroom as your main mode, and use Google Meet sessions on the days that would otherwise be lost. Attach the link to the batch, let joining mark attendance, tell parents in advance, and follow up with homework and marks. Students learn more, and parents see it.