Online learning saw an immense increase in popularity during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. As schools and colleges stopped in-person classes because of lockdowns, academia had to move things online. Students and faculty members also started adjusting to this new learning system, and soon, almost the entire world was attending classes online.
It led to an increase in demand for better online learning platforms. Global EdTech investments in 2019 reached only $19 billion. However,the numbers shot up dramatically during the pandemic.
Now, we’re estimating the overall market value of online learning to cross $350 billion by 2025.
Websites that provide homework and assignment assistance services have also played a big role in this context.
A student can sign up for any such website and start getting support from professional tutors on hundreds of subjects and thousands of topics. However, knowing a few things about seeking this kind of help can make the learning experience much better.
So, to help all you students out there, here are a few super helpful tips on seeking help from online homework and assignment assistance platforms.
1. Always Check the Reviews First
Whenever requesting a service online, you must first check the reviews. It could be the reviews of the website itself or the personnel who’ll provide the service. Either way, checking the reviews helps realize whether or not you’re making the right choice. You must do the same when seeking homework and assignment help online.
Online learning platforms have hundreds of tutors and not all of them are good. Even if they are, they might not teach in a way that you’d enjoy.
Do your research on them by going through the reviews. Ask questions to other students or reviewers if possible, and see what they have to say about the particular teacher. That way, you’ll know what you’re getting into before asking the teacher for help.
2. Never Sign Up for a Free Service
Nothing in this world is free. When you’re signing up for an online service for free, the platform will most likely bombard you with ads. That could happen in the case of free online homework assistance websites too.
Apart from ads, the platforms might partially blur your answers if you’re running the free version. They could even limit the number of words you get to see if you’re seeking help with an essay. In these situations, the platforms will repeatedly push you to buy a premium subscription despite advertising the free one.
Hence, you should sign up for a premium service right from the start. That will save you a lot of time and trouble.
3. Search by the Topic
Almost all online homework assistance platforms let you search by the topic names. However, not all of them will do it in the same way.
For example, when you visit www.sweetstudy.com, you’ll see how SweetStudy (formerly HomeworkMarket) arranges its tags. The popular ones are what students look for the most when they need help with homework or assignments. Each tag dives deep into a niche so that it’s easier for users to search for a specific topic easily.
4. Ask Your Tutor to Mention Sources
This is especially needed when you’re taking help in theoretical and creative subjects like literature, history, social studies, and so on. Your tutor might take information from different sources, and unless they mention those sources, you can’t verify them.
Besides, your faculty member will also want to see those sources. So, make sure you mention this to them when submitting your queries.
5. Specify the Language When You’re Seeking Help with Computer Science or Programming
Students will often ask tutors to solve a coding problem without mentioning the language. Due to time constraints, tutors will usually answer it in whatever language they’re good at. That means you’ll be wasting time and money on something you don’t need, mostly because you were careless not to mention a key detail with your query.
6. Do a Background Check on High-Profile Tutors
A simple Google search with the tutor’s name, profession, or qualifications should get you what you’re looking for. Running this check is necessary so that you can avoid fraudsters.
7. Cross Check the Answers for Plagiarism
Copy-paste the solutions tutors give you on Google and see if they’re already out there on the internet. Alternatively, you can also use a plagiarism detector to find whether the given solutions are plagiarized or not. Using a plagiarism-checking tool is a better way to check for uniqueness since it can point out the original sources of the copied content and also show the exact percentage of plagiarism in the given text. You can file a complaint against such teachers to the platform’s support team as they’re plagiarizing someone else’s work.
8. Never Ask for Help at the Last Minute
Tutors will take some time to answer your queries. It’s a good idea to not expect any guidelines or solutions from them for at least two or three hours after you’ve sent them the queries. Thus, you must ask them for help well before your deadline.
Never reach out to them for help at the last minute. Tutors can’t do much to help you even if you can convince them to finish the work in a couple of hours. They might even end up making mistakes that will come back to haunt you. So, know what you need from them beforehand and ask for help at least a day or two before the deadline.
9. Understand Your Tutor’s Answers
Many parents and teachers think that online homework assistance platforms shouldn’t exist. Their concerns are of course valid. That’s because they often see students simply copy the answers from these websites in their papers or assignment. However, that shouldn’t be the case.
Students need to understand the answers and get a good idea as to how their tutors solved the questions. The platforms themselves support this kind of learning. That’s why they always ask tutors to provide detailed answers with proper explanations so that students can learn better. These platforms never encourage students to copy-paste whatever their tutors show them.
Online learning is not perfect yet. However, one can appreciate the efforts these platforms are taking to help students and provide reliable and quality academic services. As long as the students know how to make the most of these platforms, online education can prosper in the future.