The love of mathematics as a subjecting and the growing difficulty in understanding was what inspired a group of University of Cape Town students to form a volunteer online tutoring platform.
Tutonic was established in June 2016 by a medical student, Ilyaas Amien, with the aim of teaching students to life-long learners and to make the educational experience enjoyable and interactive.
“The problem that most learners have is not being able to enjoy maths because they do not understand it. In order for maths to be enjoyable you need to understand it, understand the equation in that way you can easily solve it,” said Amien.
Amien’s online tuition service provides free, quality maths and physics support to high school pupil. Since its inception the tutoring platform has grown from a simple Whatsapp group to a fully integrated bot platform, providing a multitude of services to pupils. Tutonic has supported well over 1500 pupils since 2016 and has created over 1 000 educational videos.
“Tutonic believes that if students are equipped with the tools of knowledge, in conjunction with psychosocial support, they are bound to succeed,” the website described the platform as.
According to Amien, the platform serves as an addition to what pupils are already learning in class.
The Tutonic model is set up in a way that pupils are able to first try and do tasks by themselves, watch explainer videos and if the pupil is still not clear of the concept being taught they can get the help of a tutor. It also has a point system that encourages pupils to first try out tasks on their own - they gain points and certain points are deducted once you enquire the help of a tutor.
How the model works:
Concept video - where you learn the maths concept. The entire syllabus is loaded on the website.
Concept quizzes - where you test your knowledge on what you have learnt from the videos. You check your understanding.
Practise question - See what other pupils have been asking about that particular concept. An opportunity to gain more knowledge and understanding.
Ask a tutor - individual time with a tutor to ask questions you don’t understand.
Live lessons - At the end of the week, pupils can join in live sessions with tutors.
Amien said he recommended that pupils who do sign up commit to the platform and make use of it daily, to assist them with their learning.
Michael Titus from St Joseph’s Marist Colleges shared: “ Tutonic has as a whole helped me a lot. There would be days when I would need help in the very late hours of the night and Tutonic would be there to help. I can confidently say that Tutonic has improved my marks tremendously.”