Are In-person revision courses as good as Online courses?

Justin Craig Education continually strive to ensure their courses are high quality and the benefit to students is paramount. In doing this we are guided by the student surveys undertaken at the end of every course and by monitoring tutor performance.

The majority of our students take more than one course and can attend in-person as well as online courses, depending on their need.

We believe that both in-person and online are excellent choices. In this article, we are focussing on our in-person group courses, which are our most popular courses.

So, why are our in-person group courses so good?

We recently surveyed our tutors, who are experienced teachers and experts on what works for students. They reported that in-person/in-centre courses are/have:

Better engagement & focus:

• Students are more alert and less distracted.
• Harder for students to “hide”

Easier to assess understanding:

• Tutors can read body language, facial cues, and confusion instantly.
• Real‑time ability to walk around, check written work, and give feedback

More interactive learning:

• Group discussion flows naturally.
• Easier to run activities with mini‑whiteboards, printed resources, practical demonstrations.
• Students learn from each other more effectively.

Stronger relationships:

• Rapport building is easier and faster in person.
• Students are more confident asking for help.

Better for complex or written subjects:

• Subjects needing diagrams, equations, long answers, or real‑time marking benefit  from in‑person delivery (e.g., sciences, maths, essay‑based subjects).

Our tutors noted that engagement, focus, and motivation are very high during in-person courses, and there is less attention drift that you get with other forms of delivery. The students respond extremely well to the variety of teaching activities, plus written work and exam practice. Students also benefit considerably from the social learning and peer interaction.

In a single sentence, in-person teaching enables deeper feedback, more interaction, and greater engagement—especially important for group courses and exam preparation.

Online Courses

However, online courses still have a valuable role, and are delivered by Justin Craig at the same high-quality level by our expert tutors.

Online Courses:

• are convenient for travel, remote students, or specific sessions
• can work well for exam‑technique‑focused sessions.
• can help cover big content areas
• are excellent for one-to-one sessions
• more comfortable environment for certain learners
• are ideal for content delivery, pre-exam refreshers, or students far from centres.

Justin Craig offers the same expertise for our online courses, while catering for the needs of the student (and their family).  This allows our students to adopt a ‘hybrid strategy’ (in-person and online courses) to meet their learning needs.

What do our tutors say about the benefits of in-person courses?

“In-centre courses offer great interaction, quick feedback, and hands-on explanations. Particularly when teaching Physics, some physical demonstrations are very helpful to enhance pupil’s understanding. It is also possible to check their focus and individual progress.” 

“Content personalisation is really effective in face-to-face forums. The ability to get to know the students to develop their confidence and build a working relationship of trust is much better, and when staying at a residential, it can build a memorable holistic experience of growth for the students. The content and experience becomes impactful then, because the whole experience of staying and building connections was also.”

“The interaction and real relationships you can build through the hour and days. This allows paired work/group work if needed. In a nice way they are more accountable on the day and therefore more engaged.”

“The onsite experience allows a dynamic interaction between the tutor and the students. They interact with each other and raise further areas of theory, exam questions, and practicals that require more detailed revision. Furthermore, many companies are moving to online only teaching, but those that give the ‘real teaching and learning experience’ will stand out, and this is because many students have stated, categorically, that they prefer the onsite courses.”

 “Personal attention, quick feedback, immediate assessment of student work and also, students become more comfortable and confident in asking their questions.”

 “In-person centre teaching is really effective because it allows for direct interaction, stronger engagement, and fewer distractions. Teachers can immediately respond to students’ questions, read body language, and adjust their explanations to ensure understanding. A physical classroom also creates a structured environment that helps students stay focused and motivated. In addition, face-to-face learning encourages collaboration and meaningful relationships between students and teachers, which enhances both academic progress and personal development.”

 “In my experience students and parents want more emphasis on face to face rather than digitisation. The value of human interaction in education is important . Often employers don’t have what business needs, namely, good communicators, team workers and creative thinkers. These are practised and developed by students in in-centre courses. In my experience a main reason why parents select in- centre courses is that they are concerned about students sitting with their eyes glued to screens.”