Source: TutorVista
Thanks to Dick Moore for pointing out Bangalore based TutorVista, a flat-monthly-fee service to provide round the clock on-line tutor support mainly for school-aged learners. Not something to contemplate organising other than on a large scale, which clearly is the case given the amount of venture capital that has been raised. And you could imagine quite a lot of money being made out of parents signing up (for less than the cost of 2 hours private tuition per month) because they want to "do something" to up their child's chances, with not that much use of the service then being made by the child. Interestingly, TutorVista also promotes its service as something that businesses might want to buy to then provide their employees as a benefit in kind, alongside, say, private health insurance. The services Faq's (sic) page is worth scrutinising: note its description of 8 hours per day x 6 days per week openings.
If any readers have experience of this or similar services, feel free to comment below, or contact me directly.
On-line tutoring from India to US and UK kids for K-12 and college segment has really created waves across various countries. While US faces a shortage of around 0.1 M maths and science teachers, companies like www.tutorvista.com, www.transwebtutors.com and www.transtutors.com are all set to help the kids around the world; with on-line tutoring raising the level of outsourcing from India to a newer level. It has made education a more boundary less service. On-line tutoring from India is set to grow by at least 150 times in next 2-3 years, with Tutorvista CEO Mr. Ganesh predicting that on-line tutoring from India will reach around $ 2.4 B by 2010. At present total revenues are only around $150 M.
The world is all set for South East Asian tutors to make their mark in education and help the kids around the world.
Aditya Singhal
singhal.aditya@gmail.com
Posted by: Aditya Singhal | 02/05/2007 at 06:59
Schools in the UK have yet to realise the growing anger among parents with the education that is being provided. They feel excluded and annoyed at the lack of interest taken by schools in their ideas and needs. The growing demand for extra-curricular help in education has been exploding.
While we in the UK squander time and money on useless initiatives like BBC Jam, these guys offer some real help at a reasonable price.
Good luck to them.
Posted by: Donald Clark | 02/05/2007 at 14:51
Despite TutorVista's rhetoric they are neither the first, nor the largest (by far!) to use tutors from overseas. A portion of SMARTHINKING's tutors are located overseas and have been since the early part of the decade. Further, SMARTHINKING has far more students and far greater service hours. For instance, they offer 24/7 drop-in maths tutoring. They services are also bundled with the three largest textbook companies in the world. TutorVista requires all tutoring to be pre-scheduled and claims only 2000 users (that could be an exaggeration). Lastly, it is far from certain whether there is a robust consumer market for on-line tutoring. The last decade is littered with companies that have tried this and failed. See also this blog-post from someone with an agenda. [Seb adds: that is, the founder and CEO of Smarthinking....]
Posted by: Turner | 02/05/2007 at 15:31
A directory of 66 French help and tutor services
http://www.thot.cursus.edu/rubrique.asp?no=12253
(automatic translation:
http://thot.cursus.edu/en/rubrique.asp?no=12253)
Posted by: Denee | 13/05/2007 at 15:33
Reported in today's Guardian I see that TutorVista has announced a deal with Letts Revision Guides to provide a free trial of its tutoring service. The article says that "TutorVista's low price does not rely on low salaries. They (the tutors) are paid a third more than the average rate of a teacher in India".
At a subscription rate of £49 a month for unlimited access against £25 per hour we can see how this might take off. I wonder how soon we might see a mystery shopper report on the quality of this service?
Posted by: Dick Moore | 15/05/2007 at 22:01
Even some local authorities are waking up to the changes in the way young people want to learn, see:
"No more school as council opens 'learning centres'"
http://education.independent.co.uk/news/article2539348.ece
Youngsters will not be taught in formal classes, nor will they stick to a rigid timetable; instead they will work online at their own speeds on programmes that are tailor-made to match their interests.
Posted by: John Popham | 16/05/2007 at 14:33
I've come across a number of online tutoring websites (e.g. tutor.com, homeworkhelp.com, tutoreasy.com, www.schooltrainer.com, etc.). Has anyone prepared a comparison of the various companies (pricing, quality, etc.)?
Not as far as I know, Ron. If other readers know of any comparison please comment. Seb.
Posted by: Ron Shasta | 04/07/2007 at 20:16
Ron, I'm working on a list and will post it shortly.
Posted by: Justin | 23/09/2007 at 20:39