Home » E-Learning Articles » Online Tutoring- A World Of Opportunity Available For All
Online Tutoring- A World Of Opportunity Available For All
Faced with rising costs for private tutoring, and an increasing importance of top level education for children, online tutoring allows parents to bridge this gap, offering top level one on one private tuition for prices a fraction of that of conventional home tutors.
SURREY, UK, September 23, 2008 /E-Learning PR News/ -- Home tutoring is facing something of a paradoxical situation right now in countries all over the globe. For whereas demand is increasing, due to deteriorating public education systems in many western countries such as the UK, US and France, the ability to harness private tutoring is getting ever further out of the reach of the people who need it the most- namely those parents whose children are at state schools, and are falling behind. The price of private tutoring in the UK can be as steep as over 100/hour, and in the US an incredible $700/hour is charged by some private tutors, so important has private education become.
Fortunately, the market has reacted. Online tutoring has now become a way to bridge the gap between the haves and the have nots, and if applied properly, its effects on the global education system could be dramatic.
Online tutoring functions via a number of systems that are proprietary to the internet. Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) allows conversation to happen online between a tutor and a tutee without any extra charge, with crystal clear quality. Shared Online Whiteboards allow for concepts to be displayed as in a physical classroom. Webcams narrow the psychological distance between tutor and tutee. Chat boxes allow for instant textual messages to be sent between the 2 participants.
All these factors have the effect of eliminating geographical distance as a factor in learning, which in turn means that online tutoring companies can harness labour anywhere in the world, thus allowing for access to labour at a fraction of the cost of what would be charged by many "physical" tutoring systems today. This has been implemented in 2 main ways:
1. Offshoring. It is the most common operating model for online tutoring companies, especially in the USA, to use "call centre" style arrangements, where qualified Indian graduates and teachers offer classes in their own countries. This means that they can be paid a decent wage relative to what is normal in India (about $3/hour), reducing enormously the online tutoring companies costs, and allowing for low prices to be charged. The tutors will be trained extensively in the US curriculum, as well as US mannerisms and even accent and intonation.
2. Student tutors. Some companies have taken to using another source of low cost and highly effective labour, namely top university students. Using current students from Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard or Yale is still a fraction of the cost of a top "physical" tutor, and has a value, both perceived and practical, that is just as high. The student will know his/her subject inside out, will be of an age where a rapport with the pupil is easier to strike, and will also be young enough to remember the details of the exams that the pupil is in the midst of. Further, it is probably more reassuring for a parent, as well as a school child, to be taught be someone from a renowned institution from your own country, rather than someone from thousands of miles away. The cost will be marginally more, but the perceived value tends to more than compensate for this.
About HomeTeach Online
Mohsin Drabu is the co-founder and Managing Director of www.hometeachonline.com, an online tutoring agency that uses top university students in the UK to give low cost one on one online tutoring to school children, as well as many other educational solutions, such as blogs, and posted articles. The company also operates in France at www.diplomeo.fr and in the USA with www.instatutor.com.
For more information contact admin@hometeachonline.com
---
Press release service and press release distribution provided by http://www.24-7pressrelease.com |
|
|
Press Release Contact Information:
Mohsin Drabu
HomeTeach Online
Managing Director
25 Crabtree Drive
Leatherhead, Surrey
UK KT22 8LG
Voice: 0033 17557 6561
Website: Visit Our Website |
|
|
|
|
| E-LEARNING ARCHIVE SEARCH |
|
|
| |
|
|
Advertise With Us |
About Us |
Contact Us