7th July 2011 9:00
By Blue Tutors
Students often ask us why we don’t simply provide a list of tutors on our website from whom they can choose and contact immediately. Obviously this is sometimes what students want, particularly if they want tuition as quickly as possible; they don’t want to wait 2-3 days to be put in touch with someone, and then potentially another 2-3 days before a lesson can be arranged. The reason for this is simply because we’ve found that it’s not what our tutors want, and security, both for tutors and for students is very important to us.
People are becoming more and more conscious of their online presence, and how much information exists about them, and virtually no one is comfortable to have their name, contact details and photo freely available to anyone who searches in the right place. We’re very aware of this, and keen to protect against any malicious activity that could be directed towards our students or tutors.
From the student’s point of view we don’t disclose any personal information until the perfect tutor for them has been chosen. Only this tutor has access to the student’s name and contact details. Also, we’re implementing a system from this year where, once a tutor has booked their first lesson with a student, the student can log in and see the tutor’s photo, so that there can be no strangers arriving at a student’s home; essentially it’s an ID badge, without the risk of a forgery.
For tutors the security is very similar. Tutors can decide whether to make their tutoring profile public or not, but this profile only includes the tutor’s qualifications, teaching experience, and, optionally, the tutor’s surname (to make the profile appear more personal). However, the tutor’s gender age and all of their contact details are kept private until the student has agreed on which tutor they are keen to employ. Added to this, the profile picture, mentioned above, is only shown to a student once that first lesson has been arranged.
Presumably it goes without saying that our website is completely secure, and there is no way that information entered into it can be intercepted. Students are occasionally, understandably concerned when we ask for their address and contact details, but we do our best to reassure them that only Blue Tutors staff, and the student’s eventual tutor will have access to those details.
Our end goal is to make information transparent when it’s possible to do so. This is a difficult process, because, for example, tutors often ask to read the feedback submitted on them by their students, but when this information is given in confidence, that’s not possible. What we want to do is safeguard the privacy of everyone connected with Blue Tutors when they ask us to, or if there’s no indication that they want anything else. However, in future we’re hoping to give tutors and students the choice between keeping information private or not, because in some cases (like that mentioned about feedback) more transparency could be a good thing, all the time ensuring that we give them responsible advice about what reasonable safety practice.