31st October 2011 9:00
By Blue Tutors
A recent article on the Mindshift website asks whether online tuition can be compared to face-to-face tuition as yet another company in the US has launched an online service. The article claims that there are two clear factors that have to be addressed, one is a technical issue regarding the ease for a student to find a suitable tutor, and actually begin a lesson, and the other is the quality of tutors that are available for the student to choose from.
The new company is TutorCloud, and co-founder, Blair Silverberg, says that he believes they online tuition has fewer technical difficulties than in the past because so many students now use video chat and whiteboards with their friends. It is fair to say that while a few years ago the idea of tuition without your tutor sitting next to you would be a strange experience, today’s IT savvy generation don’t find the difference so incongruous.
The online tuition system works by allowing parents to search through a database of tutors, many of whom attended Ivy league universities, and select whomever they prefer. The tutor is then sent a text message, and within 15 minutes can be speaking to the parent to check that the relationship would work well. Of course this doesn’t necessarily mean that an actual lesson will take place within 15 minutes.
In truth the article doesn’t address the comparison between face-to-face and online tuition, but tries to emphasise that the traditional concerns about online tuition are disappearing as people become comfortable with communication over the internet.