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with credit to quotecatalog.com
In the mobile age, everything is immediate. Not only is information available instantly, but so are a variety of services. Food from your favorite Thai restaurant across town can easily be ordered to your door thanks to companies like DoorDash and GrubHub. There are apps that update weather, traffic and the score of the big game in real time. And then there’s Uber, that delivers a driver to your door within minutes.
Many industry segments such as childcare, health services, and home service providers are now applying this approach to their own businesses through “Uberization†– a phenomenon where companies are recognizing a need for more transparency and broadening the provider/user pool. One industry that’s ripe for this change is the private tutoring segment, which until recently has largely remained untouched by technological advancements.
Education technology companies like MyTutorLab are currently working to introduce this approach to the market through the creation of tutoring-based apps. Rather than providing impersonal “remote tutoring†through a video chat service, these apps instead pair up local and certified tutors with a pool of students eager to learn. At the same time, they address some of the pain points many tutors face.
Here are a few of the most common problems that can be resolved for both independent tutors and parent companies by integrating this new technology.
Growing the Client Pool
Many tutors have a passion for the industry, but they aren’t entrepreneurs at heart. There is a constant struggle to grow their customer base, despite word-of-mouth and glowing reviews from current clients. By making tutoring accessible, it makes the new client acquisition process more seamless.
Similar to Uber, apps allow tutors to turn their location on/off, depending on whether or not they’d like to work at that time, and students can choose tutors based on their curricular area of expertise. From there, the application can then pair students or their parents with available tutors in the area making the process easier for tutors, students, and parents.
Technology Offers Panicked Parents Huge New Opportunities to Improve Poor Report Cards
Today, parents everywhere look at their children’s homework and often the methodology for getting to the correct answer is completely different from what they recall from their school days. As a result, this scenario has pushed demand for after-hours tutors and spawned a boom in the global private tutoring sector.
Just how ride-sharing services are available to parents who are stuck at the office unable to pick up their child from school, they now have the power to call on a tutor to provide one-on-one sessions to help their child learn specific subjects, no matter the grade level. On-demand tutoring applications provide a service that assesses a child in a real way for learning.
More importantly, parents can be stress-free knowing that tutors within specific companies’ systems are carefully vetted. Typically, there is an initial criminal background check screening, reference checks, multiple interviews, thorough testing and comprehensive tutor orientations. Tutors come from a variety of backgrounds, including former and current teachers, professionals from a wide variety of industries, and other who have specific expertise in subject areas. Each are experts in their respective academic subjects and are passionate about helping students succeed.
Efficiency and Opportunity for Tutors
If people need a ride across town to a doctor’s appointment, they need an Uber to arrive in three to ten minutes. There aren’t many cases where someone needs an Italian language tutor to show up to their house within minutes, but during final exam periods when students are stressed, same-day services can be a convenient way to help them grasp certain material.
For tutors utilizing the service, they are able to reach a much bigger audience. A college student tutor or a recent graduate might take a few years to build a clientele without outside assistance. Even with referrals, they still need some time to find clients and establish long-term relationships. Apps expertly pair the demand for specific tutors with the supply. So a student that’s struggling with advanced chemistry can quickly locate someone that’s certified and safe. This provides the tutors with a reliable source of new clients, and they of course have the freedom to accept as much or as little tutoring work as they desire. Scheduling appointments is simple through an app and allows tutors to build a roster of clients throughout the week.
The education sector is undergoing rapid digital-based transformation. Applications such as MyTutorLab are streamlining the overlooked tutoring segment by providing a safe and efficient platform that benefits students and tutors. It combines the immediacy of mobile communication with the benefits of learning through in-person expert tutoring.
