Virtual Gurus

Thanks to the ever-increasing quality of Indias telecom network, coupled
with the availability of a quality teaching pool, companies are successfully
able to provide state-of-the-art online tutoring services from India to both
outside and within India. This can safely be termed as broadband-enabled service
(BES) without discounting the IT component of it. Offline tutoring is a very old
concept in India, but its online version has now started to make a small
beginning. This is a relatively new concept even in advanced countries like the
US and the UK. According to statistics, there are 70 mn children in the US alone
which explains the bullishness of online tutoring companies both in the US and
India.

According to Shantanu Prakash, founder and CEO of Educomp, Tutoring has been
around for some decades, but online tutoring is a new concept even in the US. It
is a new intervention where face-to-face tutoring has been made possible, thanks
to the proliferation of high-speed Internet. It is still in its infancy but
growing rapidly.

Enough Scope

The addressable market, according to estimates, is 21 mn out of a total of
70 mn students in the US alone. According to Mahalingam Vaidyanadhan, chief
operating officer, Tutors Worldwide, a Chennai-based company, The concept of
online tutoring is still a subject of debate in the US; something similar to the
Obama-Hillary race for presidential nomination. The main concern is; how far
will students stand to gain from tutors outside the US, and what would be the
standards of tutors?

The Indian market is still very small. According to Vaidyanadhan, As far as
India is concerned, the online tutoring market is still in a neo-natal stage,
and is yet to make a breakthrough. While the concept is something like Greek and
Latin for some institutions, some do not wish to be the first in testing this
concept. We have to go miles before we say we have done something in this
regard. According to Atul Kulshreshta, CEO, Extramarks, There is a strong
tendency of parents to spend money on tuition, as it impacts their childrens
careers.

What it Takes

Broadband connectivity is the primary consideration for teachers and
students, and seamless high-speed connectivity is the backbone on which the
entire online tutoring business works. Teachers willing to take up online
teaching opportunities are screened by prospective tutoring companies, and are
given training. Most tutoring providers have created a whiteboard chat platform
on the website where students and teachers log in and there are supervisors
monitoring their sessions. Some companies also offer video support for teachers
and students to see each other. The other accessory required for teachers and
students is the digitizer that enables handwriting to be visible on the
whiteboard, accessible by both the student and the teacher.

Teachers Woes

It might sound like an easy task but there are some hurdles. Accent is one
of the challenges but not a big issue considering the expertise gained through
BPO training. The more important challenge is the reliability and quality of the
broadband connectivity at the teachers end wherein most of them rely on state
telcosBSNL and MTNLfor their connectivity. Not all teachers have access to
broadband simply because the services are not available everywhere. According to
K Ganesh of TutorVista, We recruit teachers only from places where broadband
services are available. We have teachers from as far as Agra, Kunnor, Varanasi,
and Coimbatore but maximum teachers are from Chennai.

There is a strong tendency of parents to spend money on tuition as it impacts their childrens career Atul Kulshreshta, CEO, Extramarks.com	Tutoring has been around for some decades, but online tutoring is a new concept even in the US Shantanu Prakash, founder and CEO, Educomp

Burck Smith, CEO, Smarthinking.com, a leading provider of online tutoring in
the US, says, The biggest challenge is defining the market and the buyer. For
instance, tutoring for kindergarten to sixth class students is usually paid for
by parents. The buying channel for high school is less clear. The buying channel
for college students is typically the college. Each of these markets also needs
different types of tutoring programs. Learning through online is still not much
heard of in most parts of India. So an important challenge, which Educomp is
grappling with, is awareness.

Talking in detail about the challenges, Vaidyanadhan of Tutors Worldwide,
says, Teaching challenges are about the curriculum of the student, his/her
state standards, assessment and understanding of the weakness areas, including
the prerequisites for teaching a given topic, and strong content aligned to
state standards, multimedia enriched. He also mentions that challenges at the
student level will arise due to reluctance in learning through computer usage.
Some students from countries like the US and the UK tend to wanter out of topic
by asking unrelated questions and personal information. The solution, according
to him, is to make sessions interactive with multimedia-enriched content because
students seldom maintain the interest level through out the sessions. According
to Shantanu Prakash of Educomp, Beyond broadband, awareness is very important
considering that this is a new concept. Students and teachers need to experience
and understand this concept. Word of mouth will have a very important role to
play in spreading this concept.

Business Models

There are multiple business models. The one used by Bangalore-based
TutorVista is a subscription model where students pay $100 per month for
unlimited access to tutors across any subject and at any point in time.
TutorVista has leveraged technology to ensure the dynamic availability of
teachers for students as and when they need. As opposed to this, Tutor.com, one
of the leading players in the US, has a pay-per-use model where it charges about
$30 per hour. Extramarks.com, a Noida-based online tutoring company, has an
innovative model where students share subject matter.

The main concern is, how far the students will stand to gain from tutors outside the US, and what the standard of the tutors would be Mahalingam Vaidyanadhan, COO, Tutors Worldwide	The biggest challenge is defining the market and the buyer Burck Smith, CEO, Smartthinking.com

K Ganesh, CEO of TutorVista.com, says, We have changed the business model
altogether leveraging the Internet and expertise of Indian teachers by
introducing the monthly model giving convenience to the students. It is not
that all companies are targeting the lucrative market. Educomps Learning Hour (www.learninghour.com)
surprisingly targets students based in India which number around 2,000. Citing
reasons for its domestic focus, Shantanu Prakash of Educomp says, Educomp as a
company has a very good mindshare among about one million students in private
schools and 3 mn in government schools in India. It is this pool that we are
trying to capture through our online initiative, learninghour.com. He also adds
that the tuition center enables students to see the face of teachers and
interact with their peers, which is a very important part of the entire learning
process. Educomp has plans to set up around 150 tutoring centers across the
country from the existing eight. The Indian market is largely driven by an
offline model where there are tuition or coaching centers across cities and
towns in India. TutorVista, sensing this opportunity, got into this offline
model through its acquisition of Edurite Technologies.

Spreading Knowledge

This is one great avenue for teachers, who have to be at home due to various
reasons and who can use technology and earn some money. In fact, TutorVista
offers full-time employment to teachers who work from home and pays them around
Rs 15,000 per month. But Extramarks.com has thirty teachers working full-time
from their Noida office and offers teaching services from the premises. This,
according to Kulshrestha of Extramarks.com, ensures that good quality is taken
care of and is better than home environment. Extramarks.com has set up virtual
classrooms like any other formal face-to-face class, where students log on to a
companys server and teachers conduct lessons on subject chosen by students.

The minimum qualification for this is a Masters degree in the subject opted
to teach and some teaching experience. Companies also offer training to these
teachers in computer and other tools required for online tutoring besides some
accent-related training. Per hour charges are also in place for teachers who are
not full-time employees, and this ranges anywhere between Rs 200 to Rs 500 per
hour, depending on the subject s/he teaches. Listing advantages of learning from
home, Prakash of Educomp says, For students, it is a dream come true because
they can access teaching facilities sitting in the comfort of their home and at
a time of his or her choice. They can learn from some of the best teachers,
which is more true of students from small cities and towns.

Career Launcher, Educomp (learninghour.com), Extramarks.com, TutorVista.com,
Trastutors.com, and Tutors Worldwide are some of the companies in India that are
starting to make their presence felt in the online tutoring market. Leading
global players include Tutor.com and Smarthinking.com.

The broadband connection, hovering around 3 mn, has to reach the government
deadline of 120 mn by 2010; this looks impossible due to various factors. Even
with the current growth rate, some market potentials can be realized by tutoring
companies if they are able to create awareness.

Sudesh Prasad

sudeshp@cybermedia.co.in