Now, US students take online lessons from India

Sify India ^ | 17 August 2005

[CarrotAndStick]

Bangalore: Taking lessons from the booming BPO industry, several Indian teachers are now turning to online tutoring of US students, keen on some extra help with their home work and improving grades back at school. Today in Sify Finance

"There is a huge market in the US for online tutoring especially with the US facing an acute shortage of teachers", according to Anirudh Phadke Principal Consultant, E-learning, Career Launcher, an organisation offering education solutions and currently into the business of e-tutoring.

Currently, only five per cent of the total US online tutoring market is tapped and there is a huge potential for Indian players to enter the still nascent industry.

With the US government aggressively promoting the educational legislation that `no child should be left back' and growing parental concern over falling grade, there has been a spurt in the demand for online tutoring, says Shantanu Prakash, CEO Educomp Datamatics, a player in e-tutoring.

The online tutoring concept makes use of the teacher-student interaction using either voice or non-voice technology to `remotely aide' the student through his lessons.

But does the teacher-student relationship move beyond the Whiteboard? "No, never, we are not allowed to divulge any information about our location, telephone numbers or ways to contact. But though not face to face, a bond does develop if we teach the same student every time", Ruchi says.

Currently, though the teacher student ratio is 1:1, the companies plan to increase it as the demand for online tutoring grows. "Career Launcher has also forayed into the North Africa and Middle east market by offering tutoring to students of Indian origin,” says Basak.

With the entire online tutoring market expected to grow significantly, right now Indian players are doing their homework on the kind of services that would be required and are reading and learning about new markets.

With their current performance card displaying high scores in the US market, Indian players are keen on bagging the first rank in the US market.

[CarrotAndStick]

Article courtesy

[snowsislander]

Interesting.

I took a look at their websites, and their business model appears to be outsourcing tutorial services to educational institutions.

I suspect the profits are very, very good in this business. The mark-up on the tutors' time is probably huge.

[Kevin OMalley]

I predicted that this outsourcing would happen to professors on another thread. I would REALLY like to hear how Dr. Miller feels about this development.



http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1263082/posts




The second thing I would ask to be considered is that these lazy professors can and should have their jobs outsourced. I posted this on a prior thread. Here's how:


Benedict Arnold?(Outsourcing U.S. Jobs)
newsmax.com ^ | Sunday, Oct. 31, 2004 | Tracy Miller



Rather than favoring one group at the expense of others, a better way to help workers in the U.S. is to eliminate or reduce the regulations and taxes which discourage business investment and make it harder for U.S. workers to compete on the world market on the same terms as workers in other countries.
***I’ve got news for Dr. Miller. His job has been outsourced. Here is how: We hire Teachers’ Assistants (plenty of displaced US workers with 4 year degrees around) to hold his classes. We videotape one year’s worth of lectures from Dr. Miller, and show them to the students (there’s that “access to technology” making everyone “more productive” coming to bite him in the backside). And then the TA’s hold further indepth class sessions and proxy the exams. No more need for Dr. Miller’s high paying job, he just got replaced by TA’s with just 4 year degrees. Now, how does that feel, Dr. Miller? Now you know what it’s like to be outsourced. Of course, you can take your 8 year degree and “retrain” at your own expense and get another job, perhaps as a local delivery skillset plumber. I’m really getting frustrated by the lack of compassion that I see from Republicans on this issue.