Wednesday, Oct 01, 2008. India Today New age teachers
Says Lakshmi Ramanujan, online facilitator, The Writers Block (TWB), Bangalore, “E-tutoring is the future of education. We should gear up to it.” And we sure are.
New age teachers
Kanika Tandon
October 1, 2008
At eight o’clock in the evening, Vibha Iyer, 23, an M.Sc in Physics, settles down in front of her home computer station to give online lessons in science to students in far off countries like the US and UK. Vibha is an e-tutor and she relishes the flexibility and money this job offers her.
E-tutoring is being touted as the next big thing in the domain of learning. With white boards and computers gradually becoming prominent in classrooms all across the world, virtual tutors are gaining currency too.
The flexibility of being able to sit at one place and tutor individuals across the globe is luring people even as the initial distrust of online learning erodes.
Says Lakshmi Ramanujan, online facilitator, The Writers Block (TWB), Bangalore, “E-tutoring is the future of education. We should gear up to it.” And we sure are.
India is fast emerging as a global online tutoring hub for quality teaching at affordable rates. This demand for online tutoring from India is driven by its large talent pool of teachers that are available at lower costs.
Says Chandan Agarwal, director, Learninghour.com of Educomp Solutions, “Over the last few years, online tutoring from India for students across the world has taken on the contours of an industry with tremendous growth potential.”
He states that in the US market alone, revenues for Indian tutoring companies are estimated to be at $20 million today, and industry players expect it to reach $2 billion in three to five years.
To become an e-tutor, all you need is a good command over the subject you desire to teach. The responsibility of familiarising the tutor with technology part is taken care of by the website that they decide to work for.
“Your selection is based on your technical competency, teaching aptitude and computer literacy. After the selection, you go through a comprehensive training on online tutoring including technology, pedagogy and communication skills,” says Agarwal.
An e-tutor’s job is similar to that of a general tutor’s except that the lessons are technology enabled. You will be required to provide live online teaching lessons, homework help, focused exam preparation, and even consulting.
Assessment of the students, understanding their weaknesses and strengths and providing academic support to improve their performance, are the e-tutor’s main concern.
Online tutoring websites have found a thriving market in India and the target clients are not only school students but highly qualified professionals as well.
There are several websites which cater to the high-end education needs of R&D professionals, lawyers, MNCs and even entrepreneurs. This means that the e-tutors are not just limited to graduates or postgraduates, but many also hold degrees from IITs and IIMs.
One can get anywhere around Rs 16,000 per month to even Rs 2,500 per hour depending on what you are teaching and to whom. Says Neeraj Gupta, CEO, Formulate IP, an intellectual property consulting firm which also provides e-learning to lawyers, managers and R&D professionals, “The billing hours depend on the course. On an average, we charge Rs 2,500 and even more per hour for a 50 hour course.”
But the biggest satisfaction comes from the ability to teach and get desired results. Says Abhishek Tiwari, an e-tutor with learninghour. com, “The best part is when students show a good result and a positive response.”
Growth opportunities include rapid promotions. You can become an information architect, corporate trainer, instructional designer and so on.
With a promise of flexibility, satisfactory pay packages, and less work hours, e-tutoring is a career that promises you a chance to make a career, just by sitting at home.
