Online tutoring has picked up a lot in India since 2007 and has created a lot of market not only abroad but in India as well. This micropublishing technique has found its niche application primarily for school level tutorials. The online tutoring refers to the process of tutoring through online virtual environment where the learners and teachers are separated by time and space and are connected though some form of computing device capable of online conferencing like desktop computers, laptops and netbooks. Different software environments are used for connectivity, from propriety whiteboard based software to free services like Skype or other free to use video conferencing software. Personal attention is still possible with one-on-one sessions while possibility of teaching a full class or a group of students is also available. What is more interesting is asynchronous mode of teaching where students can leave questions for tutor to respond later. This mode of learning is not utilized in schools and colleges, which is a good way to clear student’s doubts effectively. Moreover this mode of teaching also paves the way towards self learning.
Online tutoring has possibility of implementing novel and attractive ways of tutoring. Think of a good teacher in some part of the world who could teach a child where there is no availability of good teachers. Hence, many Indian companies like educomp.com, mathguru.com, igurucool.com, tutorvista.co.in, extramarks.com etc. cater to the foreign market specially teaching math to US students. But they have made good inroads to Indian market as well. For India this market is limited by poor penetration of broadband and computers. This confines the market to large cities only. Within cities market is further limited by affordability of computers or netbooks. An autorikshaw driver’s children are hardly able to go to a school let alone ability to afford a computer and then pay for broadband and online tuitions becomes far too expensive. Further the problem escalates due to poor performance of broadband as well. For most cases the server speed is supposed to provide up to 2Mbps but due to traffic and other technical reason this reduces to 20 to 30 Kbps download speed and less than 256Kbps net speed. The technical requirements for standard software are minimum 512Mb of RAM and at least 256Kbps broadband speed. So, cost of computing device is a definite limitation to such businesses as computing devices with such specifications does not come cheap.
A solution is on hand with India’s new Aakash (Sakshat) tablet PC. This device has the capability of online video conferencing and can open all necessary file systems. To top it all it will cost only Rs 3000 at open market and Rs 2200 with government subsidy this year. The cost will further reduce in coming years as demand is expected to increase which is expected to drive the price below Rs 1000. However, this device is only designed as a basic computing device which can perform only basic tasks with reasonable efficiency (so don’t expect to be an iPAD). This device is broadband enabled using WiFi and 3G internet services (using dongle). If the WiFi or 3G penetration increases to small towns and villages using this device one will be able to easily rope in millions of students for online tutorial market from these societies, who are in real need of assistance. This is where the market will be for the online tutorials apart from US. The only pitfall is cost of online tutors have to come down. Here ingenious business solutions need to be applied. One such solution could be teaching in a group of two or three and punching the asynchronous and synchronous method of tutoring in a compatible way so that tuition fees per student will come down but not tutor fees per hour. The third and final piece of this low cost environment is the cost of broadband. Ideal service for online tutoring will be one with unlimited download and speed of 2Mbps. However current service which costs around Rs 750 per month may be used for our purpose. This is a very large recurring cost which need to come down for a student for affordable online tutoring. Potential solutions are :
- Availing the service within a group so that cost per student reduces.
- Sharing as and when required basis could also further reduce the costs.
- Broadband service providers could come up with low cost student specific plans.
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