Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Online Tutoring – The Latest Trend!

Imagine if you could study anytime you want… after school, after football match gets over, early morning or late nights. Imagine if your studies would not be restricted to a prescribed syllabus and you could learn about anything you want under the sun. Yes all this has been made possible for the students. It’s the world of cyber education now and we are lucky to be born in this age!
We are talking about the latest trend in education industry – online tutoring. It is a platform wherein students interact with teachers on the internet enabled computer systems. With the help of supporting software and voice chats, they discuss subjects and problems on the screen, which acts like a white board. It’s a real time exchange of information. Best part is the teachers are available 24 hours online. So whenever a student has any doubt, be it a night before the exam or on the last day of project submission, whatever help he needs is just a mouse-click away.
“I’ve improved from a C grade to an A now. This has been possible only because now I can decide upon my own study time and thus concentrate 100%. I’m not dependent upon fixed home private tuitions”, said Dennis, a seventh grade student. This is true for millions of students across the states of America. Flexibility of time gives room for doing many more things as well. Students are able to balance their studies along with other activities like extra-curricular activities, playing games, adequate sleep etc. Since they are not under any time-pressure, they are able to perform better with a free mind.
Online tutoring industry is bustling with many new companies providing variety of educational services online. Some of the established online tutoring companies like Trans web tutors (www.transwebtutors.com), Tutor Vista, and Smart Thinking are now known to provide high quality guidance not only for K-12 studies but also pre-college and college level studies. Trans web tutors also provides test series for standardised test like SAT, GMAT, GRE etc. They are offering a package of unlimited online tutoring for just $99 per month, unbelievable isn’t it? These online tutoring companies have a pool of teachers from all across the world who are highly specialised in their subjects like Mathematics, English, Science, and Social Science. In fact, outsourcing to some Asian countries has given a boost to this industry. Since these companies also get their services outsourced to Asian countries, they are able to provide such high quality education at as low a price as $20 an hour.
“No Child Left Behind Act”, the recent law passed by the government, has been a thrust towards this direction of boosting online tutoring. The schools are required to monitor the performance of students from time to time and thus schools are encouraging extra tuitions sessions. Since the No child left behind act passed in 2001 the schools that were lagging behind in educational standards have tightened their belts. The law makes these schools to help the students lagging behind in studies by way of private tutorials which have led to the growth of the online tutoring segment. As many people are enrolling their wards at these online tutoring centres rather then sending them to expensive private tutors.
Apart from basic studies, online tutoring companies are now also providing career planning and counselling sessions to help the students.
“It has been a blessing for my child. He’s able to learn and grow with online tutoring sessions more than at his school!” says a thankful parent of a ninth grade student. Online tutoring is indeed a blessing for the quality-starved American education system. The segment of online educational services has seen a boom. And this boom is not only sustainable but it will grow to great heights. Online tutoring is the future of the tomorrow!

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