FEEDBACK REQUIRED: ATARNotes online video tutoring.

[shinny]

That's a fair bit of reading and I'm a tad tired, so apologies if I misinterpreted your idea. How does this differ from something like skype? Wouldn't it be cheaper to just have Skype (or G+ hangouts even) sessions with information how to access it on this website? Then you can get onto it from your phone or tablet whatever.

As for the merits of online tuition - in my opinion the difference is low, and webcam tuition is often just as effective. Also you can learn in your pyjamas or nekkid or whatever (turn webcam off for the latter).

It will be different because we plan to make excellent tools available to tutors. It will be tablet based (you can buy wacoms for $80 now) and we'll have interactive whiteboards so Maths/Sci people can write equations and draw graphs with ease. I'm happy to hear ideas to include in our suite of features to maket his as close as possible to the real, in person thing.

Ability to display what's currently on our monitors would be useful. That way we could put up notes, slides etc. Word, PowerPoint and Adobe Acrobat already allow you to draw on top of documents so really, getting this functionality is probably more important than the whiteboard feature itself since we could just load up a blank PowerPoint slide and draw on that instead if you manage to get this feature in.

[Deadshot]

This is brilliant!!!!

Are you thinking of something that http://www.vcefurthermaths.com/ has bulit up?

She has just done further math core, but the layout and presentation of the videos is what you could be going for.



<3 this site. 

[enwiabe]

This is brilliant!!!!

Are you thinking of something that http://www.vcefurthermaths.com/ has bulit up?

She has just done further math core, but the layout and presentation of the videos is what you could be going for.



<3 this site. 

Deadshot, we're more going for live videos that will end up looking like what vcefurthermaths.com has done but will be built up in real time to students.

Shinny, great idea, might be a bit of a stretch but now it will depend on what Dave comes up with server side and we'll see about getting something like that up.

[taiga]

Most computers come with webcam suits which allow for the screen to be shown instead of what is actually on the webcam. That's what I used prior to skype having an inbuilt 'show screen' function

[Russ]

You've hit the nail on the head. This is exactly how I envision it.

Ah okay. Then you might want to consider incentives for tutors to run those free sessions, such as reducing the cut taken, if that's financially feasible.

[Predator]

Just an idea since some people forget a few things here and there amongst the details.
An option to download certain audio files like a podcast could help some others if they are stuck and do not have access to a microphone and the like to take part in the tutor sessions too.
It would obviously need the okay from the person who is doing the tutor session though.
Thought I would put the idea forward, although I don't know how it would work since I ain't too good at these things.

[enwiabe]

Just an idea since some people forget a few things here and there amongst the details.
An option to download certain audio files like a podcast could help some others if they are stuck and do not have access to a microphone and the like to take part in the tutor sessions too.
It would obviously need the okay from the person who is doing the tutor session though.
Thought I would put the idea forward, although I don't know how it would work since I ain't too good at these things.

We will have the option to download the sessions afterward.

[Fyrefly]

When would payment be required? Before or after the tutoring session?

Before is kind of the same as this problem:

People are often shuffled into rigid 1 or 2 hour timeblocks. This wastes money for people who only have 25 minutes worth of questions. It also leaves people with 90 minutes worth of questions high and dry in a 1 hour session when the tutor has to desperately get to the next student in time.

Because it requires students to accurately estimate the amount of time they need if they don't want to waste their money buying tutoring time they end up not needing. However, payment beforehand actually ensues payment.

After: What's to stop the student from not paying? There's not as much accountability online as in real life. A student could take advantage of a tutor by utilising their services, then not following up with payment. This problem aside, obviously payment after the tutoring session is ideal because students can then, as you say, only pay for the time they actually used. Also, if the tutor sucks and you realise this straight away, you only waste a few minutes worth of money and can excuse yourself from the session with a quick excuse like, "Sorry, I have to go feed my cat now."


Edit: I'm making a conscious effort to be coherent right now, but I think I'm losing. If anything doesn't make sense, let me know and I'll fix it later... for now... zzzzzz time.

[enwiabe]

When would payment be required? Before or after the tutoring session?

Before is kind of the same as this problem:

People are often shuffled into rigid 1 or 2 hour timeblocks. This wastes money for people who only have 25 minutes worth of questions. It also leaves people with 90 minutes worth of questions high and dry in a 1 hour session when the tutor has to desperately get to the next student in time.

Because it requires students to accurately estimate the amount of time they need if they don't want to waste their money buying tutoring time they end up not needing. However, payment beforehand actually ensues payment.

After: What's to stop the student from not paying? There's not as much accountability online as in real life. A student could take advantage of a tutor by utilising their services, then not following up with payment. This problem aside, obviously payment after the tutoring session is ideal because students can then, as you say, only pay for the time they actually used.

They'll have credit in their account, the program will deduct money as time elapses...