FEEDBACK REQUIRED: ATARNotes online video tutoring.

[enwiabe]

So I've had a bit of a brainwave of an idea, and I'd like feedback. I want to organise more personal e-learning spaces.

It's all well and good with the forum allowing everyone to post to each other. But that can take a lot of time to write out responses and doesn't flow well when there are misunderstandings and can often take an hour to work through just one problem you're having.

I want to launch virtual tutoring rooms where students and tutors can log on and have dialogue. The tutors would have webcams and an interactive whiteboard to use. The students would have their microphones (only people who are screened for webcam use will be allowed webcams for obvious reasons), and they'll also be able to use the interactive whiteboard.

Why this?
I see lots of students wanting one-on-one tutoring. I also see lots of students struggling to find good tutors who live close to them. Travel is a problem. It drains costs for tutors who travel and it's a hassle for both travelling student and tutor.

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.

How will online tutoring solve this?
Both student and tutor can use the service from the comfort of their own computer chairs. Students can pay for only the minutes they use of the tutor's time. A tutor can see many students in quickfire succession, one after the other without having to factor in travel time! Students wanting to see a tutor impromptu (they have a question they need to get straightened out) can either just PM a tutor to jump on the service, or the tutor could already be tutoring and they could join the queue! How nice is that?

Group sessions!
Tutors can also really effectively communicate to groups of students. You could book an hour of a tutor's time with 2 of your friends and each throw as many questions as possible to be answered in that time, and you don't all have to come together at the state library or wherever you meet for it. Then you can simply divide the tutor's fee three ways!

It also raises the possibility of conversational classes for LOTEs.

Free study group sessionss
Where money changes hands (students with tutors) I'll obviously be taking a fee for use of the service, but I'm certainly going to make it free for all students who form study groups and want to take advantage of the facilities.

Also any tutors who hold free sessions will get free use of the service for those sessions. The possibilities are endless here!

I just want your feedback.

Would you use a service like this (either as students or tutors?) and do you have any logistical feedback for us before we proceed?

Cheers!

[Lasercookie]

This sounds like a great idea.

I don't have a webcam or microphone, so I probably wouldn't use the service myself that much.
How would payment work? If I were to use the service, personally I would prefer support for something like PayPal.

I think there's some similar service that the local library provides for free, something like 'yourtutor.com.au'.

It'd also be useful if there'd be a quick and easy way to keep some kind of recording of the tutoring session. A log of all the text/white board images perhaps (or maybe something like the inbox system that exists for PM's, where you can look at all your old messages).

I'm not sure how it would work, but the ability to replay past tutoring sessions would be a handy feature.

[lexitu]

Really nice idea! Needs to be communication in the same medium though - it becomes very awkward to be teaching someone via video and not have the video feedback. Honestly I see little point in video - think audio and interactive whiteboard if more than sufficient.

This kind of stuff is kind of taking off (e.g. educaze) so if you can implement it well it's a winner and it'd be really useful for me as a tutor too.

PS, stop playing FIFA

PS, another idea: once session is finished have a rating thing pop up for the student to assess the tutor. Could probably integrate with tutoring section somehow.

Anyway, stop distracting me from study.

[enwiabe]

Really nice idea! Needs to be communication in the same medium though - it becomes very awkward to be teaching someone via video and not have the video feedback. Honestly I see little point in video - think audio and interactive whiteboard if more than sufficient.

This kind of stuff is kind of taking off (e.g. educaze) so if you can implement it well it's a winner and it'd be really useful for me as a tutor too.

PS, stop playing FIFA

I've had a look at yourtutor. Main problem appears to be how centralised it is, like a tutoring agency.

This will simply be infrastructure for tutors and students to use. But I see what you're saying about webcam. I think you're right that webcam won't be necessary at all.

[paulsterio]

Make Webcam an option, but don't make it necessary - that gives people the option

[taiga]

Have trialled online tutoring with a couple of students on here (for free), they all enjoyed it and found it helpful.

I'd be happy to run some free sessions as promotion sometime over the summer.


I don't think webcam is necessary, unless someone has a physical whiteboard, but an interactive whiteboard/tablet would be ideal.

[paulsterio]

Enwiabe, you should also make a group session but without a tutor, so groups from over the state can talk about problems and discuss them, without a tutor, I think that might help some people as well

[EvangelionZeta]

I've been doing this all year - it works fine.  The only problem is when you're working with physical materials.  Also, some students are a bit hesitant, I have found.

[burbs]

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).

[Russ]

I think something like this would work much better if you had a collection of "free" sessions, to get prospective students engaging with the idea. The way I imagine it is some sort of index of times when they'll be running (eg 7.30, Methods 2010 exam 1 analysis) which students can log into as they desire. Then offer the ability to make personal times with particular tutors etc. for whatever fee is set.

Also are you going to integrate it into AN, or go the 3rd party option of skype?

[paulsterio]

Also are you going to integrate it into AN, or go the 3rd party option of skype?

I don't think that integration is feasible, given the server-power and raw bandwidth you'll need for video, plus I don't know of any back-end server-side webapps that can be used for this sort of stuff, unless you guys are intending to write the back-end from scratch

[enwiabe]

I think something like this would work much better if you had a collection of "free" sessions, to get prospective students engaging with the idea. The way I imagine it is some sort of index of times when they'll be running (eg 7.30, Methods 2010 exam 1 analysis) which students can log into as they desire. Then offer the ability to make personal times with particular tutors etc. for whatever fee is set.

Also are you going to integrate it into AN, or go the 3rd party option of skype?

You've hit the nail on the head. This is exactly how I envision it. And yes, fully integrated with the site.

Also are you going to integrate it into AN, or go the 3rd party option of skype?

I don't think that integration is feasible, given the server-power and raw bandwidth you'll need for video, plus I don't know of any back-end server-side webapps that can be used for this sort of stuff, unless you guys are intending to write the back-end from scratch

You leave that to us

[paulsterio]

You leave that to us

Alright, I'm trusting that you guys can come up with some magical server-side programming

[enwiabe]

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.

[enwiabe]

You leave that to us

Alright, I'm trusting that you guys can come up with some magical server-side programming

Trust in Dave, for he is 1337.