Technology has improved significantly over the last 20 years to the level where it is now rather easy and cost-efficient to offer tutoring services online. While many independent tutors and tutoring companies view this as a great change in the market it also poses many threats to existing businesses. Many articles go through the advantages and disadvantages of online tutoring from the perspective of the student – this informative article will explore this topic from the perspective of the tutoring business.
Advantages
The availability of technology for online tutoring is most advantageous to new tutors or tutoring companies that aren’t yet established in the market. Online tutoring requires low start-up costs, it opens the tutor up to much bigger market and offers more flexibility for scheduling. Let’s take a look at all these advantages one at a time:
Lower barriers to entry
Although some independent tutors likewise have low start-up costs, if you’re a tutoring company and opt to go the internet route, you can avoid most of the expenses associated with establishing a traditional tutoring company. Traditional companies often require an office for administration or where tutoring occurs, marketing through local media, driving to meetings to prospective clients, etc. Online tutoring companies don’t require an office other when compared to a home business office and definitely don’t demand a building for teaching students. Online marketing is cheaper and may be targeted more directly than traditional marketing, and speaking with clients can be carried out online or by phone. These low start-up costs ensure it is much simpler for new businesses to start online.
Larger market
Traditional tutoring companies are limited by geography – they can not cost-effectively serve students outside of their geographic area due to time-constraints linked to transportation and the price of transportation. For this reason, tutoring companies have much smaller markets and can just only enter new markets by adding new locations. Online tutoring businesses don’t face this limitation. 搵補習 They are able to reach anyone with a net connection and really the only limitation is language. For this reason many individuals prefer to start an on line tutoring company so that they’ll reach a much bigger market. This can be a excellent strategy if your company teaches a very specialized subject that will not have enough people locally to support the business.
Tutoring companies may also hire tutors from a much bigger area and may become more successful to find top-quality teachers in the subjects they offer.
Flexibility
Online tutoring companies have significantly more flexibility since they can choose to instruct students in various time zones. Tutors which can be only available to instruct in the late evening can quickly teach students from a later timezone where it is afternoon. This makes it easier for independent tutors to match their tutoring to their personal or work schedule.
Lower operating costs
The ongoing operating costs of running an on line tutoring business may also be less than traditional tutoring. A number of the eliminated costs come in the shape of building leases, phone, transportation and marketing. Online tutors may do everything from their house, they can use free or low-cost online phones like Skype for communication and they don’t have to pay money driving to the tutoring office or even to clients’ homes.
Disadvantages
Lots of the advantages of online tutoring may also pose challenges for tutoring companies. We’ll go through the disadvantages below one at a time.
Lower barriers to entry
Low barriers to entry make online tutoring attractive to new tutoring companies, but for incumbents this is a negative because it makes it easier for new companies to enter industry and contend with them. This ultimately results in more price competition and lower profit margins.
Competition from other markets and other countries
Online tutoring overcomes the geography barrier that is also a disadvantage for existing tutoring businesses. Which means in place of facing competition only from tutoring companies inside their immediate market they now face competition from tutors in the rest of the country and in other countries all-together. Many online tutors are from countries like India where the price of living is significantly lower. Thy can teach American students online and charge a rate that is still much less than standard rates in the United States, yet still well above the rate they’d earn for tutoring in their particular country.
Technology limitations of students
Some individuals have a personal computer in the home and internet access, many students who need tutoring do not have the required technology to receive online tutoring. In addition to some type of computer, a high-speed web connection is ideal, a headset and microphone are required for speaking with the tutor, and hardware like a writing board might be required depending on the subject. This implies if your organization wants to offer only online tutoring there will be many students that you can’t reach.
Effectiveness
While online tutoring can succeed, there are certain subjects where face-to-face communication and explaining concepts on a sheet of paper are more effective than communicating online. It can also be more difficult to help keep students engaged when tutoring online, that may have a poor impact on the student’s progress.