This is a guest entry written by Chris Jefferies of Squarko. As is the traditional at Virtual School Meandering, this will be the only entry today.
2010 has seen a dramatic boom in online tutoring in the UK, with several companies expanding what was once a highly regionalised business into a nationwide phenomenon. Much like SATs in the American K-12 system, English A-Levels are the vital part of any college application and, as a result, middle-class parents can regularly pay as much as $50/hour for an experienced tutor to help their child get the best grade in their exams. However, they can face problems with availability of tutors, especially those who don’t live in a major city can struggle to find someone affordable and with the relevant expertise.
As is so often the case in the 21st century, technological developments have accelerated to answer a popular problem. By using online business conferencing software, such as Cisco WebEx, Adobe Connect, WiZiQ and Verishow, various tutoring companies (disclaimer: mine included) have helped private tutors from all over the UK to get connected with those in need of tuition. This, supported by Skype VOIP, allows tutors to share lesson materials as well as mark homework online.
This revolution in the private tutoring industry has been picked up on by several British newspapers, such as The Sunday Times, The Telegraph and The Evening Standard, and it is surely only a matter of time before an online tutoring scheme gets official backing from the UK Government to work with underperforming high-school students.
The most exciting area for development however is in teaching languages. Breaking down not just regional, but international barriers, there is a great potential to link up language learners all over the world; for conversational classes, academic and business training. These rapid advances in technology have allowed for more interactive and engaging learning, utilising sites such as YouTube and Google Maps, as well as pre-written, bespoke lesson plans.
In many ways the Brits are catching up with America, since over 20,000 Californians alone are estimated to have an online private tutor, many of whom are based in India. There’s a long way to go before it fully takes over this market, but these developments seem to spell the end for tutors in tweed-jackets driving across town to teach at the adult learning centre – why bother when you can get better convenience, quality and value online.
12 Unique Blogs Are Written By Professors
Virtual School Meanderings 
Very interesting. While I know that there are several successful online tutoring companies in the US, it seems to me that this type of online learning gets greatly overshadowed by the full-time and supplemental online program activity. (I also don’t know if the large number of India-based tutors mentioned that are tutoring students in California, fit into the US-based online tutoring companies or if that is some other online tutoring activity that hasn’t been on my radar screen).
I have a couple of questions now:
1) Does the UK have the full-time and supplemental program K-12 online learning like the US? If so, how does this compare to what is going on in the US as far as structure and numbers?
2) How much K-12 online tutoring is going on in the US and are these US companies using US tutors, US companies using non-US tutors, or non US companies usig non-US tutors?
Matthew Wicks
Comment by Matthew Wicks — July 20, 2010 @ 10:27 am |
I just went back to the blog posting and noticed there was a link that provided information about the statement about the India-tutors. It sounds like it is a combination of India-based companies, some of which contract with US companies and US companies that utilize India-based tutors.
The articles also talks about some of the controversy involved with this approach, much of what is typical controvery associated with the general debate about work being outsourced overseas, but also related to the fact that some of this tutoring is in fulfillment of providing NCLB supplemental services and is it appropriate to use federal money in this manner, what are the quality standards, etc.
Comment by Matthew Wicks — July 20, 2010 @ 10:34 am |
Matthew, many thanks for your comments and interest.
To answer your first question, the UK has no full-time supplementary online tutoring system, but it is something we are looking into developing if we can secure the Government funding mentioned above. At the moment, the onus is on supplying face-to-face tuition for early years students to ensure they don’t get overlooked before it is too late. We think this support should continue into their teen years as it is so easy for students to lose motivation in their pubescent years. Likewise, many learning difficulties do not manifest themselves until the teen years and this is something which definitely requires a personal approach.
Comment by chrisjeff — July 20, 2010 @ 11:05 am |
Chris, while not totally on topic to your blog entry, since I have you here (so to speak)… As Matt mentions, in the US (and Canada for that matter) we have a combination of:
– supplemental virtual schooling: where a student attends a physical or brick-and-mortar school, but completes one or more of their courses online; and
– full-time cyber schooling: where a student completes all of their education in an online environment, usually from the home.
From this side of the pond, we get the impression that there isn’t that much of either of these things happening in the UK. We have the impression that there are classroom teachers that will use online resources in their face-to-face teaching (e.g., the kinds of resources available through SchoolNet projects) and that teachers and schools have used online resources to allow for parents to become more involved in their children’s schooling (e.g., posting homework and assignments, exam review, and other curricular materials online).
My questions for you are twofold:
1. Is there much supplemental virtual schooling or full-time cyber schooling going on in the UK?
2. Is our perception of how online tools are being used in the UK education system fairly accurate?
Thanks in advance…
Comment by mkbnl — July 20, 2010 @ 12:01 pm |
Michael,
Good question – this seems to be the main difference between the US and UK as it currently stands.
Whilst the US has accepted online schooling into the mainstream K-12 system, the UK languishes behind. All of our clients have told us they have never heard of an online classroom, or even Skype, before and are naturally suspicious of new technology for learning. The supplemental online schooling is very much a private industry, apart from the schools, although our tutors often liaise with the schools on a client-by-client basis.
Whilst online systems such as Blackboard may be used for hosting resources, forums etc., the actual delivery of lessons is almost entirely classroom-based.
Comment by chrisjeff — July 20, 2010 @ 12:30 pm |
Thanks Chris… It seems that the rumours are true (i.e., our impressions of the state of K-12 online learning in the UK are fairly accurate). This information is much appreciated – by more than just me I suspect.
Comment by mkbnl — July 20, 2010 @ 4:13 pm |
[…] 7 days, blog, blogging, blogs, cyber school, education, high school, virtual school Due to the Guest Blogger Entry on Online Education Takes Off In The UK yesterday, I was not able to post this task until first thing the morning (note that the Day 3 task […]
Pingback by Day 2 – 7 Days To A Better EduBlog « Virtual School Meanderings — July 21, 2010 @ 6:32 am |
[…] Guest Blogger – Online Education Takes Off In The UK (which was actually one I didn’t write) […]
Pingback by Day 5 – 7 Days To A Better EduBlog « Virtual School Meanderings — July 23, 2010 @ 4:50 pm |
i know this, in india also government providing these online tuition for the students. some of the sites working for this purpose only, such as online tutoring service
Comment by rak — July 27, 2010 @ 8:02 am |
Rak, thank you for the comment and the link to one of these international tutoring services.
Comment by mkbnl — July 27, 2010 @ 8:47 am |
[…] the article didn’t focus on online tutoring per se, it was only a month ago that I posted Guest Blogger – Online Education Takes Off In The UK. In this guest entry, Chris Jefferies of Squarko described how online education in the United […]
Pingback by K-12 Online Tutoring « Virtual School Meanderings — August 22, 2010 @ 9:51 am |
In person tutoring is best, however this leveraging of technology to help students that do not live in areas where tutors can be found with relevant expertise or skills is fulfilling a fundamental educational need.
Comment by Winning Education — September 14, 2010 @ 12:41 am |
Thanks for the comment Winning Education. Please note that I removed the link from your header information because I was concerned it might be spam.
Comment by mkbnl — September 14, 2010 @ 11:24 am |
The title of the article reads ‘online education takes off in the UK’. As someone in education in the UK, I would say that online education is very much embryonic, and that we have a long way to go before we see the kind of uptake seen in the USA.
Since your article was published there have been two notable UK-based online tutoring websites who have launched successfully here. Tutorhub.com (of which I am a co-founder) is an online homework help / tutoring website, focusing on expert help and student to student collaboration (social learning) for kids at home. Another business, Brightspark are focusing on delivering online tutoring into the classroom.
I think that we are seeing gradual acceptance of online learning, but that ‘local’ needs and expectations (e.g. UK views on child safety) mean that US and Indian based online tutoring businesses will find the market tough.
Comment by Jon — June 20, 2011 @ 7:27 am |
Jon, I suppose it all depends on how you look at online learning. Yes, the UK are behind the US when it comes to the corporate influence into online learning that we have seen on this side of the pond. I suspect the online pay tutoring services that this guest blogger mentions, and that you reference, would fall into that for profit model.
However, my understanding is that if you look at a broad definition of online learning to include online tools used to expand the classroom beyond its physical boundaries to allow students and parents access to curricular material and information about their learning (or their child’s learning), than I am under the impression that the UK is doing well on that front – maybe even ahead of the US because of the early adoption of programs like SchoolNet.
Comment by mkbnl — June 20, 2011 @ 9:11 am |