Wednesday, August 17 2005 17:54 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: Taking lessons from the booming BPO industry, several Indian teachers are now turning to online tutoring of US students, keen on some extra help with their home work and improving grades back at school.

"There is a huge market in the US for online tutoring especially with the US facing an actue shortage of teachers", according to Anirudh Phadke Principal Consultant, E- learning, Career Launcher, an organisation offering education solutions and currently into the business of e-tutoring.

Currently, only five per cent of the total US online tutoring market is tapped and there is a huge potential for Indian players to enter the still nascent industry.

With the US government aggressively promoting the educational legislation that `no child should be left back' and growing parental concern over falling grade, there has been a spurt in the demand for online tutoring, says Shantanu Prakash, CEO Educomp Datamatics, a player in e-tutoring.

The online tutoring concept makes use of the teacher-student interaction using either voice or non-voice technology to `remotely aide' the student through his lessons.

"Students could opt for 20 teaching hours, spread over their own time and convenience. It is entirely up to the student when he or she wishes to take those lessons. We offer 24-hour service to our students. Recently, we had a summer package for $199," says Shantanu, whose company has taught nearly 600 students.

Tutoring for Maths

The demand for tutoring was mainly in Maths and hence the companies have currently restricted their services to the subject. Reading was another area that students were now trying to seek help followed closely by science.

The tutorials are not necessarily remedial teaching. "A student logs in, states his problem and asks for guidance. The problems is explained and solved and we might give the student an additional five problems to solve to ascertain whether he has understood the concept," adds Shantanu.

However, according to Ruchi, the online classes taken by her are very much like the tuitions back in India, however, the major difference in the education system here and there is "that the education in the US is more child oriented rather than standard-oriented ".

"Unlike in India where all standard seven students would have completed a set of concepts, there each student grapples with concepts at his own space and ability", Ruchi adds.

Hence, lessons are largely tailored to suit individual needs, and involves help in home work. According to Shantanu, though their educational package also cater to curriculum of three major states, on the whole, it was more `demand-oriented'.

Since Maths was the only subject companies offers services currently, it is easy to have teaching lessons, because the principles, fundamentals and theorems of Maths were universal, he said.

But if the services were expanded to reading and science, then the lessons would have to be modified, Basak said.

Teachers under go accent training

Teachers, who earn anywhere between 15,000 to Rs 20,000 a month, are selected on the basis of an interview, teaching classes and their attitude to teach foreign students were put through a short orientation course on paedology and on `accent training'.

"We do take classes in accent but I think its practise that perfects it", says Ruchi.

However, the usual complaint of bias against Asians experienced by employees BPOs operating in India, does not hold good with teachers. "Indian teachers enjoy a very good reputation. The students are often pleased to know that they have an Indian teaching them", says Ruchi.

Ridding piggy back on this perception, companies leave their focus of marketing more on methods of teaching rather than quality, which is taken for granted by US students. "We basically are capitalizing on the known Indian intellectual capital", admits Shantanu.

The online teaching, however, comes with its own set of problems since the student never meets the teacher face to face. "Disciplining sometime is a problem, especially with the lower grade children who sometime turn to scribbling on their computer aided books or get distracted", says Ruchi.

Treat students like mature individuals

"A major difference between the US and Indian students is while here the teacher is invested with respect and authority to scold and often treat them as kids, in the US students demand to be treated as mature individuals and a harsh word could have the student striking off a teacher's name from his next scheduled teaching hours", says Ruchi.

Though a student does not get the same teacher who taught him the previous session, companies do permit students to request for the same teacher if they liked. "When a student does that, the teacher receives a reward", says Ruchi.

But does the teacher-student relationship move beyond the Whiteboard? "No, never, we are not allowed to divulge any information about our location, telephone numbers or ways to contact. But though not face to face, a bond does develop if we teach the same student everytime", Ruchi says.

Currently, though the teacher student ratio is 1:1, the companies plan to increase it as the demand for online tutoring grow. "Career Launcher has also forayed into the North Africa and Middle east market by offering tutoring to students of Indian origin.", says Basak.

With the entire online tutoring market expected to grow significantly, right now Indian players are doing their homework on the kind of services that would be required and are reading and learning about new markets.

With their current performance card displaying high scores in the US market, Indian players are keen on bagging the first rank in the US market.