At first, some innovations are not as cost-effective or fine-tuned as the products or services they replace. Clayton Christianson’s book The Innovators Dilemma pointed out that in the early stages, many innovations are a poor replacement. But then over time…that’s when some innovations shine. Christianson also pointed out that it’s often impossible for existing, entrenched companies to successfully launch innovations. They have too much invested and are set in their ways.
Take a look at online learning. Eleven years ago I started working with one-on-one on-line tutoring over the internet. The idea was a student and tutor would use their computer to talk and interact through a shared virtual whiteboard. At the time, the voice interaction was pretty crummy -- echoes, dropped calls, gaps and delays were common. It wasn’t a pleasant experience and this was despite the fact one had to pay more for the technology infrastructure.
However, look at where things have moved today. Now, the technology used for voice chatting over the internet and sharing a virtual whiteboard is a reliable commodity. It works! And students love the whole platform and thrive on the online experience.
But is it effective? That’s the big question, isn’t it? I did a study of over 500,000 K-12 students who were tutored in reading and math –face to face vs. on-line. The result? There was no difference in effectiveness gains as measured by pre-- vs. post-test growth on standardized tests between the two groups. .
So students getting tutoring via the internet achieved the same gains as those students going to a learning center and meeting with their tutor face to face. This is an encouraging finding for the education technology industry. It suggests you don’t have to sacrifice education results for convenience.
Online tutoring is more convenient and affordable and highly effective . The next stage in the evolution of the industry is to figure out how to take advantages of technology to increase the effectiveness beyond face-to-face tutoring. More on that in an upcoming blog.
Have you taken an online course? Was it engaging? What factors made it relevant and interesting? More or less effective?
John Stuppy, john@tutorvista.com
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2 comments:
I totally agree, John -- when we (at Amazon) were trying to compete with eBay in the early days of auctions, we struggled with the same pressures of changing how we did things, and at the time we were all of a 3-4 year old company! It was hard to compete with eBay, since they didn't have the same customer service standards, delivery commitments (heck, they just put it all off on the transaction partners, since they were 'just the middleman' in the transaction) or channel conflict issues. But, over time, we were able to focus on what we did must better (merchandising product, centralizing reviews, recommendations, payments, etc.) and creating a Marketplace experience that resonated with what OUR customers were craving (even better prices, vastly larger selection, and often, faster delivery).
I think that's what you're doing with TutorVista (and what the folks at Tutor.com, InfiLearn, and others are striving toward). You're changing the rules for on-demand-tutoring, and over time (quickly) I'm betting that your survey results won't show equal results, but instead, significantly better results, because you'll be able to reward the absolute best tutors, and encourage second- and third-level tutors to either up their performance, or get out of the business.
Very excited to track your progress,
Dave
Your blogs and information attracts me to come back again n again.
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