Problem: Many students in high schools and universities seek tutoring services for help with their courses. Some university students also look for part time opportunities to earn money through tutoring jobs. Currently, there are three main options for tutors and students to connect:
- Advertisements posted on social media sites, such as in Facebook groups. These offer the most flexibility for both tutors and students, as they can make arrangements directly with each other, and generally offer the best value for both parties. However, there is no systematic way to search for these listings, and are sometimes discouraged as ‘spam’
- Advertisements posted on Trademe, or in the newspaper. Similar to the above, this offers greater flexibility at the cost of being more difficult to find and arrange. In both of these cases, there is also no indication of a tutors previous experience so even when a student or a pair of parents find a tutor who fits their timetable they have no knowledge of how good that tutor is.
- Tutoring companies. These organisations act as the middleman between tutors and students, and sometimes have prior arrangements with schools to have tutors be available at certain times. They also handle most of the advertising for the tutors, and their hiring process ensures a level of quality for their service. However, these companies usually take a significant cut of the revenue, and are less flexible with their services.
Goal: The goal of this project is to create an online platform which allows tutors to offer their services in a structured and easily accessible manner. This will take the form of a web and/or mobile application similar to AirBnB, where tutors can list their services to be searched by students looking for a tutor. This application will also provide information on the tutors’ past experience, including information on their education, past tutoring experience, and feedback from previous pupils.
Overall Design
- For Students: Students will be able to search for tutors by subject, cost, available times, and location. They can make bookings with tutors through the interface by selecting a time during which the tutor has indicated they will be available. These bookings can be made as a one-off booking or as a recurring weekly booking. Students will also be able to select whether to book as an individual or a group (the latter potentially having higher cost) There will be a rating system in place for students to rate their tutors based on metrics such as their knowledge and communication skills, as well as a review system.
- For Tutors: Tutors can create a profile with information including their subjects, cost, available times, and location. Their dashboard will show a brief outline of their current bookings and recent feedback from students.
Other Considerations
- A verification system could be added, requiring tutors to upload proof of their grades as part of registration. These could be shown on their profile for each subject or paper they are tutoring.
- Calendar integration could be added with Google Calendar and Apple Calendar, so that bookings show up automatically for tutors and students, similar to the UoACal system.
- Payments may initially be unable to be processed on the site due to laws and regulations. This could be added after launch.
Undergraduate
• An online tutoring service platform
• Service pricing models
• Service matching and recommendation algorithms
None
Lab allocations have not been finalised