With the advent of the internet, it has now become easier for students to find a good tutor over the web and make the process of learning more insightful and interesting. Not just limited to providing and getting study material over the web, it is a form of self-motivated learning for the students that encompasses the whole world of one-to-one tutoring sessions, threaded discussions, bulletin boards, video conferencing, webinars, and VoIP.
Expanding Scope of the Online Tutoring Market
Set to grow by USD 132.21 billion during 2020–2024, Technavio’s latest market research report estimates the online tutoring market to register a CAGR of over 15%. Owing to the uncertainties spurred and challenges faced by businesses amid the pandemic, including supply chain and demand disruptions as well as complexities in cost-management, the market is bound to grow at an incessant pace.
Driving Factors for the Growth of Online Tutoring
Seeing this massive boost in the EdTech sector, let’s discuss the major reasons for the growth of the global online tutoring market.
- The major reason for the global growth of the online tutoring market is the flexibility which it provides.
- Convenient to learn at your own pace from anywhere from the best tutors around the world.
- The ability to reach out to the remote areas of any region is also expected to be the driving force for the growth of the market.
Building a Tutoring Platform
These technological developments in the education sphere have become too immense to be rolled back eventually making the online tutoring platforms continue to grow speedily.
Seeing the market stats and insights makes it very obvious that investing in an online tutoring business is a worthwhile idea. Let’s discuss an actionable plan to build an online tutoring platform moving from idea to realization.
- Setting up the goals of your business is the initial step to set up a successful website. Based on the goals, configure the structure, content, and navigation of the website keeping the ideal user in mind.
- Monetizing the platform is also one of the main considerations before launching your business. Explore different revenue channels that can be integrated into your business model. Here are the most common:
(i) Commission from each booked lesson from tutors.
(ii) Offer basic features for free and charge a fee for advanced features like interactive tools, tutor matching, lesson plans, etc.
(iii) Charge flat fee from tutors regardless of the price and number of the lessons they are offering.
(iv) Monthly/annual subscription for students to browse the platform.
(v) Promote tutor profiles on the featured or top section who wish to earn more for an extra fee.
(vi) Place advertisements on your website powered by third parties like Google AdSense.
Once you have decided on your revenue channels, make sure to implement them properly to earn maximum revenue from your platform.
- Research the trending features and functionalities that are currently in demand and study the technologies required to integrate them. One can also get an in-depth analysis done of the leading platforms available in the market to know the essential modules and get them added to the website.
Key Modules/Features Required in an Online Tutoring Platform
(i) An easy and multiple login feature for the user to log in with minimum information.
(ii) Profile creation and set up for students and teachers with detailed information to better their communication. The detailed informative page of the teachers allows students to have a go through about the tutor.
(iii) Geolocation feature for seamless communication between the users at different geographical locations.
(iv) Audio/video interaction between the students and teachers to make the teaching session interactive and engaging.
(v) One-to-one and group sessions enabled tutoring platform allowing teachers to deliver a personalized experience as well as make the most of time and effort as and when required.
(vi) File sharing enabling students and teachers to share notes, assignments, and other study material.
(vii) Browse and search functionality for the students to search for teachers using the keywords.
(viii) The platform should support multiple languages to enabling you to expand your services across borders.
(ix) Multiple payment modes allowing users to make and receive payments at their comfort.
(x) To make the platform more transparent, students should be allowed to rate and review the teachers as per their experience after the successful completion of the session. This will further help other students to make informed decisions.
- Narrow down and prepare the list of features you wish to integrate into your platform and work on the strategies to get the development process started.
- Once your platform is ready, get some marketing practices in place to promote your platform among the students and teachers in the market.
Final Thoughts
There is a range of ready-made solutions available in the market to help you build your tutoring platform. One such name is Yo!Coach, which allows entrepreneurs to launch their own online tutoring marketplace. Being a fully customizable and white label solution, it can be customized as per the client’s requirements.
The solution is already being used by several tutoring businesses around the world where they invite other tutors on their platform and bring more diversity for the learners.
