I believe we all like when we can do things on our own time schedule, in our own space without any distraction. As a college student I have had problems with meeting up with professors during their office hours or staying after class to meet with them to explain something I might have not understood because their office hours doesn’t fit with my work or school schedule, it difficult for me to stay behind because I have another in ten minutes and the professor takes attendance early so I can afford to be late. These problems are why we get to have tutors who are capable of explaining and finding solutions to the problems you are struggling with at school providing different time slots that can work for you on both weekdays and weekends.
Group tutoring is very common in college, you book an appointment through the school website to meet up with a certain tutor that qualifies in the class you are having difficulty with. Tutors attend to you and about three other students with only two hours availability, personally I don’t think that is sufficient or convenient enough for students who are struggling or lagging behind class especially when they have midterms or final to prepare for. With all these problems we are facing, I have decided to come with an idea that will work better for a good amount of college students who are in this boat. In order to find the right time, the best tutor, one on one meet-ups without distractions and at your own conveniences, building a digital private tutor App will be the best solution.
A private tutor app will be available for all college students in multiple schools, it will allow students to search for a tutor that teaches the class they need help with, it could either be a tutor from their school or from a different college, giving students the flexibility to choose what works best for them. There will be multiple time slots available everyday, both online and in person, giving the student options. Online Tutoring will have the option for students to record the session in case they need to reference back to what their tutor taught. Students can drop reviews on the tutor to give other students an idea what it is like working with that tutor. The private teaching will help students who aren’t confident enough to ask more questions and be comfortable expressing themselves without any interruptions or side comments. The app can be designed to let you know if the tutor ones took the same professor as you and can teach you the way the professor teaches in order to pass exams. All tutors must be registered under a school and any in person meet ups will be strictly held within school premises for safety purposes.
Private tutor apps give students more room to have assistants in solving their academic problems, creating a safe space between the student and tutor. Students can pick the tutors that work with the time schedule, have enough time to meet with the tutor and go through their class difficulties.
Definitely get the problem and as you explore more, you will see that there are lots of apps trying to do the same thing. So think about your unique approach. Start with your personal “problems with tutoring” and then try to customize the experience. For ex, can some kind of a barter system work where the Baruch student tutors you but you buy them lunch versus “cash” which makes it easier with tax filings? You can explore more as you go but the Lean canvas will get you thinking about the key points.
I think it is very important for students to have a private tutor, since every student does not learn at the same pace; some students learn quicker than others, and some students just take more time to absorb information, which is why group tutoring is often not effective. I really like your idea, but I think that future competitors will be able to copy your idea easily, so I would try to think of something that would make it hard for competitors to copy. Great concept overall though!
I like how you used your own experience to sort of find this problem. the first thing you said about how people don’t like to feel distracted when doing something and like to do things on their own time. an app to find a tutor sounds very convenient as opposed to group tutoring. with my experience when being in a group, they aren’t that same connection as if there was just a one on one session with someone else.