In about a month or so, I am going to open a page where math
students will be matched to algebra/math tutors. The idea is that
people who know mathematics and have an inclination to teach and
explain how to solve math problems, will be able to do so and
supplement their income a little.
How it will work: Every tutor will have a little home page at
algebra.com, with resume, feedback, past solved problems etc. When a
student wants to be tutored, he or she will post a description of
the problem, with the amount that he/she wants to pay (typically on
the order of $10). If a tutor consider him/herself competent to
solve the problem, he bids on a problem. Unlike ebay, there won't be
an auction system, and the student will be able to choose from a
number of bidders quickly. This is done in the interest of
transaction speed, as well as maintaining reasonable prices.
After the student accepts a bid, she contacts the tutor, pays via paypal
or some such (this is between the tutor and the student), gets the problem
solved, and both leave feedback on each other. Thus, it will be a reputation
based system. If you do a good job, next time this student submits a bid,
they are more likely to choose you amongst other bidders.
A Catch: as a tutor, you have an obligation to post a written
solution to the student's problem on our algebra.com, after you are
done. This will help this site, as well as ensure integrity of the
feedback system.
My future plans: in the future, if this takes off and if there is a
sufficient volume of transactions, I plan to charge the tutors,
either per 100 referrals, or by each positive feedback, or on some
other basis. The idea is for me to get a small cut of this business,
after you and I are convinced that it is good business and you know
that you are not being scammed. You will be able to make money all
along, although the volume is uncertain at the moment.
Volume of future business: it is, of course, uncertain. To give you
some food for thought, this site generates about 2,000+
visits to its homepage every day, mostly composed of school students
looking for homework help. The biggest unknown is whether there will
be a sufficient number of students (or parents) willing to pay
unknown tutors.
What I consider most critical, at this stage, is integrity of the process.
The tutors should be individuals who are,
- Organized enough t oget the problem solves after they bid on it
- Educated enough to actually be able to solve problems and
explain them well to a student of below average intelligence
Therefore, in order to become tutors, you need to apply to me at
i c h u d o v @ a l g e b r a . c o m , and send me your resume.
I will notify you as soon as the tutoring page is up.
Caveats: below, I am listing some of the issues that I expect to be
likely detrimental to this business. I do this in the interest of
all parties being informed.
- You are ilkely to underestimate the amount of time it takes
to solve a problem and explain it to the student.
- The students are likely to be individuals who like to beat
the system. Therefore, ask them for payment prior to your
work.
- (non-problem): students leaving false negative feedback.
Remember that the system is open. The student's problem that you
were solving, as well as your solution, are publicly available
on the website.
- This system will never work if the only thing that you do is
help students cheat on their homework. This will attract very low
quality students. So you have to insist on actually explaining to
them all that they need to know about this class of problems, and
charge them accordingly.
