At the University of Florida, a Facebook application lets students be choosy when looking for tutors.
The application, Tutor Matching Service, lets students search for tutors by subject, class, or tutor name. They can see ratings and comments on tutors, when tutors are available, and how much they charge. Tutors can also post pictures and videos of themselves.
A little more than a year ago, the student-government president at the time created the application with Group Interactive Networks, a technology company, to supplement the university’s on-campus tutoring center. Though the center offers free tutoring to students, it has limited hours, does not have tutors for every class, and offers no information on the quality of tutors.
More than 120 students have registered as tutors on the application, and when class is in session, 50 to 100 hours of tutoring are arranged through it each week. While all the tutors attend the University of Florida, customers include students from the university, a nearby community college, and local high schools.
Tutors set their own rates, from anywhere between $0 and $50 per hour.
“That $0 is really important because students can volunteer if they like” or tutor for free to “get their feet wet,” said Rajiv Asnani, a rising senior at the university and a developer and director of Tutor Matching Service.
Tutees pre-pay online with credit cards, and Tutor Matching Service takes 5 percent of charges and mails checks to the tutors. Parents may also purchase credit for a student to use throughout the semester.
Only the University of Florida offers the application, but it is open for business to anyone. Mr. Asnani said that the University of Central Florida would offer the service soon, and several other large universities have expressed serious interest. A college must pay an annual fee of $250 for the application. Mr. Asnani said that while the University of Florida allowed any student to register as a tutor, colleges would have the option to screen tutors if they like.
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7 Responses to Students at U. of Florida Use Facebook to Find Tutors
gators - May 18, 2010 at 5:50 pm
How about them Gators! I would like to see something like this go national.
tac3017874742 - May 18, 2010 at 8:48 pm
The quality control issue will have to be met if this is to go beyond Gatorland I think. It’s a great service so it should be supported with real evaluative data regarding the quality of the tutors. There will always be a few who do not pull their weight but still expect to be paid! The’re called Republicans!!
gators - May 18, 2010 at 10:15 pm
I love this. This is amazing. Admins please take this into consideration. It is highly reputable and deserves to go a long way.
susan104 - May 19, 2010 at 1:46 pm
Finding tutors through the Facebook application is a novel way of doing so. But online tutoring has been around for sometime now and many such services available online offer excellent ‘tutor search’ features on their web sites that can connect prospective students to the right tutor.One such service I know of is Eduwizards (http://www.eduwizards.com/). They have a vast tutor bank of certified tutors for all subjects and grades, including test prep, freely post tutor reviews on their web site, offer free trials and even feature a tutor search box that is an amazing tool for connecting students to the tutors that they think are just right for them.Online tutoring services like these offer the same flexibility of choice as offered by the Facebook application and deserve serious consideration.
gators - May 19, 2010 at 6:16 pm
I think you may have misread the article.
gators - May 19, 2010 at 6:22 pm
If you click the link to go to the Tutor Matching Service website, or you go to their Facebook application at (www.facebook.com/tutormatchingservice), or if you just read the article, you will see that it’s not online tutoring at all.This particular matching service, has a scheduling and payment system that is set up so that students can find tutors to meet in person with. By utilizing the facebook system student’s can find tutors that go to school at UF, or in the various schools that this system is available to, and see their profile.Tutor Matching Service is also free to use and student government created, while online tutoring typically involves monthly fees.
bruins525 - May 24, 2010 at 1:22 am
This is definitely interesting. Sounds like the way of the future! Going to contact them now…