Keeping the Best Parts of Pandemic Learning

Ethan Fieldman may be CEO of the biggest edtech company of which you have never heard. His 10-year-old organization, with no sales or marketing teams, works in partnership with schools, school districts, colleges and universities, state education agencies and others to offer online learning support for more than 1,000,000 students each year. In this episode of EdTech Today, Ethan shares ideas and insights for education at all levels—everything from improving access and preventing cheating.

Study Edge recently announce the expansion of its online Tutor Matching Service (TMS) to the entire State of South Carolina in January 2021. Tutors have been flocking to TMS, including those from Chegg Tutors which recently announced its January 2021 shutdown. The TMS platform is so easy to use, parent-friendly and tutor-friendly, it’s being launched in several other states in the Spring, in addition to South Carolina in January.

Time and again, Study Edge has led the movement around best practices in tutoring aimed at long-term academic success and real outcomes for students. Tutor Matching Service is the tutor management platform of Study Edge, a learning science company committed to improving outcomes in STEM for the entire education continuum, from K-12 to college and beyond. Over the past decade, Study Edge’s Tutor Matching Service and GoBoard, the leading whiteboarding application built specifically for online tutoring, have become the tutoring resources of choice for more than 500 US institutions, both K-12 and higher education. Study Edge’s legacy is the trust of students, parents and educators who recognize their commitment to closing the gap in the US education system, with integrity at the forefront.

The pandemic heightened the gap in education, especially for students with little access to social capital and those struggling to cope in the virtual environment. The education market saw a vast emergence of tutoring platforms that left students overwhelmed with options, and parents feeling pressured to pay high fees for private tutoring. Platforms from other countries, with little understanding of the US education system, further annexed employment opportunities from seasoned American tutors.

“We are excited and honored to be working with the Department of Education, colleges and universities, school districts, tutors, parents, and others across the State of South Carolina to launch this and other initiatives,” said Ethan Fieldman, CEO of Study Edge

“Colleges can opt-in at no cost, and allow their students to work as online tutors to help pay bills during this time of high unemployment. For many colleges, Tutor Matching Service is actually a source of much needed revenue, as a $3 per-hour training and certification fee can be collected by TMS and remitted to the institution. There’s even a data dashboard for each college, with many customizations and parameters. Most importantly, though, we all know that the best way to learn is to teach. So, the tutors get to cement their knowledge of the subject matter while providing the low-cost academic support that is so desperately needed across the state during the pandemic.”

School districts can also get involved, if they choose. Administrators can allow teachers to work as online tutors at night and on weekends, to supplement their income while combating the COVID slide. Especially in middle school and high school math, online tutoring has been shown to have an impact on overall student performance. Just as with colleges, school districts can also add a $3 per-hour certification fee, which TMS remits back to the district.

For parents, this service to directly connect with South Carolina college students and teachers is certainly the least expensive way to find a high-quality online tutor. Unlike private tutoring companies that typically markup tutors’ wages by 100% to 200%, the new statewide matching service takes nothing from the tutors and tacks on just a simple 10% service fee. This fee covers credit card fees and other payment and technology costs. In fact, there are many highly-effective tutors available now for less than $15 per hour.

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