Need Help in School?
November 27th, 2007
Submitted By: Robyn Bowie
Well if you do all you need is a digital pen and palette and an Internet headset.
The latest trend in outsourcing to India is consumer services, and tutoring is one such service. The company is called TutorVista, a company that employs about 600 fully trained tutors just waiting to help your struggling student. With focus on standardized tests increasing in our elementary and high schools, more and more children are turning to well-known places like Sylvan and Kaplan for tutoring, but places like these can run up to $60 per session. TutorVista, on the other hand, offers monthly fees of $99 for all the 45-min tutoring sessions you need. This is much more economical for families like the Thams from Arcadia, California who were interviewed for the New York Times article “Hello India? I Need Help with My Math.” And other families seem to be catching on to this trend because TutorVista’s U.S. clients now number at 10,000.
But tutoring isn’t the only consumer service from India gaining in popularity. A new service called Ask Sunday will order your take-out food as well as a number of tasks formerly done by a personal assistant. And in fact, that’s exactly what Ask Sunday is – a remote personal assistant. The difference is this assistant will cost you just $29-$49 a month and is available 24 hours a day without complaint.
With all the outsourcing being done today, I wonder where we draw the line in what can and cannot be outsourced. Certainly we will still have demand for such things as hospitals and doctors. However, there is also a new trend of flying all the way to India to be treated for surgeries that are just too expensive in the United States. It’s called “medical tourism” and it is actually generally less expensive to fly all the way to India, have the surgery and fly back. And most patients still have the luxury of being treated by an American educated doctor who speaks perfect English.
So what job can’t be outsourced? Are we to say goodbye to all American jobs forever?
Obviously not, but I do think we will be surprised to see the types of jobs that will eventually be outsourced in the future. As more and more jobs are outsourced I wonder whether or not this is such a good thing, particularly when it comes to such consumer services.
Many of these services, like the two mentioned above, used to consist of face to face real live human interactions. Using such devices as the Internet to communicate is very useful, but we miss out on important aspects of live communication such as nonverbal cues. These cues may include facial expressions, gestures, and tone of voice and can be up to 75% of communication between people. Most people don’t even realize how important nonverbal communication really is or that they are even using it in their everyday conversations. Because of this, nonverbal communication gets tossed to the side without a thought when the price is right. How much value does that low price have when we realize what’s truly being lost? I think we will find that some things are just worth the extra money.
Entry Filed under: China, India, Pre-Departure
21 Comments Add your own
1. Chris Carr | November 27th, 2007 at 8:43 am
I love it.
For years many Americans, who their narrow view of the world, have mistaken our intellectual capital as being difficult to replicate, and they were convinced that the outsourcing of the services industry would never take off, it would be limited to just a few areas, etc.
They even said that years ago in (my) the law industry, and now lawyers in places like India and Israel are doing some respectable legal work for US firms, at 1/4 to 1/3 of the American price.
Even though many people in the US don’t want to believe it, because it does not mesh with their view of the natural order of the universe, this industry and work is just like the Engergizer bunny — it keeps on growing, and growing and growing ….
2. Mark Fairman | November 27th, 2007 at 10:09 am
This is great! TutorVista would have been a great alternative when I was refusing to spend $500 on a GMAT prep course. I wonder what effect the emergence of the overseas service industry will have on domestic prices. If programs like this really take off, will local firms attempt to price match at some level, or just create overseas subsidiaries of their own?
You bring up a good point with the reduction of person to person communication. Our generation has definitely been witness to the cannibalization of conversation, with the widespread use of cell phones, internet, IM, etc. Human interaction is decreasing–this lack of socialization definitely having an effect on communication skills and behavior in general.
3. Angie Q. Dip | November 27th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
Wow. I found this article very interesting. It is amazing how many different types of services India can come up with to have other countries outsource to them. In addition to the tutoring and the personal assistant, the article also mentioned providing services for health and nutrition coaching, providing personal tax and legal advice, helping with hobbies and cooking, learning new languages and skills, and more. And all of this offered at a small fraction of the cost for us here in the U.S.!
Although so many jobs are being outsourced from the U.S. to India, I believe that is an excellent move (for India), because now people in India are allowed to telecommute and earn a decent living. These jobs are helping women like Ms. Tadikonda in the article stay home with their children and work at the same time. There may be impoverished women in India who may never have had the opportunity to earn some money to take care of their family if there were not jobs like this.
At the rate that outsourcing is growing in India, people like Mr. Nikekani in the article should definitely invest in the business offshoring. He mentioned it himself that there was an opportunity in the globalization of consumer services.
It is unfortunate that these services diminish face to face human interactions, but the use of webcams and other similar devices help to partially take care of the problem of missing out on nonverbal cues and these devices help to enhance our communication accuracy. People will still be able to see facial expressions, gestures, and hear the tone of voice of the person they are communicating with. Due to the differences in culture, though, cross-cultural communication occurs and may lead to miscommunication. There may be a problem with semantics and language, but I believe as globalization continues and India keeps growing, this barrier would not be too difficult to overcome, since the people in India would probably try to understand their consumers better by understanding and mimicking our culture more.
4. Naomi Guy | November 27th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
Robyn, Great find! I must say that these business models are quite exciting. Some people might find them odd and impersonal, but I must ask “Why not?”
We are living in the digital age. Kids and teenagers are (sadly) more comfortable communicating online than in person. Programs like Skype are more prevalent in college houses than a land line phone. So why not start offering tutoring through the internet? We have the technology to show non verbal communication and even hand drawn work on our computer screens, so I have a hard time believing students are missing out on a lot. In fact, I believe they might actually be getting more out of this method. The service is available 24/7 and the choice of tutors is nearly endless. In your traditional tutoring center, you will likely have 2-3 people working for maybe 8 hours a day and chances are they are not experts in subjects like chemistry or European history. Additionally, who can argue with the convenience of being in your own home, in your pajamas?
The benefits extend to the tutors as well. It is the perfect part time job for a college student, teacher, or, as in the article, a stay at home mom. They can choose to work whenever they want for as long as they choose.
One concern that seems popular, is that people in India are tutoring in English. Agreeably there are going to be some people that are not qualified to tutor in English, but there would be in the US as well, and yet no one seems to be concerned. Secondly, many English speakers in the US have awful grammar and low knowledge of the many fine nuances, since we were (supposedly) taught the language many years ago. I, myself, am one of these people. I would prefer my child be tutored by someone who was recently trained and certified in the language than myself, do you know the rules on when to use who versus whom? I don’t. A major misconception many Americans have, is that a strong accent implies they don’t know English well. This is simply not true. My mother has a very strong Australian accent, one in which many people can not understand her, and I am amazed how many people believe she has poor English skills, even though it is the only language she knows, and even has a college degree in it.
Now about the personal assistant service…that’s just awesome! I love that I could simply send off an email or text message and have someone order me dinner. Very rarely would I ever need an assistant to be physically present, everything can be achieved through a phone call or online. So again I ask, Why not?
5. Matt Sprecher | November 27th, 2007 at 7:30 pm
I think that TutorVista is simply the next step in online education. Sure the outsourcing of these resources may decrease the amount of communication skills that one will gain from eye-to-eye tutoring, but consider how many products and services are already available to people. Currently students around the world can take an online college course in nearly any subject they please, at a University that is thousand miles away. What about the communication skills that are learned in the classroom between a teacher and their students? This is a question we should ponder. We currently have classes at Cal Poly that have primary course loads that are based off of the internet. If online tutoring decreases skills, what are we to think of our classes?
Simply put, TutorVista is just taking on line education to the next level. By offering a service that is reliable and affordable, students can be guaranteed the help with certain subjects when ever they need it. If anything, these services could better the education within our own system. People from different learning environments can offer different perspectives on how to look at certain topics. Not to mention the stellar academic history that surrounds India. In a world already moving towards full online education why should we not support online educational assistance?
6. Andria Greenlee | November 27th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
I think TutorVista is wonderful way to extend tutoring services to more students that need help in certain subjects and standardized tests. Taking the SAT was a horrible experience for me, however I was lucky enough to have a private tutor to help me increase my score by 250 points. This was a huge contributing factor in my getting into college and I often wonder what would have happened had I not been able to get the help I needed. If colleges are going to put such heavy weight on these exams everyone should have access to tutoring resources.
However I feel it is important to recognize that not all in-class learning can be replicated through an online simulation. The Internet is a very useful tool in education, but I think it is very important that it does not replace the classroom, particularly in younger learning stages. There are certain social elements humans need to be physically exposed to in order to develop many life skills.
7. Witold Sadowski | November 27th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
For those of us with undertakings not big enough to outsource to the larger companies in India, China, and elsewhere (yet wanting to costs and leverage the ‘flat’ world like TutorVista) I ran across this website which matches you with individuals from around the globe who can bid to work on your small-scale projects. Here you can see peoples resumes, work experience, how much they would like to be paid, and ratings/comments from previous employers (very much like eBay – but for people).
Other similar sites include Elance.com, Ninemotion.com and Rentacoder.com. Youtube also has some good videos on the subject.
8. Richard Ciesco | November 27th, 2007 at 8:59 pm
Wow this is a great idea! And who would have thought that something like tutoring would be out sourced. But I think that it can be good for Americans that take advantage of it. Education is so important to help you get ahead in life. In the past only families with money could afford tutors. Now families with less money can give their children the same type of treatment. If we as Americans do not want to fall further behind in the global economy we need to stress the important of education to our youth. This is only way of help educate our children.
I can see how people might look down upon this type of interaction because kids will loose out on that in person interaction. But look how business is being run today. This will only help kids learn how to communicate well over long distances and with new technologies. This could give them an advantage when they must do the same thing in business because they had been doing it from when they were children. Taking advantage of this type of service may have help more than just helping you kids get better grades?
9. Jesse Dundon | November 27th, 2007 at 9:24 pm
The problem is that for many people it will always be worth it to spend less. If somebody can get just what they need over the phone or internationally for much less money, he/she will find a way to do so. True, non-verbal cues are lost, but how necessary are the nonverbal cues in tutoring and ordering food? And if you are so worried about non-verbal cues, video technologies like skype are already providing a solution. Businesses stand to gain much by embracing this technology, with India being no exception.
My guess is that jobs will continue to go where the people are. If Indians are willing to do it, the market is going to make that happen. I guess if you find yourself unemployed, you can always go to India and try to get a job, keeping in mind with that pay cut, you might have to sacrifice a little standard of living.
10. Chris Carr | November 27th, 2007 at 9:25 pm
Witold,
Great, great resource. This resource is worth its own post in and of itself. Please think about writing one up for my student assistant to process and post.
11. Witold Sadowski | November 27th, 2007 at 10:48 pm
Will do - Thank you Dr. Carr.
12. Steve Munio | November 28th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
I support any service offered at a lower price, especially if quality is preserved/improved. There are a lot of services that are overpriced so this outsourcing benefits the consumer directly, and is worth the cost of some domestic jobs. For example, if medical surgeries are becoming more economic to be done abroad and their popularity is causing domestic practices to close down, so be it. I consider it a simple lesson in basic economics.
Just as businesses are forced to outsource to keep up with competition, people will have to utilize these discounted services as well. If I want my (future) children to do well and stay competitive academically with their peers, then we will have to take advantage of services such as the TutorVista.
The lack of face-to-face communication is definitely a growing disadvantage to the current generation. “Friend Sites” such as myspace, facebook don’t enhance socializing ability and comfort as well as when I used to knock on the door down the street to ask if Bobby can come out to play. Verbal communication is being phased out by the digital age. People would rather send a text or an email than talk verbally. These foreign-based services do contribute to that, but not enough to miss out on these valuable services. That is more of a larger cultural trend that we must find a way to counteract.
13. Simone Michel | November 28th, 2007 at 3:46 pm
A great business idea! The goal of TutorVista is to make education affordable for the masses. Their teachers learn the American syllabi, teaching methods and culture in different courses and furthermore even our slang. Therefore many children probably don’t even realize that their tutor sits on another continent. But what are the reasons that such a business idea is successful?
Somehow it is nonsense that our country is the one with the most science Nobel prizes but at the same time is not able to prove that its school system is panic-proof. I don’t think that this is because the quality of our schools is too bad. Moreover it’s due to a lack of individual attention from the teachers due to bigger classes for cost saving reasons. Furthermore, today’s teachers tend to be overwhelmed because they have to deal with more social problems, which used to be solved in the family circle. Additionally, there are more and more households where both parents work and therefore they can not help the children with their homework, or they are simply not educated enough to do so. TutorVista addresses exactly this problem. I do agree with Steve that our society is moving away from personal communication, but I can also imagine that the children like to learn with the TutorVista system because it feels like the teacher would actually sit next to you and do the homework or studying together with you.
Families spend money for their satellite TV and power bill and I can imagine that in the future, online tutoring will naturally belong to the budget as well.
14. Chris White | November 29th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
It will be hard to surprise me with similar stories of additional consumer services being outsourced to countries like India and China after reading this article. This is really an incredible business concept that I never saw coming. It has to send a message to American government officials and our society as a whole that something is wrong with our system if we cannot even afford to tutor our children in this country. What really got me was that the student mentioned in the article uses the tutoring for help in English. This is not necessarily a sign of an economic problem associated with businesses in the United States, but an issue involving the quality of education in this country. While I am glad that students are receiving additional help outside of the classroom, is this method of tutoring really effective? I agree with the above responses. Certain things need to be done in person in order to effectively communicate knowledge and ensure understanding.
15. David Zarcone | November 30th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
I think this is an amazing idea. If only I knew of that company before I started writing this blog. I could have hired a personal assistant from India to read through these blogs and write some intelligent comments. Oh well!
Anyway, I think that this online tutoring and assistant business is a good idea for some of us who can’t afford the luxary of paying good money for a one-on-one tutor/assistant. However, there is a limit on what I would pay for. Tutors and assistants don’t really require75% nonverbal communication (thank you Dr. Beaman) in order to effectively deliver their intended purpose.
In relation to what Matt Sprecher said, I too think that this is a funny article seeing that we as grad students are taking a good amount of online classes for our education. Isn’t this basically the same thing? It all depends on the subject matter and teaching methods. For instance, our online course in Six Sigma this quarter is very informative and is a great way to learn. This is mainly due to the interactive teaching methods provided. If I just sat there listening to a teacher speak or reading the words from a textbook, I would not get nearly as much out of it. Sometimes, online teaching is more appropriate in my opinion.
16. Chris Carr | November 30th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
“I could have hired a personal assistant from India to read through these blogs and write some intelligent comments.”
Uh, I don’t think so. See/refer to discussion on Angie’s post re ethics.
Assume you were kidding and wrote in jest, and good judgment humor is always welcome on the blog; but if not, this is not a wise road for anyone to go down re a blog post, comment, or book review ….
17. David Zarcone | November 30th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
Yeah I was definately kidding… don’t worry. I actually enjoy these blogs. In fact I looked around on the net and found a great video directly relating to this topic.
How far will people go with outsourcing to India?
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/report_many_u_s_parents
Hilarious video!
18. Eric Kvilhaug | December 2nd, 2007 at 3:11 pm
Hey Dave, maybe these guys could help us with Stat 513, give Shasta’s office hours a break.
I think this is a great idea and how can anyone be mad (if anyone is) if another country is taking a service already offered, probably doing it better, and for less money. And time, little Johnny doesn’t have to be driven 20 minutes to the tutor, then picked up an hour later wasting fuel in Mom’s Suburban.
I was in tutoring for reading (imagine that after reading my posts) and was a math tutor. The system is not regulated and disorganized. Maybe some lower price competition will force US companies to reform and actually help the kids instead of line their pockets.
19. David Dougherty | December 5th, 2007 at 11:49 pm
After reading this article and the blog posts thus far, I am very torn on this issue. I have been a private math tutor myself for the past 8 years, and this article fails to address the difference between a good tutor and someone who merely can regurgitate information and call it teaching. Becoming a good tutor is much more than the latter. As Robyn said, nonverbal cues can account for 75% of communication between people, which is completely cut out through this process. Over the past four years, 11 out of the 12 students I have tutored have received “A” grades in their math courses. This success is not because I know math above and beyond anyone else, but is due to my ability to recognize these nonverbal cues when teaching my students. When presenting a topic to my students, their facial expressions, posture, and other body language can tell me immediately if I have successfully conveyed the topic at hand. Numerous times, I have presented a topic to a student, asked if they understood and received a nod or acknowledgement that they understood, when their body language clearly communicated the opposite. This is lost completely when you switch to a digital tutor.
I have actually participated in this type of tutoring system, although not from a Foreign Service. During my second year of college, when I still aspired to become an electrical engineer ( thank god I woke up and those days are long gone), I had a private math tutor whom I met with 8 times a month, six of which were online and two were in person. Comparing the in person sessions to the online sessions, they both have their benefits. While it is nice to sit at home in your pajamas and get tutored, the lack of face to face communication greatly hinders the process, both for the tutor and the student.
I understand that there are many families who cannot afford private tutors, and that they are really the prime market for this type of service. My fear is that the price of this service will drive the market down as a whole, and in turn will decrease the overall quality of the service provided. I currently charge $20/hr for my services, and this rate (while still reasonable) will be destroyed by people like the woman in this article, who is making $200 a week for 24 hours of work (the equivalent of about $8.33/hr) for her tutoring service.
If more services follow this trend, we better watch out. Are Ivy League professors going to follow by leaving their institutions and offering their services online for more money, thus cutting out the institution that earned them their reputation? Who knows for sure, but it’s definitely something to think about.
20. Sarah Ybarra | December 7th, 2007 at 12:44 am
I too agree that TutorVista offers a great service to some students, but there are some possible problems with this form of outsourcing. For many students, the roadblock in the way of success in class is not just a lack of comprehension, but a lack of one-on-one time with the teacher, low self-esteem, and other learning disabilities that can only be counteracted by a tutor who is sitting face-to-face with the student. It is a little known fact that Attention Deficit Disorder is a problem that plagues only Americans. Because of this, I’m not confident that an Indian tutor corresponding with a student via computer would be able to deal effectively with this issue, or bring this problem to the parents’ attention. Other disorders can result in a student not feeling confident enough in class to ask or answer questions. The growth in online chat and emailing has only contributed to this problem, and might be perpetuated through correspondence with an overseas tutor. In addition, modern students are busy with sports and other extracurricular activities, and worrying about connectivity, translation issues and other various problems could cut in to the time the student has to concentrate on homework. As mentioned in the article, language barriers such as semantics and phonetics are major issues that cause many Americans to experience frustration when dealing with agents from call centers in India. These barriers may cause difficulty and frustration for students as well. That being said, I believe that this service could greatly benefit many students. The student or parent must always be aware, however, of what is lost in the translation.
21. Adam Windham | December 7th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
What can be outsourced? Is there a limit? The article said that we will always have demand for hospitals and doctors, but even flying to India for treatment can sometimes be cheaper. What if you take that one step further. Recently I saw a program on television describing a new type of “robotic surgery”. The doctor operated a computer-interface and a robotic arm actually performed the surgery, providing greatly control and accuracy. The even more interesting thing was that the “Robo-Surgeon” could be operated remotely, that is over a network like the internet.
As advances in technology continue to increase exponentially, it is not unlikely that the next time you go “under the knife”, your surgeon could be a robot and you doctor might be in a different country. Granted there are a number of other factors that come into play (legal, ethical, etc.), but 10, 20, 50 years down the road could this sort of procedure become common place? It really does beg the question, what can’t be outsourced?
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