TutorGenie: Inspiring learning, innovation, and leadership
Bridging the Gap: TutorGenie, the app about to change the learning landscape of the UAE for tutoring and extra-curricular classes.
Finding quality private tutors, after-school classes or wider learning opportunities has long been difficult for parents within the UAE. Tutors have also struggled to find a safe, secure, and convenient platform to promote their services and manage listings in one place.
A new, pioneering learning app, TutorGenie, aims to connect the UAE’s enthusiastic community of tutors and activity providers with parents and students - allowing students’ talents to flourish and creating confident and determined achievers.
This whitepaper will discuss the need for the app, the reasons behind it and the benefits that it will bring to the UAE’s students, tutors and activity providers.
Problem statement
The Global Pandemic of 2020 and the spread of COVID-19 has had a devastating effect on education around the world. It is widely acknowledged that students may have missed the equivalent of a full year of their normal education because of the lockdowns and subsequent school closures. For some students with less support at home than others, they will have in fact regressed from where they were pre lockdown.
In addition, students’ confidence, mental health, and coping skills have been negatively affected by the sudden changes in lifestyle and increased anxiety surrounding strict public health guidelines.
The UAE Leaders have an inspiring vision for education. The Vision includes aspirations for citizenship, a spirit of entrepreneurship, enhanced educational attainment, and a knowledgebased economy driven by innovation, research, science, and technology.
At TutorGenie we also share this vision and aim to assist the young learners of the UAE to become the entrepreneurs, innovators, and leaders of tomorrow.
The rise of anxiety levels of school children, high education costs, the lack of after school and holiday clubs, poor child fitness and health have all contributed to the need for our revolutionary application, TutorGenie.
The following document will discuss this further and provide evidence to support the introduction of our app to the UAE’s students, tutors and activity providers which will seek to address these issues and in turn improve The UAE’s education and economy.
Background
UAE Ministry of Education’s strategy for 2017-2021
The UAE Ministry of Education launched a strategic plan for 2017-2021 to develop an innovative education system for building a knowledgeable and globally competitive society. The system would include all age groups to be able to meet future labour market demand.
Central to the achievement of this strategic plan are the following goals.
At TutorGenie we aim to compliment the UAE's plan in delivering and building upon the abovementioned educational objectives.
As previously stated, it has long been a frustration of parents within the UAE in accessing quality tuition and extracurricular classes for their children. Many cited difficulties in accessing the top tutors due to long travel distances. Tutors also mention fatigue, travel stress and long working days as their main reasons for declining to take on new students.
The effects of COVID-19 exacerbated this problem. Students both young and old had their learning environments taken abruptly from them. The rug had been pulled from beneath them leaving them suspended in a void. No school, no classes, no interaction, no tuition as it used to be.
Schools scrambled to implement remote classes as parents and students struggled to adapt to this new way of learning. Unfortunately, the levels of engagement failed to match actual classroom learning. Teachers and parents found that more time and effort were required yet the progress of the students was far less. Teachers said that controlling and engaging large classes online was impossible as many of the methodologies they employ require moving around the classroom, using eye contact and arranging the students strategically. In addition, younger students needed extra assistance from parents or siblings to use the technology required for distance learning. This extra help, if available, came at a cost. Parents often sacrificed work commitments to see to their children's schooling. Older siblings often did it at the expense of their own studies.
The negative effects of this were manyfold. Parents cited lower productivity at work, increased tiredness and stress from working longer hours to try and catch up, more anxiety surrounding their children's education and poorer relationships with their family members due to stress. Children made little progress with their studies, struggled to effectively learn new concepts, and failed to adequately retain recently taught subject material. In addition, levels of anxiety and stress grew significantly amongst students of all ages.
The severe dangers posed by COVID-19 forced us to abandon the very things that make us human. Hugging, sharing, being kind and loving were now suddenly dangerous and forbidden.
As difficult as this was for fully grown adults to comprehend and accept, it was much harder for younger people.
Young children naturally gravitate towards each other. It's what makes youth and childhood so unique.
No longer allowed to mix or play with others, young children, even toddlers have become scared and anxious about the virus and what it might do to their parents, grandparents or even themselves.
The same worries affected teenagers and older students who also had to deal with not being able to meet friends, partake in clubs or classes whilst simultaneously stressing about their studies with important exams looming.
Parents were at a loss. How could they get their families’ education back on track?
Coming from teaching backgrounds, we could see both sides of the coin. We hear directly from parents about their frustrations at their children’s lack of progress and we also hear of the many excellent teachers who are seeking tuition work but cannot find any that can fit into their busy schedule.
Solution
We created TutorGenie to address this problem and help both learners and educators at the same time.
TutorGenie is a community based two-sided platform connecting parents and students with teachers throughout the UAE who offer after school activities and classes.
On one side, the platform enables activity providers, tutors and students to list their classes and earn extra income in the form of class fees. On the other hand, TutorGenie enables parents and students to find, book, read reviews and pay for classes and courses that the best teachers have to offer.
TutorGenie aims to inspire, motivate, and excite learners. These are essential factors in encouraging students and adults to get involved in learning activities and support their physical and mental wellbeing. Our service is user friendly with instant bookings, online payments, and a messaging service, all from one app. No longer will you need to stress about accessing and carrying cash. Gone also are the days where you had to scroll through website after website searching for a suitable tutor, class or after school activity.
TutorGenie ’s tools include:
TutorGenie aims to draw focus to online and home tuition plus after school activities to entice parents and students alike to get involved with them. It also aims to attract tutors to set up an account, offer their services and earn some money. With the TutorGenie app taking care of bookings, and payments, and allowing communication between the tutor and parent, it has everything you require regarding tutoring and after school activities.
TutorGenie has a searchable database of local classes which makes it easy for parents to see what is available in their locality or further afield. It includes reviews of tutors and activity providers which provides parents and students with a quality assurance. “Verified Tutor” status puts parents at ease in relation to who is teaching their children. It means we have checked their credentials and they have successfully passed our security measures. It helps parents find quick needed solutions for their children at any point on the go. Often a parent will find a good tutor for one subject area but wont have it in another. With TutorGenie, we have the very best tutors all in one place so you can get the best tuition for each subject to suit your time and schedule.
For tutors and activity providers, the visibility TutorGenie offers them online means less printing of flyers and tiresome searching for tuition opportunities. It also means tutors do not need to always drive long distances to classes. They can use the extra time and energy to plan and deliver high quality lessons. They can also be assured of receiving payments straight to their bank accounts upon every lesson completion instead of chasing for cash. In addition, the availability calendar makes it easy for them to manage their schedule.
Conclusion
Research demonstrates just how important it is for students to have positive emotions and be led away from threats of depression and anxiety. It is important to create moments in their everyday life where they feel grateful and happy, are confident in their own ability and look forward to the future with optimism and ambition.
TutorGenie will not only support The UAE’s parents as they search for a tutor or an extra-curricular activity for their child, by listing all available activities on offer it will help to support the child’s development and mental and physical wellbeing.
The tutors and activity providers in the UAE will also be supported by the introduction of this app, and they will be able to advertise their services with confidence that they are going to be advertising to the correct audience and will not have worries about missed payment.