Looking to get tutored in a language by an actual native speaker? New startup eduFire offers one-on-one sessions from hundreds of experienced tutors around the world. The site soft launched earlier this year, and has just enabled “On-demand” tutoring, allowing users to hook up with teachers on a whim.
Instead of hiring a force of professional teachers, eduFire lets anyone become a tutor, and relies on the community to identify the most qualified members. Each tutor creates a personal profile that lists their credentials, their hourly rate, and the languages they teach (they can also optionally leave a brief introductory video). They can also establish a standard schedule, or they can classify themselves as “available”, meaning a member can contact them and initiate a lesson immediately.
The lesson is conducted through the site’s flash-based chat app, after which the student pays the teacher through credit card or PayPal. Students can leave reviews for each tutor, which helps the site weed out the hacks just looking to make a quick buck. The site also tallies the number of lessons a teacher has given as a measure of credibility, and lists the most credible teachers on a language’s main page.
The whole site is intuitive and well thought-out, but there does seem to be one potential problem with the system. The eduFire software is very basic - it’s a text chat window sitting alongside live video (you could accomplish the same thing with any major chat program). After using eduFire to establish contact with a student, a tutor could easily run their lessons from outside of the site, forgoing any fee. eduFire’s CEO Jon Bischke recognizes this, but points out that these teachers will lose out on students because they will appear to have less experience on the site. He also says that the site has a number of improvements in the works for the Flash app, which should make it more appealing.
eduFire’s business model is simple: Let tutors name their price, and take small cut of the action. The site currently takes 15% of tutoring fees, which appear to range from around $10-$30 per hour, depending on the language. For now eduFire is concentrating only on the language space, but intends to branch out later this summer. The concept is solid, and will provide a great outlet for teachers looking to make a bit of extra cash.
eduFire has received $500k in angel funding, and is currently raising a Series A Round. There are a number of other competitors in this space, including Myngle which uses Skype instead of an integrated Flash app.
This is great for homebusiness and individual who have limited time but willing to learn a new opportunity, it not only good for demographical area but can reach even the farthest country.
Nat
http://www.workersinc.com
They did an excellent job building this — congrats.
wow, I can’t get over how simple yet seemingly effective this idea is. I see a lot of potential here.
The site does function very well. The language leanring market has considerable competition (from online, land-based, and cd/courses), but if they are able to succesfuly move into additional subjects such as business and law, they could do very well.
overall, a great site
Execution sucks IMO.
Great press for a great site!
There are tons of these sites. Revoluminary.com, Myngle.com, etc. This one’s not even the best!
Nice review Jason! It is a very interesting area to work with.
Just a small correction, we at Myngle at the moment use Skype for VoIP only while the rest of the live lesson is through our website. Easy breezy for students and teachers.
Danilo
partner of Myngle.com
I always knew that Jason was a jelly-filled donut.
Congrats to Edufire. We’re glad online tutoring is catching on. It’s an excellent way to learn a language, and we believe it can help reduce poverty in developing countries. At our language tutoring site http://www.speakshop.com we’ve been helping Spanish tutors in Guatemala (and now Nicaragua) work their way out of poverty since 2004. We hope that we helped inspire the founder of Edufire, Jon Bischke, who was a student at Speak Shop last year, http://forums.edufire.com/forums/1/topics/22 (thanks for the props, John). A rising tide raises all boats!
eduFire kept me accountable
That is so cool! I always wanted to learn more foreign language. Merci Beaucoup
its revolutionizing education
It’s amazing to see all of you busting a nut over a site that has minimal traction at best and a really odd pedagogical model.
Yes, I know LiveMocha and others are out there but seriously, teaching via web cam? Most teaching is done through reading, assessment, etc. Web cams are useful supplemental tools but not many people are going to fork over $20/hour to do one-on-one language tutoring. The one-to-many model or a customized education model would be much more effective.
Great job on the implementation though - well designed site but I just think the addressable market is tiny for what they are doing and the traction thus far is uninspiring.
I can’t believe no one got the title’s reference.
An interesting concept that appears to be well executed. Relying on internally developed applications is a huge plus for edufire. I’ve checked out Myngle and Revoluminary, and neither is as easy to use and has the accountibility factor that edufire appears to have for their tutors. The tutor reviews, while short, on edufire, give students a much clearer idea of what each tutors strengths and weaknesses actually are over the stars and 1-10 scale offered elsewhere.
Mmmm…jam doughnut!
re: gc @ #18
Yes, “Ich bin ein Berliner!” means: “I am a jelly-filled doughnut.” Hopefully, eduFire will be able to teach people that “Ich bin Berliner!” would have been the correct thing for Kennedy to say…
bob wyman
(As a one-time resident of Berlin (’63-’68), I can say: “Ich bin Berliner!” and also, “Berlin bleibt frei!”)
Hi,
eTeacherGroup.com has been teaching Hebrew and Chinese for via video conf for a long long time with VERY cool technology.
Hey techcrunch, check them out!
I went and checked out eduFire. It seems like a really cool model. If I’m going to learn something online, I want to be able to see who’s teaching me.
I can dig it, sign me up!
This is very well done. The market is definitely heating up with apps in this arena. @15 - I don’t think eduFire or any other tool is the silver bullet - which I think is part of your point, but there is way too much to learn from others that just can’t get passed in book or pre-recorded audio - so person-to-person is very nice.
Having been a learner of 2 other languages - I can say, that at least for me, having the dynamics and interaction with a native speaker is essential. The past it has been tough to find speakers locally to practice.
Thanks for all the comments. We’ve worked very hard to get eduFire to where it’s at but realize we have a lot more work ahead of us. Hundreds of tutors and students have used the service already and while the feedback has been very positive we know there are a number of areas where we need to improve.
@Clay - Yup, I love Speakshop. Especially the goal of empowering people with additional economic opportunities they might not have had otherwise. That’s a big part of our ethos as well.
@Yawn - It’s definitely still early in the market. But our theory is that live video-enabled services in numerous areas will be very big in the future. It’s definitely still the top of the 1st inning but we think this will be a very exciting ballgame to be a part of.
@Rob Mowery - Your perspective is similar to what inspired us to build eduFire. While there are some things you can learn well through a book or a pre-recorded lesson there are other things that require more interaction. Our goal has been to create a platform that allows for that two-way interaction to happen online instead of restricting that interaction to people within close physical proximity of each other.
Thanks again for all the comments and if you’d like to connect with me privately feel free to email jon at edufire dot com.
Jon Bischke
CEO/Founder, eduFire.com
i took a Portuguese class on eduFire and had a great experience; loved working with a live person
Fun fact: Kennedy actually said it correctly.
From Wikipedia:
“The citizens of Berlin do refer to themselves as Berliner; what they do not refer to as Berliner are jelly doughnuts. While these are known as “Berliner” in other areas of Germany, they are simply called Pfannkuchen (pancakes) in and around Berlin.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ich_bin_ein_berliner
Phrasebase.com has been doing this for years… but get’s no love from TC.
Hi everyone,
There is another website with the same model:
http://www.trainity.com/en/index.php
Cheers
MV
딸국질은 횡경막의 경련에 의해서 일어 나는 것으로 쇼크를
준다거나 잠시 호흡을 멈추면 낫는다.
하지만 경우에 따라정신적 부담감으로 빨리 멎지 않을 때가 있다.
멈추게 하는제일 좋은 방법은 심호흡을 한 뒤 견딜 수 있는데까지
숨을 쉬지 않는 것이다.
또는 숨을 멈춘채 찬물을 조금씩 마셔도효과가 있다.
그래도 가라 앉지 않으면 조용히 숨을 내쉬면
서 아랫배를 들이밀거나 때때로 배에 힘을 가득 준 뒤 호흡
을 멈추는 복식호흡도 좋다.
출처: http://cafe.daum.net/lifebean
Edufire is a great tool but I prefer Linkua.com Linkua because as a teacher I can change my rate for the different languages I teach. THe quality of the videoconference (audio and video) is fairly good and allows to share links and materials.
you should also check this website : http://www.learnissimo.com
● 볼펜자국은 물파스로 지운다.
볼펜자국 위에 물파스를 가볍게 두드리면 바로 지워지고,
또 알콜 적신 거즈로 얼룩진 부분을 두드리듯 닦아내도 말끔하게 지워진다.
● 커피 홍차 사이다 주스 얼룩
커피와 홍차는 당분이 포함되지 않은 탄산수를 거즈에 묻혀 두드리고,
사이다와 주스는 얼룩이 진 즉시 묽은 소금물에 거즈를 적셔 두드린다.
● 버터의 얼룩
비눗물로 닦아낸 다음, 기름기가 남아 있는 부분을 벤젠으로 두드리듯이 닦아낸다.
● 계란의 얼룩
알콜을 흠뻑 적신 거즈로 두드리듯이 닦아낸 다음 비눗물로 닦아낸다.
출처:http://cafe.daum.net/lifebean