Can you tell us a little bit about TutorCruncher, and your role with the company?
TutorCruncher provides business management software to the tuition industry, and having grown out of a tutoring company ourselves, we completely understand what it takes to run an education business in today’s day and age. We love being able to adapt TutorCruncher as the industry – along with our amazing clients – continue to grow.
I’m the Director of Operations, so it’s my job to make sure TutorCruncher runs as smoothly as possible for our customers, while thinking of new ways to improve our systems and the services we offer.
How can tutoring companies use your services to enhance their lessons?
We’re always thinking of ways to improve TutorCruncher, and we’ve added some great new features this year to match the old ones.
We released Uber-style reviews, so parents can easily give feedback on their tutor’s performance. We’ve had a brilliant response to this – both the admins and tutors love getting constructive feedback, and a happier, more confident tutor leads to better lessons.
We’ve also partnered with an online whiteboard provider to give tutors and students a powerful and rich learning environment. Tutors can connect with students via audio and video, sharing screenshots, pasting anything into the whiteboard, and saving content to refer to at a later stage.
What’s it like working with Figtree?
Fantastic! It’s so great to see a company like Figtree use TutorCruncher to grow their business in such a short time. They’re always really keen to see how new features can help them next, so as customers they’re perfect. Plus they put on a five-star Christmas party and kindly invite us!
The last year has seen the education sector undergo huge digital transformation. What would you say is the biggest benefit to students of teachers and tutors adopting emerging technologies?
I think what we’re discovering more and more is that there are so many different types of learner, and that being able to adapt your teaching style to suit every student is really powerful. By adopting new technology, tutors have access to the tools to provide a tailored experience to each student.
What do you think will be the next ‘big thing’ to transform learning in 2019?
Virtual reality. I think it’s amazing that tutors can actually walk a student through ancient cities, or fly them through the solar system – all from the comfort of the classroom. The immersive experience is incredible. If you’ve never tried it, I can’t recommend it enough, and as the technology becomes more accessible I hope we’ll start to see headsets in more schools and homes across the country.
