imtchr.com – Helping the Students

Posted on by

Today I would like to share with you how imtchr.com will solve the problems students have when looking for a teacher online these days.

I will focus on language learning in this piece as it is still the biggest part of the online learning market and also the most complicated but the general process is the same for any kind of subject matter.

Different mindset

To fully understand this, we need to step back and think about the general motivation of a student looking for a teacher because I believe that there is not enough focus on that today. A student who starts searching for a teacher has most likely a different mindset and goal than a student who is generally looking for ways to learn a language. If you decided to search for a teacher you are taking the language learning to another level because you either reached a level where self paced learning is not getting you much further in your process or you simply want to learn with a human being. Those students already know what their level is, they have a fixed goal in mind they want to achieve and therefore they have a certain requirements that need to be addressed.

Three key factors

And of course there are totally different criteria in choosing an actual teacher compared to choosing books or software. The keyword is: relationship. Like in any relationship between humans emotions will play a major role. You might say that choosing the right teacher is like choosing your spouse as in the best case the teacher and student will work over a longer period together. This will eventually lead into some kind of emotional bindings as you get to know each other more and more over time. Therefore, a key factor for building a long lasting relationship is if the student and teacher actually like each other.

Another important factor is the reason why a student wants to learn a language. It all boils down to expression. A student wants to express feelings, opinions, ideas etc the same way as he / she would do in his / her native language. Sharing all of this with other people is very important to humans. Therefore it is important to have a teacher that has the same interests or knowledge that I have in the language I want to learn.

The third factor is the underestimation of conversational classes today. Often cited as “mere” conversational lessons without structure they are seen as being ineffective compared to slide based classes. That is absolute non sense. Conversational classes are actually the hardest classes to prepare as they are highly interactive and the teacher needs to adapt the topics to each of his / her students and sometimes even in an ongoing class. As described above, students in higher levels want to talk in the language they learn about things that are interesting to them and they actually care about. This could be a spontaneous conversation on any given topic and the teacher then needs to have the vocabulary at hand to mix it in the lesson or at least the teacher needs to know where to find it quickly enough. But I won’t get to far into the mechanics of a good conversational lesson here, as it would get us side tracked.

To sum this up: students are looking for teachers who are able to discuss with them topics of their interest and help them to express their mind in the language they want to learn. This can only be based on mutual interests and a general sympathy between the two.

The solution

If we know look at the platforms which are currently on the market and how they match students with teachers, we can see where one of the major problems is. Platforms are matching students and teachers like they match students with courses, videos, exercises etc., only based on topic, level, rating of the teacher and pricing.

imtchr.com and mytchr.com will of course also use those criteria but we will go a step further. Like I said, finding the right teacher is like finding the right spouse. Therefore, we need to use proven mechanics that work on the Internet to match students and teachers. And those mechanics are partnership websites.

Every student and teacher will fill out a profile that takes the factors described above into consideration when finding the best teacher. Of course the result will also be filtered by ratings, pricing and availability but we will focus on the emotional factors.

That said let me give you the second problem we will solve for students. If a student is looking for a teacher today he / she needs to visit and search every platform on the market and chances are rather high that the students does not know all of them. Therefore the chance of finding the best teacher are once more minimized.

As imtchr.com will enable teachers to link to all of their existing teaching profiles on the web, the student will see all of them on one site. This has two advantages. One is that the student gets a better idea about the reputation of the teacher as the different ratings on the platforms will be displayed next to the links and secondly the student can choose the platform he / she likes best and book a lesson with the teacher there.

Click to learn more about the imtchr.com project

 
Related Posts
Related Posts Slider

If you enjoyed this post, subscribe to the free EDUKWEST Newsletter and get updates via email.

With the subscription to the EDUKWEST Newsletter you will get
  • early access to upcoming interviews
  • news updates and reports
  • job listings in education 2.0
  • other exclusive perks

Your Email Address:

We respect your privacy and hate spam as much as you do. EDUKWEST will never sell, reveal or trade your email address.

  • Pingback: Kirsten Winkler

  • http://www.facebook.com/gmachlan Louis George Machlan

    How cool is that? I am following along a fairly well resaoned presentation about need driven consumers. Yes, I agree but it seemed a bit “touchey-feely” but still an excellent avenue by which to better differentiate the needs a holistic learning paradigm would address. There is a little over simplification of the relational nature of student teacher but it is acceptable due to Kirsten knowing that people like me have a very limited attention sapn. When out of the blue…

    WHAM! A total surprise and very nuanced , innovative and 100% charming solution. A dating service. I am sure that I will have a lot of complaints later on but for now… WUNDERBAR, right up there with the wonder-bra. A great PR coup if not a long term marketing strategy. I am going to relax and not think critically for 5 days. Just enjoy the sexy (in a polite way) niche you have just introduced. I am totally enjoying this idea for it's face value. Thanks Kirsten this idea has sizzle. Both a fun level and a truly insightful depth that may well prove sustainable.

    PS Am I allowed to photo shop my bio pic?

    • http://kirstenwinkler.com KirstenWinkler

      Do you need to photo shop it? ;) Would great if you could think of some matching criteria you think is important in a student / teacher relationship besides common interests.

      • http://www.facebook.com/gmachlan Louis George Machlan

        One would almost have to give a class to a prospective student as to the criteria I would use. Particularly with spoken English, my research indicates a need to totally reorient the student to a new paradigm of what right brain learning is about. Wayyyyy to much information. I think the intuitive nature of a dating service model will self evolve and allow for a natural progression in the students awareness of his/her deeper needs through several iterations of using the system to self discover the best fits. It could be a self correcting algorithm one day if it catches on.

        So, no I haven't any criteria to offer. I think the first beta should follow a simple dating service model. Let the student population create the questions. No matter how sophmoric they are, they can and should be self directing and part of whatever path the platform takes. Except maybe one… is the best teacher an olive complexioned, fun loving, mature but playfully youthful on the inside? And do you understand that scientific studies find that the most sensitive and able male teachers are exactly between the ages of 55 and 58 with the statistical peak being 56 and born in the US? That is the only questions I would offer.

        • http://kirstenwinkler.com KirstenWinkler

          You need to delete the romantic out of this :) . But of course, age preference could be a criteria, also female or male teacher, native speaker or not, university degree or not, even religion could be a filter.

          As I said, at the start we will focus on the essentials but later on the search option can become more detailed.

          • chinamike

            Just a thought but have you considered giving students access to more teachers as they answer more questions? The problem at present is that I (as a prospective student) want all your information but with the least effort on my part. Have yu considered giving students information about teachers in proportion to the amount of information they offer in return?

          • http://kirstenwinkler.com KirstenWinkler

            That will be the tricky part. I know that we could ask hundreds of questions and then even define them by “not important, important, very important” etc.

            I am thinking of a very basic 1:1 match at the beginning, sorted by the preferences.

          • chinamike

            I can only imagine how many questions you have considered. If your questionaire can match student to able teacher your chances of success increase dramatically. It sounds like this will be one of your core competencies.

            If you want help designing “how” questions I'd be happy to add my two cents.

            One thought have you considered different questionaires based perhaps on native language spoken, languages already studied, and projected starting level? In other words, an adaptive questionaire?

          • Jamie

            http://www.okcupid.com does exactly what you guys are talking about

          • chinamike

            Jamie, thanks for your input. Could you be more specific?

  • Pingback: languagedialogs

  • chinamike

    I like that you are trying to profile students. I wonder however about your beginning assumption that a student “looking for a teacher” is different from a student who is “generally looking for ways to learn a language”. I don't see these two things as opposites, instead, I see them as different points on a time line with the first decision being “I want to learn X” and the second being “how”.

    I think the question of “how” is a question that a student is constantly trying to solve for himself/herself. It enters into his or her mindset on a number of occasions during the language learning process. The question tugs most strongly when the student’s goals aren't being met. When your goals aren’t being met you begin to question your approach and you begin to entertain other options.

    In my experience students who look for individual teachers do so because the goals they had/have were not met in a large classroom environment (the current standard for language training). They figure that if large classroom training can't/didn't meet their goals/needs that they should consider giving one-to-one training a shot.

    The interesting thing about this is that this decision can cross languages. In other words a person who had a bad/average experience learning say English in a large class may decide that for the next language he/she will seek out a different option.

    In this formulation I see MOST students choosing private training as a reaction to a “how” question they have asked themselves that follows on the heels of a poor or inadequate experience in a large classroom. This decision, at least partly, needs to be seen in its historical context which means it is very context sensitive.

    • http://kirstenwinkler.com KirstenWinkler

      This service will be about finding a teacher only. That's in the DNA and name. I believe that with people getting more tech savvy in general Livemocha, Busuu, Rosetta Stone will have the dominance in the lower levels. This service is only targeting students who are looking for a teacher.

      Hence we are past the “how” question and working on the “who” question only.

      • chinamike

        Interesting response. I was thinking about how in terms of a individual student's personal historical language learning narrative. This is a common story that all students have and asking them the “how” questions revels a lot. To me “how” questions are at the core of why people choose private teachers.

  • Sylvia Guinan

    Kirsten

    I've put your blog post on Global English Forum, facebook, as I know a lot of teachers & students will be interested in this. See the link below.

    I feel so in tune with what you're doing.

    http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000649413183#!/group.php?gid=117190961658014

    • http://kirstenwinkler.com KirstenWinkler

      Thank you Sylvia, much appreciated! Glad that you like the concept :)

  • Pingback: Kirsten Winkler

  • Pingback: languagedialogs

  • Pingback: Sabine Landua

  • flexolern

    I like this concept!

  • flexolern

    I like this concept!

  • Pingback: Kirsten Winkler