Is it worth to pay tuition via Zoom?

[ProvenPracticalFlexible]

That is very reasonable.
I refused to do zoom with the tutors cos they didn't offer a discount..

Think about it from the tutors perspective. How are they supposed to make a living if they subsidize all the fees?

True, but if they are saving on their time and transport costs to and fro, so continuing to charge the same fee can be quite a substantial bonus, they can make an even better living than before. And, TBH, they seemed to be doing pretty good already.

Might be, but if you are a good and popular tutor, and you have more than enough customers to fill up your calendar, I see no reason why they should lower their fees.

I'm no tutor, but had to move all customer work to remote what used to be face to face workshops and meetings, and at least for me delivering same work online is much more tiring and stressful. Even with the saved travel time, I don't feel better rested or more relaxed. Those taxi rides (or flights) cost time, but also gave your brain a break from one item to another.

[midlet2013]

Smart people need no tutors

[midlet2013]

Smart people need no tutors. Self-study is the best long-term option. Cheap and leads to independence.

[malcontent]

Mama always said, stupid is as stupid does.
-Forrest Gump

[ProvenPracticalFlexible]

Smart people need no tutors. Self-study is the best long-term option. Cheap and leads to independence.

You could say the same about schools and teachers or Universities, all information is in books and online, so why would a smart person need a teacher or professor to teach stuff that can be read.

[midlet2013]

You should ask Elon Musk about universities.

Don’t u see anything wrong with all this tuition business.

[ProvenPracticalFlexible]

You should ask Elon Musk about universities.

Don’t u see anything wrong with all this tuition business.

Not specifically interested in Elon Musk's opinions, he is not really that close friend that I would ask him anything.

yes, of course there is a lot of wrong about the amount of tuition and how crazy people are to start speaking mentoring classes for 3 year olds etc.

But I thought we discussing about whether online/zoom tuition is worth the money or needs to have a discount. and not about the overall concept or amount of tuition.

[midlet2013]

I know. I dont think there should be any discount for Zoom tution. Are we taking pay cuts while working from home. so why should tutors ??

[malcontent]

If you commute into the office for work, you spend 9-10 hours there. The portion of your salary that considers your transportation expenditure is but a small fraction of your overall pay packet.

Compare that to a dedicated “house call” for a 1.5 to 2 hour session. The portion of the fee that considers the transportation expenditure and time taken to reach your home is not just a little, but many multiples higher.

In other words, a significant premium is built into a tutor’s fee to cover the time and expense of a dedicated house call.

Even an electrician here won’t make a dedicated house call unless you pay them a $50 transport fee, even if they fix nothing!

[midlet2013]

excellent points @malcontent, why dont u try convincing tutors and electricians instead of me
and if ur argument convinces tutors to lower price, get back to me

I am sure they will say that by not making a "house call", they save energy and the quality of teaching increases on Zoom.

[malcontent]

My wife manages all the tutors, fortunately I don’t get involved (if I was, there wouldn’t be any tutors ).

According to her, in the early days a few of the tutors were willing to give up the transport, what amounted to around a $20 discount. Others gave some extra time (which I think is the minimum one should expect). However, now almost all are saying “this is the new normal” and and reverted back to original pricing… all except the Chinese tutor. Maybe there are too many Chinese tutors, too easy to replace?

[Lisafuller]

Smart people need no tutors. Self-study is the best long-term option. Cheap and leads to independence.

Not true, sometimes even smart kids need tuition to supplement and reinforce their learning, tuition used to be about improving the grades of weaker students but now its also about getting ahead.

[Lisafuller]

Think about it from the tutors perspective. How are they supposed to make a living if they subsidize all the fees?

True, but if they are saving on their time and transport costs to and fro, so continuing to charge the same fee can be quite a substantial bonus, they can make an even better living than before. And, TBH, they seemed to be doing pretty good already.

Might be, but if you are a good and popular tutor, and you have more than enough customers to fill up your calendar, I see no reason why they should lower their fees.

I'm no tutor, but had to move all customer work to remote what used to be face to face workshops and meetings, and at least for me delivering same work online is much more tiring and stressful. Even with the saved travel time, I don't feel better rested or more relaxed. Those taxi rides (or flights) cost time, but also gave your brain a break from one item to another.

Exactly, there are explicit costs and then there are also implicit costs. The implicit cost of forgoing traveling means losing a break between each student to relax and mentally prepare for the next class. Arguably tutoring from home may even be more stressful, since tutors will feel compelled to take on more students to fill up the time freed up by not needing to travel.

[Lisafuller]

Smart people need no tutors. Self-study is the best long-term option. Cheap and leads to independence.

You could say the same about schools and teachers or Universities, all information is in books and online, so why would a smart person need a teacher or professor to teach stuff that can be read.

Agree, tuition is not only for the academically weak. It’s for anybody who wishes to reinforce their learning, or get ahead by pre-learning new material.

[Lisafuller]

I know. I dont think there should be any discount for Zoom tution. Are we taking pay cuts while working from home. so why should tutors ??

Exactly, if we haven’t taken any pay cuts, why should they? They should be earning the same amount so they can continue to live enjoying the same quality of life that we do.