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The Daily OrangeOnline company connects students with international tutors
By Caitlin Dewey
Posted: 3/19/08, 12:29 AM EST Section: News
Sheldon is an economics tutor but doubts uProdigy can help math students.
"It's so hard to explain an equation over the Internet," he said. "Plus $15 is really expensive."
Outsourcing has also become a controversial issue as more and more white-collar jobs move overseas. According to Robinson, tutoring services like uProdigy should consider hiring retired American professors who are more attuned to American curriculums.
Hussain disagrees, claiming that uProdigy has already proven itself a viable alternative to conventional tutoring.
"At enormous schools like Syracuse, tutors aren't always available. You have to make an appointment a week in advance, and then wait around for it," Hussain said. "If you're in upper-level classes, the work you need help with may be too advanced for your tutor. You also can never really be sure who you're getting. Those aren't things you have to worry about with uProdigy."
Currently uProdigy only offers tutoring in math, business and the hard sciences, but Hussain has plans to expand in the future. He was recognized by the MIT 100K Entrepreneurship Competition, and the service has skyrocketed since its launch in October
Some students said they would be interested in uProdigy's services.
Nergish Sunavala, a junior broadcast journalism major, transferred to SU from India this year. She has attended two Indian universities - St. Xavier's and Jai Hind College - and said the uProdigy math and science tutors are probably of better quality than the ones at SU.
"If I needed math or science tutoring and I got an American tutor, I would run in the other direction," she said. "These [uProdigy] tutors probably know more than most tutors here. Math and science are just very big in Indian education."
At SU, the Writing Center will launch an online component in time for Summer Session 1 and will offer between 10 and 20 hours of writing help per week during the fall semester. While Luther said the Writing Center is not competing with services like uProdigy, he acknowledged the need to adapt to the Internet age.
"I'm sure we're going to hear more about this in the future," Robinson said. "We already have services like Turnitin and Google Books - why not put minds online?"
cedewey@syr.edu
"It's so hard to explain an equation over the Internet," he said. "Plus $15 is really expensive."
Outsourcing has also become a controversial issue as more and more white-collar jobs move overseas. According to Robinson, tutoring services like uProdigy should consider hiring retired American professors who are more attuned to American curriculums.
Hussain disagrees, claiming that uProdigy has already proven itself a viable alternative to conventional tutoring.
"At enormous schools like Syracuse, tutors aren't always available. You have to make an appointment a week in advance, and then wait around for it," Hussain said. "If you're in upper-level classes, the work you need help with may be too advanced for your tutor. You also can never really be sure who you're getting. Those aren't things you have to worry about with uProdigy."
Currently uProdigy only offers tutoring in math, business and the hard sciences, but Hussain has plans to expand in the future. He was recognized by the MIT 100K Entrepreneurship Competition, and the service has skyrocketed since its launch in October
Some students said they would be interested in uProdigy's services.
Nergish Sunavala, a junior broadcast journalism major, transferred to SU from India this year. She has attended two Indian universities - St. Xavier's and Jai Hind College - and said the uProdigy math and science tutors are probably of better quality than the ones at SU.
"If I needed math or science tutoring and I got an American tutor, I would run in the other direction," she said. "These [uProdigy] tutors probably know more than most tutors here. Math and science are just very big in Indian education."
At SU, the Writing Center will launch an online component in time for Summer Session 1 and will offer between 10 and 20 hours of writing help per week during the fall semester. While Luther said the Writing Center is not competing with services like uProdigy, he acknowledged the need to adapt to the Internet age.
"I'm sure we're going to hear more about this in the future," Robinson said. "We already have services like Turnitin and Google Books - why not put minds online?"
cedewey@syr.edu
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