Online Tutoring Still In Its Infancy: Sylvan Learning CEO Jeff Cohen (Part 7)

SM: What is your estimate of the 2010 tutoring market?

JC: In dollar terms, the numbers that I have seen suggest that the market is around $4 billion. There are 53 million students in public education in the United States. The real question, which I don’t think anyone can answer, is exactly how many of them need access to tutors?

SM: Those numbers give us some perspective. Out of 53 million students you have tutored, 50,000 are under the No Child Left Behind program. That indicates that the number of students actually getting access to tutoring remains very low.

JC: I agree with you. I think we are just at the beginning of what could be seen as the birth of an industry.

SM: I have been observing this since 2004. I am surprised that it has not moved more rapidly.

JC: My theory is that it has been very supply-side driven. There are a lot of folks who come from the pure technology standpoint. They throw out applications on the Web and hope to attract students. They almost try to create demand by spending a lot of money on the Web and trying to find students. That works temporarily, but we have found that most of those offerings do not have any staying power. My belief is that they do not get traction because they are very episodic in nature. They help students at a critical moment such as a tough homework problem. However, they are not developing a learning experience.

We have been OK with developing slowly so that we could extend a healthy, sustainable online experience. It has to be fruitful academically for a student and economically for us. I think you will find we will emerge as a leader in this industry. I expect our company to grow steadily over the next several years, and I believe that the relationship-driven approach is more sustainable. That is the type of offering that can take hold over more traditional tutoring offerings. That is what can transform the industry, and we are seeing early signs of that in our own business. The response we have from kids in our program is favorable. It is liberating for their schedules; it has features that are appealing to kids. It is just early in its development.

SM: Have you seen technologies that align with your philosophy that you could incorporate into your programs?

JC: We see technologies that we like, and certainly we do not have a belief that the technology has to be developed by us. If we see technologies that would enhance our service, we are happy to incorporate them into our program.

We are interested in technologies that support our blended learning environment. Things such as portals that allow parents to have greater insight into what their students are doing are good for us. It is more than just the teaching and learning environment we have talked about. It is also the ability of a parent to come along afterwards, access a portal, and watch the experience their child is having. That reinforces to parents the value they are getting from our program.

The other side of that is that classroom teachers can have portal access as well. What you are really trying to achieve is greater academic success. It is very important for a classroom teacher to know what a student is doing outside of the classroom. Teachers are incredibly busy and may not have time to field calls from all the parents of their students. Now if we provide them a note informing them that one of their students is in our online program and we provide them an access code, then they can follow along with our curriculum. We can also feed them reports and communicate with the teachers. That arguably creates more educational value.

SM: I think the opportunity is significant. I look forward to tracking where this goes.

This segment is part 7 in the series : Online Tutoring Still In Its Infancy: Sylvan Learning CEO Jeff Cohen
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