My First Tutoring Broadcast

As a developmental phase of the tutoring business I've been exploring ways to broadcast tutoring over the internet.

Thanks to Kirt McReynolds' recommendation I learned of zoom.com. For $10 a month I set up an account that allowed me unlimited minutes in staging a group video conference.

I bought a modest HD camera on a stand, pointed it over my shoulder at a small whiteboard, collected student e-mail addresses, and set a two-hour date for this afternoon.

Zoom.com allows the same video and chat capabilities as Skype, and as far as I could tell did so without some of the interruptive issues. As meeting organizer it gave me capability to mute any audio that was disruptive background noise.

The students could see my writing clearly, the audio was crisp, and their questions perfectly filled the time allotted. Plus there was a recording feature that let me capture it for playback benefits. This will also enable me to create my own videos if I'd like!

I can now say with great confidence that I can do this type of one-way tutoring for anyone in the country. If I can solve it into two-way tutoring, then it gives me flexibility beyond the library's hours, and in fact beyond the library itself. And if I can figure out how to be paid online, then the only thing that would separate me from going national is marketing.

Exciting times!