The New Online Lesson Is Here.

Chances are you’ve heard the news, but we wanted to take another opportunity to share with you the recent (and very exciting) updates to the online learning tool here at Wyzant. This post shares a bit of backstory into how we got where we are today with the tool, as well as highlights details about the new features. Let’s dig in.

Why Online Tutoring Is So Important

As we started to collect more information and data about students, it helped us understand just how many adults are coming to Wyzant for help. And this number will only continue to grow as adults go back to school later in life, or discover they need to learn a new skill for their job. Considering the jam-packed schedules of these adults, more and more of them prefer online lessons out of convenience.

We know how much time and money tutors save by opting to tutor online, so why wouldn’t we continue to invest there? We’re committed to not only making Wyzant your best option for finding online students—but also to providing the best tool for conducting your lessons online.

A Little Backstory on the New Features

Any time we consider building a new feature into our product, we reach out to a number of tutors to better understand how they’re currently using the product, and what additions would help make their job easier. Over the course of 2016, we worked with a bunch of tutors who were using the Wyzant online learning tool on a regular basis to find out what we could do to improve the experience.

Next, we identified common trends amongst these tutors. What are the things they are asking for that also line up with the data we’ve collected from the student experience?

For example, we learned from our software development tutors that they found it ineffective to conduct a coding lesson using the tool. And since coding is becoming a highly in-demand skill, these types of lessons are on the rise—and will only continue to grow. Thus, our solution was that we needed to build a code editor to make it simple for tutors and students to create and edit code together in a variety of programming languages.

Through our research, we also learned that tutors who conducted any kind of writing instruction didn’t find the tool to be their best ally. And, because a large number of students at Wyzant are looking for help in foreign languages and essay writing, we decided to build a text editor to make collaborating over the written word easier and more accessible.

One of the biggest issues that came out of our research with tutors was actually coming from their students. Turned out, students were having a lot of trouble figuring out how to enter their online lesson. This was a no-brainer for our development team, who implemented a button within the student dashboard that allows them to enter their online lesson in one click.

Another trend among the tutors we spoke to was issues with the audio and video quality in the tool. We’ve taken a number of steps to ensure clear, sharp audio and video—and are continuously working to improve this technology. One way we’re doing so is giving you the option to rate your audio and video experience after every lesson. We’ve been tracking this feedback since its implementation, and much to our delight, the rating is steadily increasing.

Visit our online learning tool page to learn more and watch our tutorial videos. And, know that we’re in the process of making even more enhancements to the online learning tool, especially on the student side of things.

We’ll be sure to keep you updated here on the blog as we continue to release these updates—so be sure to check back often.

Best,

The Wyzant Team