Imagine a world in which the needs and learning styles of children evolved together with technology. Too easy? What if we say, Nuha Ghouse, the Co-Founder and CEO of Tutopiya did just that. Here we discuss her journey, how Tutopiya came about, and how it is providing a scalable and affordable edtech solution to modern learners.
GARY REUS: Hey there, Nuha. How’s it going? Thank you for catching up with us here on Polaris Vega and truth be told, I am excited to know about you and Tutopiya! So, Nuha, walk us a bit on your background and passion for our readers here.
NUHA GHOUSE: My journey founding Tutopiya began in 2018 in Singapore whilst I was teaching students from many of the leading international schools in Singapore. Prior to moving to Singapore, I taught students from leading private schools in the UK.
I was determined to provide an effective live online tutoring experience as I wished to help my students who travelled long distances in public transport to my home. I realised the options for teaching live online were limited and ineffective so I embarked on developing my own live online tuition solution.
As a parent and a tutor, I realised the limitations and inconveniences both parties face where home tuition is concerned. In addition to the time, effort & money wasted travelling, there was also the lack of visibility of a student’s progress & how well the tutor engaged the student. My vision was to build a complete online teaching & learning platform which addressed these gaps.
GARY REUS: We know that you are the Co-Founder and CEO of Tutopiya, and to know your story first-hand is amazing. Out of curiosity, please, tell us more on the journey of how Tutopiya came about.
NUHA GHOUSE: Tutopiya started from a student’s simple request to have online tuition as he was boarded at Marlborough College in Malaysia. At that time, I was a full-time tutor and his mother reached out to me to teach him maths online. Initially, I taught him using Skype on my phone while handwriting formulae on paper because with a subject like math, it is not that easy to type out complex formulae quickly.
As a tutor, I had to regularly travel to students’ homes and usually spent at least an hour of valuable time travelling for a single lesson. With Tutopiya, commuting is not required from either side. This entices customers to want to try it out given the significant time savings. There is a need for a service like Tutopiya, because there is a gap in the market for online one-to-one tutoring.
GARY REUS: With the technology today, it has become apparent for educators and tutors from all around the globe that there has to be a focus on effectively reaching learners in remote settings especially with the COVID–19 situation lingering. What is Tutopiya’s role in providing a scalable and affordable edtech solution to modern learners?
NUHA GHOUSE: Tutopiya ventured into a remote setting way before the Covid-19 impacted the physical learning set-up. We recognized that one-to-one online teaching offers many benefits.
Tutopiya offers many sophisticated features that facilitate the online learning process making it most efficient, effective and convenient, such as lesson recording for student’s revision, advanced tutor booking features, teaching resources, practice assignments, tutor-student chat and progress tracking to name a few. We teach multiple subjects so this makes it very convenient for our learners. Our mobile app gives learners the ease to access all these features on the go including push notifications direct to mobile for class reminders, class links and chat messages.
Tutopiya has an extensive and well trained global network of experienced subject & curriculum specialist online tutors. Our tutors are all screened and trained to teach online effectively and efficiently combined with our high quality resources.
This has enabled us to offer affordable and scalable high quality education online to students in over 25 different countries.
GARY REUS: Tutopiya has the capacity for round-the-clock communication, such as through chat or discussion boards, so that the time spent learning is not limited to a few hours. So, what can we expect from it and how is it different compared to other online tuition platforms?
NUHA GHOUSE: We have invested in a sophisticated learning platform that offers a unique and personal learning experience to our students. We have an exceptional tech team that continuously works towards the continuous improvement of this platform.
The many features we offer to students, parents and tutors through our platform & mobile app makes online learning most effective & efficient. The platform offers a plethora of features ranging from lesson booking, lesson recording, homework uploading and feedback, chat features and much more.
In our efforts to make the experience exclusive and personal for our students we offer an assessment of the child after each session and strive towards improving the learning standards of the child.
We constantly listen to our customers, collect feedback and continue to incorporate feedback into our platform as well as our internal processes that make us stand out from the rest.
GARY REUS: When virtual communication and engagement are concerned, the public tend to have the misconception that they are difficult to manage; for instance, there is no face-to-face interaction. So, Nuha, how do you ensure that a relationship between student and teacher can influence the learner’s outcomes?
NUHA GHOUSE: The one to one interaction online has less distractions than in a physical set-up especially given that we work in an era of tech savvy students. The online set-up also enables our academic quality control team to constantly monitor the sessions, provide necessary feedback and conduct appropriate training for our tutors, to continue to meet high standards, continuously improving the students’ learning standards.
We track each student’s progress and provide complete visibility to parents via dashboards on separate parental accounts. This is in addition to the feedback provided to parents by our tutors after each lesson.
Furthermore, as a parent, it is generally difficult to gauge your child’s progress. Our online classroom has lesson-recording capabilities and provides unlimited access to these lesson recordings for students’ revision and parental monitoring. Parents may watch each lesson replay at their own convenience so they can gauge for themselves how each class is progressing.
GARY REUS: How is Tutopiya playing its role in influencing the growing enthusiasm of parents and students who are keen on taking up the IGCSE curriculum in today’s competitive landscape?
NUHA GHOUSE: Apart from the emphasis put into Tutopiya’s learning platform, we give equal attention to the content development, tutor training, status updates on the IGCSE curriculum by the respective educational bodies. We ensure that our content is up-to date and that Tutors are trained and updated with any such updates to the curriculum.
We continuously educate and update interested audiences through our website, blog posts, newsletters and webinars not only to influence their growing enthusiasm but also to keep our parents informed of these vital aspects in their childrens’ academic journey.
GARY REUS: What do you hope to achieve for Tutopiya in the next couple of years?
NUHA GHOUSE: We intend to be one of the world’s leading online education providers with a strong global presence and look forward to venturing into new markets across the world.
We are building a complete online education system which will not be limited to tutoring. We strive to uplift education standards worldwide and provide personalised, accessible, affordable, high quality education online.
GARY REUS: For those who wish to get in touch with you, what is the best way?
NUHA GHOUSE: Students & parents can experience our unique service by signing up for a free trial online lesson on Tutopiya.
