VidyaCenter - marketplace for coaching and education
VidyaCenter is a new Bangalore based startup, hoping to become the marketplace for coaching and education. Students can compare different institutions-teachers, read feedback, enroll for courses they are interested in. They can also take mock tests, compare results with peers and network with other students. If you are looking for coaching related to a specific topic, you can place an ad, alongwith the amount you are ready to pay for the coaching.
You can also sign up as a teacher/coach for a topic you are proficient with. Upload course content (can be text, video, presentation etc.) and quote the price you want to charge for the course. You can look up specific learning needs of students and if the needs match, contact the student about your course.
While the concept sounds cool, I have a few doubts about the service:
1) Can anyone sign up as a teacher ? Does the site weed out imposters ? Who determines if a person is qualified to sign up as a coach ?
2) How does the payment process work ? Does VidyaCenter act as an escrow, while the coaching is delivered ? How are
3) The site does have a feedback mechanism, but till there’s enough data to close the loop and collect substantial feedback data, what / how can students gauge effectiveness of a course/teacher ?
Coaching, especially CAT related coaching, has always been a mania in India. VidyaCenter does offer an interesting proposition, but till it gets a good chunk of users and good feedback data, the site will have its share of skeptics.
The site does have a bunch of pretty motivated folks behind it, so lets give them some time to build and grow the site.
June 14th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Hi Pranav,
thanks for writing about us in your blog. We are quite excited abt the feedbacks we are getting for the initial set of users who signed up.
You have raised some good concerns, to address them,
1) “Can anyone sign up as a teacher ? Does the site weed out imposters ? Who determines if a person is qualified to sign up as a coach ?”
> every teacher’s profile is screened before activated. Also students if they want to connect, and transact we provide escrow service to protect their money. Also open marketplace approach also filter imposters thru community feedback/ratings. So eventually only ‘good’ people will ‘bubble’ up among the pack
2) How does the payment process work ? Does VidyaCenter act as an escrow, while the coaching is delivered ? How are
> yes we provide credit card, bank deposits, DD etc. people can pay direclty or go thru us thru an escrow mechanism.
3) The site does have a feedback mechanism, but till there’s enough data to close the loop and collect substantial feedback data, what / how can students gauge effectiveness of a course/teacher ?
Yes, untill enough feedback is there, it is difficult. We provide a platform where people can voice their opinion/experience. Presently information is scattered across in different forums and making it difficult
Thanks
Subhendu
on behalf of
VidyaCenter founding team
June 16th, 2008 at 11:32 am
Thanks Subhendu for answering the questions that I’d raised. Is there a way that you determine the proficiency of the teacher / coach who is signing up ?
June 18th, 2008 at 3:06 am
From vBharat » VidyaCenter - marketplace for coaching and education…
VidyaCenter is a new Bangalore based startup, hoping to become the marketplace for coaching and education. Students can compare different institutions-teachers, read feedback, enroll for courses they are interested in. They can also take mock tests, co…