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Monday, June 11, 2007
CMN Correspondent
CHANDIGARH: Software firm AuthorGEN Technologies has developed a Web site, WiZiQ, that offers online classrooms to teachers and students.
WiZiQ is a virtual educational marketplace where an individual teacher can sell his knowledge. The site is a catalyst, another amazing offshoot of Knowledge process Outsourcing (KPO). The website has been set free and now it's up to the users to empower themselves.
Harmanpreet Singh, the founder and CEO of the Chandigarh-based company, compares WiZiQ works similar to what the world's biggest auction website eBay is currently doing: bring sellers and buyers together on a single platform.
The site draws inspiration from American home schools, where orthodox Christian families refuse to send their kids to multicultural schools and, instead, hire home tutors. WiZiQ has taken one step further. "Mark Cruthers, the most famous US home teacher also uses this website. The site uses the company's own unique software AuthorLIVE, which helps to convert everything into Flash." he said.
Presently, there are few such sites on the worldwide web. This one is barley two months old but besides India, teachers and learners in the other parts of the worlds are using this catalyst to spread their knowledge- sometimes for free, sometimes for a fee. The virtual classroom is equipped with two way audio, text, chat, PowerPoint and PDF document sharing.
As we saw and heard, on a WiZiQ GRE tutorial session, how a teacher sitting in city was giving tips on the most sought-after MBA examination to over 40 students sitting at their terminals with headphones in different parts of India and Pakistan, we realized that the world is (indeed) flat! The session can even be replayed.
Mayank Kumar, the company's marketing manager, says, a teacher with bare minimum computer skills can use WiZiQ. "He or She has to make his profile on the site. The better it is; the better will be the response. The profile can be searched through the site as well as engines like Google, etc. The teacher can use even social networking sites to pull students."
Raashid Malik, a Software engineer with AothurGEn, says one can find the tutor for any subject in the site's massive tutor directory. "There are area-specific searches, like tracking a good Maths tutor in Chandigarh getting him to teach you without you physically going to his place. There is a linguistic teacher in PU registered with us. There is the possibility of teaching English to Korean and Japanese kids sitting right here. We have a pool of teachers who are housewives. A tutor can make $15 for an hour's class, depending on the subject."
Harmanpreet says their aim now is to make it as revolutionary as eBay. The site's services are free now. "Once we build a critical mass, there will be subscription charges and commissions from the teachers."
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