Online teaching platform for teachers

Now, tcyonline bonanza for teachers

(from India Press Release by TCY Learning Solutions P. Ltd.)

With an objective of unlocking the writing potential of talented teachers and empowering them, tcyonline.com has introduced an attractive revenue model to enable them earn a steady monthly income. Hundreds of teacher-publishers are being benefited through this program. The website has provided a unique student-teacher platform through which a teacher can upload his content and are paid.

The CEO of tcyonline.com, Mr. Kamal Wadhera, throws light on this unique model in an interview with R.M.S. Atwal

Highlights

What’s special about your online teacher-student platform and how is it going to benefit them?

With our experience of the last nine years in the education sphere, we noticed that a majority of the teacher fraternity, especially which has the capability to write or publish, either does not have avenues to publish or is just queuing up in front of the publishers. Most of the teachers do not know whether their manuscripts would be accepted or rejected. Then, finally, if at all a few of them are able get their work published, the payment mechanism is so non-transparent that after the end of the year they are just left wondering, was it worth it? So, we realized that there was a huge potential in our country that was still to be unlocked. There are lakhs of teachers who can write good content, possess good subject knowledge but never ever got a platform to have an access to lakhs of students. During the last 18-20 months, we did a considerable amount of research on this concept, before launching this platform last week for about 60,000 students who are already attempting tests everyday on our website. Teachers can now start earning through our website right from the day one. They can even get their product published even if it is a couple of tests comprising 50-60 odd questions. We are particular about original content, but we don’t bind them for exclusive rights.

Could you elaborate on the revenue model for teachers?

Ours is quite a transparent system. Everything is there on a teacher’s desktop. He can earn in two ways, one he will get some income when he uploads a test, and secondly, some amount will be added to his account on each attempt. So, with an effort of three-four hours on a single test, he can earn thousands of rupees. Moreover, the beauty of this revenue model and the platform is that he always has his earning calculation mechanism in front of him. He does not have to wait until 31st March, quarterly or half-yearly to know where he stands. He can see at any point of time how much he has earned and what his earnings are. Accordingly, he can work more on it, can refine and improve the quality for better income in subsequent months. He can also know how his customer (student) is using his content, what the improvement areas are and what changes have to be made. He can also compare his work with other authors’ in the same category at any point of time to know how their tests are being attempted. So, it is a complete platform – teachers can interact with other teachers & students, can make their communities; students can meet other students etc.

So, can an online publishing be a steady monthly income for the teachers?

Yes, why not. Now a teacher can earn a steady monthly income through online publishing. If you go to our site (www.tcyonline.com), you will find how people (teachers) have started using it. You will be surprised to know that some of the teachers would soon be earning the amounts that they had never thought of. And that may go on rising month after month as more and more students would attempt those tests. Even if they choose to write only for this platform, and not doing anything else, it may easily become their full time occupation. However we suggest them to be patient for a few months before this level of income arrives. Another advantage is that as more and more students attempt these tests, better the popularity of the tests, hence better his future prospects.

But how would you have the content quality control? What about the problem of copyrights violations?

We would use less of our judgment on the quality of the content. But we are very particular about its originality. We have experts sitting here, then we have a very intricate system that can make out whether the content is original or not. If we find that the content writers/teachers are submitting the content that is plagiarized, that is not their own, we can bar those teachers from the platform. Therefore, we strongly urge that there should be no intellectual dishonesty on this platform. Regarding the quality, a large part is left to the user. However, we would have our own scanner that would see the relevance of the tests. When we talk of empowering the student and empowering the teacher, we think we are none to decide whether the content is good or bad, let the student decide. If a student feels that the tests are not good enough, I am sure they will not tell their other friends, they will not invite other friends to the same test, and they will not hold competitions among themselves for the same test. Obviously, the usage of this content will be much lesser than the content that is more powerful and relevant. So, let the user decide, who are we to decide? On the possible copyrights violations I can say that it is loud and clear on our website. The rules are written large on our platform, a clear writing on the wall that if any party feels that any author, or a group of authors, used the content that actually belongs to some other party, they can send us the proof and we can take action right away.

So, it looks a win-win for the teachers. Don’t you agree?

Definitely. Let us look at the present scenario. An author has to complete his book and then he can think of publishing it. Now assume the scenario, there are some good authors who might have written a book and have written half a book, or a three-fourth of it. Since they might have some other commitments in their day-to-day lives, they have not been able to complete the book and by the time, they reach the market, most of them realize there are already other competitors and they are too late. But our platform will help them in a way, even if they have written three chapters, go ahead, publish them. In normal publishing scenario, they have to have all the chapters, print them, bind them and sell complete units. So, no matter what fraction of the book the teachers have written, even it is one test, that’s okay with us, they can just get started with us and see how the market responds to their content and improve as they go. This is better as compared to getting a feedback after fifteen months say. The teachers can have their feedback everyday, every hour or every minute. Now they can rectify and improve the things whenever they want and as soon as they want. Moreover, the teachers can form groups and invite the students. They can even invite other teachers to become their co-authors. So, it is not restricted to content writing but there is a great networking of intellectuals.

What’s a message for the teachers?

Teachers are already a very patient lot. But still I would like to reiterate that those who choose to join us may please be a bit patient for a first few months. Help us make the critical mass for yourselves on the platform before your work takes off. We’re also trying our best to reach out to the students wherever they are. Put in as much good content as you can. Together we would create a history.

Visit and register

www.tcyonline.com