Jeanine,
I still haven't made it to one of your classes but I am looking forward to it when I do. I think your experiences with WIZIQ will be an important indicator of the viability of the WIZIQ business model for entrepreneurs. I am concerned though, about the number of generic students withing the community.
By that, I mean we do not seem to be a popular site yet for general educational seekers. Personally I am trying to develop a more populist type class offerings which will bring more students into our pond. These classes will be more of an entertainment type format (but hopefully like the Disney model of "Edutainment"). As we develop more viewers we can encourage them to pursue more serious tutors as their individual needs are identified.
Another area I am experimenting with which may be of interest to you is a forced blending of student courses. Let me explain that further... It seems obvious , to me that the greatest educational market in the world today is English as a second language (ESL/EFL). As you have probably noticed people are begging for help in this new world economy. My theory is that we can best draw initial interest in other subject offerings (e.g. spreadsheets, history, math, etc.) by enticing students via a dual purpose (forced blending of course offering)class. This would entail simply adjusting the class material and teaching style to accommodate the non native English student.
On another level I think "forced blending" serves an equally important purpose (beyond finding more students). That being to reinforce the natural motivating forces within a person to continue the learning process. There are a few students who are adequately motivated to persevere in there studies just for the sake of learning English.
These natural self-motivated students are those who are linguistically talented by nature and/or are highly motivated by necessity. These might be those who may only get a job or an advanced education by passing some form of English exam. But a much larger audience are those who are not adequately motivated by these forces.
It is my theory that if one mixes other motivators into the learning English equation one can piggy-back (double up the contributors) their motivators to help them succeed. In my case, when I was a young man I was stationed in Turkey. I wanted to learn Turkish but was not very disciplined. But, when I found that if I wanted to meet and go out with Turkish girls I had to be accepted, respected and able to communicate with their family. Believe me, the secondary motivator (18 year old male libido) more than compensated for a lack of personal discipline.
Now I am not proposing that one would want to start a dating service to help students learn English. What I am suggesting is that we provide a dual purpose in some of our class offerings where English is a dual purpose in the class or even secondary. I am hoping that it will double the chances of a student being successful in their English learning goals.
In January of this year I will be introducing a class called "Project Management 4 ESL students". This will be a primer of management from the popular "for Dummies" series of books. I wanted to call it "PM 4 dummies and ESL" but thought it might be misconstrued or considered offensive. I am hoping that it drives the intellectual and practical interests of the students but also serves them with a convenient purposeful framework for developing their English skills.
This idea has been brewing for a while in my head. The tipping point was seeing and hearing the methods of Benjamin Stewart (one of my favorite gurus at WIZIQ). He is pioneering "blended learning" with his students. I cannot embrace nor replicate his methods as I have no live classes. But I do think he is "on to something" so I simply mashed his ideas and mine and am now coining the phrase "forced blending".
Gosh, I sure do go on sometimes, don't I?
In closing, I am hoping and praying for your success at WIZIQ.
George