ICO Review: Tutellus

Tutellus is an online educational collaborative platform.

Having been in operation for the past five years, Tutellus aims to be the first platform that pays you for learning by creating an ecosystem where all players get a benefit, including students, teachers, and companies.

Already at 55 percent of their hard cap of $40,000,000, Tutellus has quite a bit of promise. When you consider the traction they’ve already built over the years, this could be a solid project to keep your eye on. Here’s what we think of their whitepaper:

The Basics

The goal of Tutellus is to improve education by implementing a model where people earn money while they study. Four main issues Tutellus aims to address include:

1. People cannot make money by studying, having to spend more instead.
2. Students often lack motivation, so they often stop studying.
3. Teachers can’t earn money depending on the value of the students that they generate, and are not fairly retributed for their efforts.
4. There’s a vast gap between employment and education, with millions of jobs unfilled.

To fix this, Tutellus aims to implement a decentralized system to strengthen the commitment of both students and teachers. They intend to be the first educational platform that pays students for learning (proof of learning) and remunerates the teachers according to their impact on the success of their students. They believe this model will help:

1. Students earn money learning, without paying.
2. Students becoming motivated by this incentive.
3. The success of students gives teachers more value.
4. Companies are hiring employees with a highly efficient matching process.

The Problems

Tutellus lists the following as problems in their industry:

• Poverty and Lack of Job Opportunities; which they believe they can help train workers in developing nations.

• Low Student Motivation; which is where their incentive program comes in on the blockchain.

• Low Teacher Motivation; where they want to show more appreciation for teachers.

• Weak Link with Job Market; which they hope to help pair more skilled workers with the right company.

How Their Token Works

Tutellus’ model will use two different tokens: TUT and Smart TUT (STUT).

TUT will be used as the platform’s currency and to interact with other platforms and currencies, while STUT will not be directly tradeable in fiat, but given as rewards to users for contributing educational value to the platform.

The TUT token will be used for:

1. Course purchases in places where it’s hard to use fiat (i.e., Cuba, Venezuela, etc.).
2. Course discounts available only with a purchase of token.
3. Donation services, only available in tokens.
4. Teacher services, only available in tokens.
5. Services to companies, only available in tokens.

Added Value For Students

The reward system for students will include:

• Asking relevant and insightful questions on the subject of a course.
• Providing valid answers to questions from other students.
• Applying the content taught in practical ways.
• Successfully passing exams.
• Submitting projects and related works.
• Taking part in evaluations of other students via a rubric system.
• Taking part in tutorials with other students.
• Reviewing the course, rating it, and providing feedback for improvements.

Added Value For The Teacher

With Tutellus, teachers currently have two revenue streams:

1. They get 70 and 85 percent of the price paid by the student when they buy a course.
2. They receive income from the subscription service fees.

The token infrastructure will create value by implementing a system where actions in the courses show commitment to the students, as well as teachers receiving 20 percent of the fees paid by companies using Tutellus to search for students needing to fill a job position.

Finally, Tutellus also notes features such as instant payment.

Other Features of Tutellus

Structurally, Tutellus also aims to offer some other incentives, including:

1. Scholarships for underprivileged, which will help provide users and companies with the ability to assign scholarships to anyone.
2. Loyalty programs, which will reward 5 to 10 percent of the price of a course to be granted in TUT tokens to all students who buy a course.

Our Thoughts

Tutellus certainly has done their homework on this assignment, and it definitely shines through in their whitepaper. As numerous companies in EdTech have been attempting to become the skills training meets an employment portal, Tutellus’ attempt to put in on the blockchain is a great application. Plus, they have the team and experience to get it done.

With a simple, but thorough explanation of their platform, Tutellus is a pretty sound project. The only limitations we see is perhaps showing what partners they’ve already formed, as well as how they plan to bring on more companies while they grow. Furthermore, they also make some pretty ambitious claims in regards to ending poverty, which on a practical level will take years, if not decades. However, despite these concerns, Tutellus could be a pretty great project to keep your eye on as possibly the frontrunner in EdTech.

Overall, Tutellus could be well worth the buy as a project to hop in on.