2009-09-24 | Totuba Launches 360° Course Reviews

How it all started

Fostering the standardisation, internationalisation and promotion of China’s education sector are chief goals for Totuba.

Interested in further study in China, our founders began browsing hundreds of websites to find suitable options. They were dismayed to consistently find uniform course marketing messages, and quickly became discouraged. Regardless of whether it was one-on-one Chinese language training, Masters programs, or other courses, the information provided was either too positive, out of date, or insufficient. Friends and colleagues reported similar issues when searching for courses in China and other countries. This frustration inspired us to set up www.totuba.com, a service that now allows foreigners to search, compare and review courses in China, and it further encouraged us to begin writing editorial reviews of course providers: The Totuba 360° Course Review.

What is the Totuba 360° Course Review?

Totuba 360° Course Review aims to look behind the curtains of a course provider’s marketing message. Most websites browsed in the process of setting up www.totuba.com conveyed little about whether courses offered were a good fit for a prospective student. Totuba 360° Course Review adapts a system from organisational psychology, and gets those around a course interviewed to form a circular – hence 360° – feedback, giving prospective students a more accurate picture of whether a provider and course suits their personal needs.

Totuba 360° Course Review methodology

• Handpick a provider according to the target profile from a pool that includes well established, start-up, in-class, online and blended learning providers
• Check the provider’s website and obtain contact details
• Make an appointment with a course consultant
• Obtain provider and course introductions from the provider’s main office
• Attend an assessment to find out whether, and on which level, the student fits a course
• Attend a trial course session (usually a 60 minute class)
• Inspect and assess the course curriculum
• Interview a selection of teachers, administrative staff and management
• Have a selection of students inspect the school from angles that help determine the overall quality of the course, namely: the place, the people, the learning, and the outcomes
• Write and publish the 360° Course Review

Editorial rating

As the conclusion of a 360° Course Review, an editorial rating is assigned, reflecting the overall impression the provider made upon the reviewer during the review process. The rating is visualised as a sequence of degree characters as indicated in the image below.

Example: 4-degree editorial rating

The rating carries the following meaning with respect to the overall impression of the provider on the reviewer:

• 1 degree: poor
• 2 degrees: below average
• 3 degrees: good
• 4 degrees: very good
• 5 degrees: excellent