WO2008039040A1

WO2008039040A1 - Methodology for enabling global languages' online p2p matching, tutorship & learning and payment & settlement

Info

Publication number: WO2008039040A1
Application number: PCT/KR2007/004799
Authority: WO
Inventors: Byong Pyo Ahn
Original assignee: Byong Pyo Ahn
Priority date: 2006-09-30
Filing date: 2007-10-01
Publication date: 2008-04-03
Also published as: KR100741390B1

Abstract

The present invention is a method for individually matching the educational needs and expertise of the global users, and the settlement of payments over the network using application programs supporting worldwide languages, constructing dynamic categories of matching between service providers (tutors) and users (students) instead of a conventional and formalized online education service provided by a server operator. This consists of the steps in a process; A step of an Advertisement Creation and Post; Search and Filter for the Advertisements; Class Conditions Negotiation and Agreement; Class Purchase and Payment Custody (Escrow); Class Start, Progress and End under System Mediation; Not-started Class Managing; Non-completed Class Arbitration; Teaching Material Creation, Share and Multi-lingual Versions Updates through Collaboration.

Description

METHODOLOGY FOR ENABLING GLOBAL LANGUAGES' ONLINE P2P MATCHING, TUTORSHIP & LEARNING AND

PAYMENT & SETTLEMENT.

Technical Field

[1] The present invention is a method for individually matching users to their educational needs and settling payments over the network using application program that support worldwide languages.

[2]

Background Art

[3] Existing online language education sites and offline language institutes offer limited lecturers and restricted and standardized curriculums and then allow students to select one of these. They are restricted, unidirectional, and a closed education environment.

[4]

[5] The following online education systems have been proposed.

[6]

[7] 1. Korean patent application 2000-8602 (2000.02.22. web-based remote lecture system) - reference invention 1.

[8] This patent defines a remote lecture system that enables web-based remote education and manages educational matters comprising of several steps. These consist of a user authentication step, a step which displays the subscribed lecture class information, a step which display the available lecture class list, a step which moves to the selected lecture class space, a step which moves to a class space such as a special lecture class or seminar, a step which creates a lecture document as a voice file, and a step which makes the voice data file available.

[9]

[10] This patent attempts to implement the already described standardized education environment consisting of lecturers and online lecture classes. Therefore, it has a problem in that it provides a restricted education environment.

[H]

[12] 2. Korean patent application 2000-19244 (2000.04.12. A method and apparatus for multimedia education system over the Internet) - reference invention 2.

[13] This patent is about interactive multimedia education using video, audio and text data between (foreign language) lecturers and students. The education system consists of an audio server, a lecture room server, an authentication server, a client server, and a waiting room server. The method includes a user (client) registration step, a user ID authentication step, an opening the lecture room step and a lecture selection step, a lecture time and lecturer selection step, and a lecture class step.

[14] This patent is limited to a "multimedia education system that enables online education between lecturers and students via text, audio, and video communication as described in claim 1 of this patent and the technology limit described above is clear and apparent.

[15]

[16] In addition, this patent provides an educational system that allows a number of clients consisting of interchangeable lecturers and students to connect to the server, and that allows students to select lectures from a wide curriculum provided by the lecturers in the waiting room (a chatting window) that is implemented by a chatting program, and which allows the selected lecture to be taken in a lecture room (chatting window) when students pay the tuition fee online.

[17]

[18] However, this style of education has a problem with verifying the quality of the education due to the pre-payment of the tuition fee, a problem in that the education is standardized and restricted because students should select one of the standardized lecturers, and a problem with the quality of the lecture class as lectures are provided by an indiscreet and temporary real-time online connection.

[19]

[20] 3. Korean patent application 2000-25862 (2000.05.15. A method and the apparatus for real-time foreign language lecturing over the Internet) - reference invention 3.

[21]

[22] This patent uses on-the-spot native speakers as lecturers. The lecturing system consists of a terminal, a network server, a web server, an authentication server, a video chatting server, a monitoring server, a tuition fee settlement method, a conversation recording and playing method and a translator. The method includes a sign up step, a user information and connection status provision step, and a real-time connection establishment step.

[23] This patent allows the server provider to control the student and lecturer clients and to provide education services between students and lecturers, and allows students to select and pay for lectures and tests from standardized formats. It is similar to reference inventions 1 and 2.

[24]

[25] 4. Korean patent application 2001-41418 (2001.07.11. A method for providing a language market in virtual space) - reference invention 4.

[26]

[27] This patent consists of a terminal, a web server, an authentication server, a log server, a video and audio chatting server, a conversation group management server, and a conversation group control server, and is similar to reference inventions 2 and 3 as it is a conventional online education system based on the selection of standardized lectures offered by lecturers and pre-payment is required to take a lecture.

[28]

[29] 5. Korean patent application 2000-24516 (2000.05.09. A method and the apparatus for a real-time remote video lecture system through the internet) - reference invention 5.

[30]

[31] This patent has students and lecturers take a test after signing up, determines their level, and then automatically connects students and lecturers according to their level for one-to-one education.

[32]

[33] 6. Korean patent application 2001-74726 (2001.11.28. A method and the apparatus for foreign language conversation classes using peer-to-peer matching in an online virtual community) - reference invention 6.

[34]

[35] This patent is about education over the Internet, and describes method and apparatus to verify lecturer s quality through prior evaluation and match students with lecturers based on user profile.

[36]

[37] All the online education systems described above present methods for providing online education via a simple chatting service. Differences are management by a server operator, the provision of a test to check the level, the selection of the time (schedule), the payment of a tuition fee, the opening of a lecturer class, and the recording of the lecture. These are not significant as they are the same as selecting a lecture and paying in advance on the Internet. In the previous patents, the production of a dynamic curriculum through the agreement of the person who wishes to give a lecture (the tutor) and the person who wishes to take a lecture (the student) was not supported, the flexible determination of the tuition fee through electronic negotiation was also not supported, after-sales (arbitration) management was not supported because of the fixed pre-payment of the tuition fee, avoiding the degradation of the offered education was difficult, and tutors were managed in a fixed, restricted manner.

[38]

[39] As a result, from the view point of commercial availability, these patents have problems with server maintenance costs, system maintenance, low feasibility probability, and the degradation in the credibility of the system and the willingness of the relevant actors to participate by separating lecturers and students. [40]

Disclosure of Invention

Technical Problem

[41] The present invention is aimed at satisfying the needs of the online one-to-one foreign language study market for native speakers worldwide as globalization accelerates and aims to provide a mutually agreed on dynamic infrastructure for the person-to-person online foreign language study market worldwide.

[42]

[43] For these objectives the following items are required:

[44] 1. Online space, services, and systems for the matching of language study providers and consumers.

[45] 2. A distribution certification algorithm that verifies and certifies the integrity of transactions for person-to-person online foreign language study.

[46] 3. A global payment and settlement system that provides an escrow service which receives payment from consumers and delays the sending of the payment to the providers until the transaction is complete and both parties are satisfied.

[47]

Technical Solution

[48] The present invention describes a solution for these requirements in order to provide the environment and opportunities for continuous foreign language use by enabling the distribution of language study between persons in different countries in various flexible formats. This enables people to be both tutor and student depending on their needs so that a person can be a tutor teaching their own mother tongue and at the same time they can also be a student learning a foreign language.

[49]

Advantageous Effects

[50] The present invention encourages a low tuition fee through self-controlling price negotiations between a number of tutors and students rather than a pre-defined price. Tutors who can provide specialized contents however can earn more. The present invention provides a transaction settlement application based on the start and completion of the education service so as to secure the provision of and the satisfaction of lecture classes by ensuring the integrity and reliability of tuition fee payments.

[51]

[52] The present invention enables tutors to register keywords for PREFERRED CLASS

SUBJECTS so that tutors can give SUBJECT-BASED classes reflecting the tutor's backgrounds such as their academic careers, occupations, hobbies, interests, and so on. Students can search for their preferred class subjects and select the class by the tutor who has multiple commonalities or provides the preferred subject(s). [53] [54] Using the present invention, tutors not only sell their language skills but also easily create language class materials regarding various subjects they wish to teach and use the created class materials so that students study more efficiently. Tutors can create lecture videos by recording their lectures prior to or during the class so that they can be posted, shared, and/or sold, and used for various services. [55] [56] In addition, the individual matching of educational needs and the settlement of payment can be provided by wired or wireless network platforms or devices. The present invention also includes providing the service over wireless networks through mobile devices. [57]

Brief Description of the Drawings [58] FIG. 1 is a flowchart representation of the overall operation of the present invention. [59] FIG. 2 is a flowchart representation of the selection procedures on the initial service page of the present invention. [60] FIG. 3 is a flowchart representation of the sign up procedures of the present invention. [61] FIG. 4 is a flowchart representation of the procedures for creating and posting an advertisement by the tutor of the present invention. [62] FIG. 5 is a flowchart representation of the procedures for creating and posting an advertisement by the student of the present invention.

[63] FIG. 6 is a flowchart representation of the procedures for creating and posting advertisements for tutors and students of the present invention, that are represented by

FIG. 2b and FIG. 2c respectively. [64] FIG. 7 is a flowchart representation of the student login procedures of the present invention. [65] FIG. 8 is a flowchart representation of the procedures to search for and select a tutor using the search engine in the present invention. [66] FIG. 9 is a flowchart representation of the procedures to search for and select a tutor using the Proposed Tutor List in the present invention. [67] FIG. 10 is a flowchart representation of the procedures to search for and select a tutor through the automatic system recommendations list in the present invention. [68] FIG. 11 is a flowchart representation of the class agreement process of the present invention. [69] FIG. 12 is a flowchart representation of the procedures for the custody and management of payments to ensure safe transactions. [70] FIG. 13 is a flowchart representation of the processes for starting and completing a class of the present invention. [71] FIG. 14 is a flowchart representation of the verification, conference and handling processes for not-started classes. [72] FIG. 15 is a flowchart representation of the arbitration process for not-completed classes of the present invention. [73] FIG. 16 is a flowchart representation of the real-time settlement process of the present invention. [74] FIG. 17 is a flowchart representation of creating teaching materials in the present invention. [75] FIG. 18 is a flowchart representation of creating multi-lingual versions of teaching materials purchasing teaching materials through a teaching material search. [76] FIG. 19 is an example screen shot that appears when a person logs into the system of the present invention, clicks the Student tab and searches for a tutor. [77] FIG. 20 is an enlarged representation of the search results of the tutor advertisement table that appears when a person searches for a tutor in the screen of FIG. 19. [78] FIG. 21 is an example screen shot of the process of creating and sending a class purchase order to a tutor from a student in the present invention. [79] FIG. 22 is an example screen shot that appears when a tutor clicks the counter-offer tab for a class purchase order of FIG. 21. [80] FIG. 23 is an example screen shot of the process of readjusting the tuition fee offered by a student and sending it back to the student in the present invention. [81] FIG. 24 is an example screen shot that appears when a student accepts the tuition fee readjusted by the tutor in the present invention. [82] FIG. 25 is an example screen shot of the purchasing process of a student according to the class agreement in the present invention. [83] FIG. 26 is an example screen shot that appears when a tutor requests a class completion registration after completing a class in the present invention. [84] FIG. 27 is an example screen shot that appears when a student accepts a class completion registration request, in the present invention. [85] FIG. 28 is an example screen shot that appears when a tutor confirms a class completion registration request accepted by a student in the present invention. [86]

Mode for the Invention [87] The best mode that carries out the present invention to achieve the above objectives by providing an application that supports worldwide languages and provides person- to-person matching of their educational needs and requirements and payment methods is described below, referring to the attached FIGURES.

[88] FIG. 1 is a flowchart representation of the overall operation of the present invention.

[89] The present invention comprises of the following steps:

[90] 1. Creating and posting an advertisement after signing up.

[91] 2. Searching for and filtering advertisements between tutors and students.

[92] 3. Agreeing to a class through the exchange of system forms.

[93] 4. Ensuring the safety of the transaction through the custody and management of the paid money following the class purchase

[94] 5. Managing the starting and completing class processes to secure the integrity of the transaction.

[95] 6. Managing the verification, conference and handling processes for not-started classes.

[96] 7. Arbitrating non-completed classes and disputes arising from non-completed classes to ensure the fairness of transactions.

[97] 8. The real-time settlement of the tuition fee held by the Real Time Global

Settlement Application server (Escrow) according to the contract between the student and the tutor.

[98] 9. Creating teaching material (also multi-lingual versions) and purchasing teaching material by searching for it.

[99]

[100] FIG. 2 is a flowchart representation of the selection procedures on the initial service page of the present invention. A student or tutor (lecturer) who wishes to sign up, connects to a site implemented by the present invention that includes a web server, a streaming server, and so on ("GL HUB" used in the FIGURES is an abbreviation for GLOBAL LANGUAGES HUB ) (100), and depending on the requirements of the user (101), he or she can select either a general sign up (Al l), the posting an advertisement step for language sales (class sales) (BI l), the posting an advertisement step for language purchases (class purchasing) (Cl 1), and a step in which a user can sell and purchase languages simultaneously (Dl 1). The detailed process for each step that follows each selection is given by FIGS. 3 to 6.

[101]

[102] FIG. 3 is a flowchart representation of the sign-up procedures of the present invention. If a person selects the Sign Up button on the service site (Al 1), a general agreement text is displayed (A 12). If the user agrees the agreement process continues (A13), and if the user disagrees with the corresponding agreement, the process is terminated (A 17). If the user agrees to the corresponding agreement, the member information entering page appears (A 14). The member information page includes the languages the member is able to use, the mother tongue of the user selectable in the language selection list Region->Country->Language->Detailed Language or Language->Detailed Language as well as basic personal information such as the name, ID, password, sex, age, contact information, address, e-mail, etc. The Detailed Language option allows the selection of a standard language or local dialect.

[103] This is used to select which languages the user can use freely, and to allow the user to select one of the 'LANGUAGES THAT YOU CAN SPEAK FLUENTLY' entered in the 'sign Up' step when the user wishes to register their tutor advertisement and to 'create an advertisement' for the selected language. If a user wishes to create an advertisement for a language that is not registered, the user can register that language as a new language.

[104]

[105] The member information including the detailed member information is saved to the member information database (A 15) that interacts with the server. By saving the information, the sign up step is completed.

[106]

[107] FIG. 4 is a flowchart representation of the procedures for creating and posting an advertisement by the tutor (B 11) of the present invention. If a user tries to post an advertisement selling a language (class), the system checks if the user is a member of the member information database (B 12). If the user is not a member, the sign up step starts (FIG. 3). If the user is a member, the system allows the user to log onto the system (B 14). If the login is completed normally, the instructions for creating and posting an advertisement (B 15) and the advertisement language selection step are displayed (B 16). The languages displayed for the advertisement language selection step are determined by the 'LANGUAGES THAT YOU CAN SPEAK FLUENTLY' set in the member information input step (A14) of the Sign Up step (FIG. 3).

[108]

[109] After selecting a language for the advertisement and clicking the Continue button, the entering the advertisement fields step (B 17) for the selected language continues. This step may include TUTORING LANGUAGES and CLASS SIZE such as 1:1 (PRIVATE TUTORING) or 1: N (GROUP TUTORING) and also includes the following examples.

[110] - TEACHING APPROACH & GOALS: Introduces the tutor's teaching style and what the student can gain from this approach.

[I l l] - CLASS SCHEDULE: A tutor can register the tutor's available class schedule with the calendar-format CLASS SCHEDULE TABLE so that students can easily and instantly view the available schedule of the tutor. In addition, if a tutor's available time is not regular, the tutor can register their schedule in a text format (non calendar) or confer with a student directly about the possible schedule.

[112] - TUITION FEES & TIME: It is recommended proposing a tuition fee for each minimum class time unit that can be 10 minutes or 1 hour in $USD or proposing a time for the minimum payment unit such as 1 $USD in order to provide a standardized and regular price proposal to students.

[113] - PREFERRED CLASS SUBJECTS : The present invention has tutors register keywords for their PREFERRED CLASS SUBJECTS so that tutors can give SUBJECT-BASED classes reflecting the tutors backgrounds such as their academic careers, occupations, hobbies, interests, and so on, rather than give a lecture according to a pre-determined text. Students can search for their preferred class subject(s) and select the class by the tutor who has multiple commonalities or provides the preferred subject(s).

[114] - TEACHING EXPERIENCE & CERTIFICATE(S): Enables tutors to present a teaching history and certificates relevant to the target language.

[115] - VIDEO INTRODUCTION: Enables tutors to upload an introductory video to give students a more concrete and realistic idea about the tutor.

[116] If the above advertisement fields have been entered, the tutor can determine whether to look at a preview (B 18) of the entered information. If the tutor selects (yes), a preview is displayed (B 19) and a message appears asking the author if they want to make changes (B20).

[117] If the tutor selects (yes) to edit the advertisement, the user is returned to the entering the advertisement fields step (B 17). If the tutor selects (no) or has not selected preview in the preview selection step (B 18), the user continues to the advertisement posting (registration) step (B21).

[118]

[119] The advertisement posted in the above advertisement posting (registration) step

(B21) is registered with the TUTOR AD LISTINGS (B22) and saved in the database so that it is posted on the service site as well as other tutors advertisements (B23).

[120]

[121] In addition, students search for advertisements using the search engine, filter the search results, compare the tutor conditions, select a CANDIDATE TUTOR and send an offer. (FIG. 19 and FIG. 20).

[122]

[123] The information for the tutor advertisement list consists of tutors basic member information and the advertisement fields in this step. Examples of the fields in a tutor advertisement list are as follows. [124] - ID

[125] - TUTORING LANGUAGES

[126] - TUITION FEES & DURATION

[127] - PREFERRED CLASS SUBJECTS

[128] - CLASS SIZE

[129] - CLASS SCHEDULE

[130] - CLASS MILEAGE: Class mileage is a score determined by the amount of actual lecture time of a tutor, the tuition fee, the popularity of the tutor evaluated by students who have finished the class and may include education attitude, enthusiasm, competence, and so on. The greater the mileage, the higher the position of the tutor on the list. This measure may be the most important for students to identify the competence and preference of tutors.

[131] - CLASS EVALUATION RATING: This value is the average of the class evaluation scores determined by the students when the class is finished and is an important measure for students to confirm the tutors REFERENCES.

[132] - TEACHING CONTENT: This value shows the total number of teaching materials created, posted or held by the tutor.

[133] - LOGIN STATUS: Shows the login/logout status of the tutor so that students can search for logged on tutors and contact them immediately in real-time.

[134] When the above step is completed, the tutor advertisement list is saved to the database and the tutor advertisement is posted to the service site (B23).

[135]

[136] FIG. 5 is a flowchart representation of the procedures for creating and posting a student's advertisement of the present invention. If a student selects this function to create and post an advertisement for a language purchase, the system checks if the user is a member (C12). If the user is not a member, the sign up step of FIG. 3 starts (C13). If the user is a member, the system allows the user to log onto the system (C 14). If the login is completed normally, the instructions for creating and posting an advertisement (C 15) and the selecting the language for the advertisement step is displayed (C 16). The user enters the advertisement fields (C17). If the user has selected the preview step (C18), the entered contents of the advertisement are displayed on the screen (C19). If the user decides to edit the advertisement in the edit advertisement option (C20), the advertisement field input step (C 17) is run again for the user to edit the advertisement. If the user does not select to modify or preview the advertisement, the advertisement registration (posting) step (C21) starts, the student advertisement list (C22) is created and saved to the database, and is uploaded to the service site completing the creating and posting a student advertisement step is completed (C23).

[137] In addition, in the entering the advertisement fields step (C17), the input fields may consist of the following information.

[138] The information may include the TUTORING LANGUAGES and CLASS SIZE such as 1:1 (PRIVATE TUTORING) or 1: N (GROUP TUTORING) and also include the following examples.

[139] - PROFICIENCY LEVEL: A student can select Basic, Intermediate or Advanced for each of the Writing, Listening, Reading, and Speaking fields.

[140] - CLASS SCHEDULE: A student can register their ideal class schedule or enter "to be determined after conferencing". For example, it can be "30 minutes per class, twice a week, for 2 months" or "to be determined after conferencing"

[141] - TUITION FEES & DURATION: It is recommended proposing a tuition fee for each minimum class time unit which can be 10 minutes or 1 hour in $USD or proposing a time for the minimum payment unit such as 1 $USD in order to provide a standardized and regular price proposal to tutors.

[142] This is for students to register their optimal tuition fee and class schedule. The present invention enables proposing concrete conditions such as 5 $USD per hour (1), twice a week, for one month, 40 USD for 8 times, so that starting conditions can be considered when the student confers with the tutor.

[143] - PREFERRED CLASS SUBJECTS: The present invention has students register keywords for PREFERRED CLASS SUBJECTS so that tutors can give SUBJECT- BASED classes reflecting the student's background such as their academic careers, occupations, hobbies, interests, and so on, rather than give a lecture according to a predetermined text. Therefore, tutors can also search for preferred students who have multiple commonalities or share interests with the tutors.

[144]

[145] FIG. 6 is a flowchart representation of the steps for creating and posting advertisements for tutors and students of the present invention.

[146] The present invention enables a person to be a tutor teaching their mother tongue or another fluent language and also enables them to be a student learning a foreign language at the same time. If a user wants to create and post both student and tutor advertisements (Dl 1), the creating and posting a student advertisement step runs first (D 12) until the procedures of FIG. 5 are complete. Then, the creating and posting a tutor advertisement step of FIG. 4 begins (D 13) and once completed, the creating and posting student and tutor advertisements step is completed (D 14).

[147]

[148] FIG. 7 is a flowchart representation of the student login procedures of the present invention and shows the search for a tutor step of the student. The procedures of FIG. 7 consist of a login step to log into the worldwide language support application server, dealing with payment and settlement (110), and a search path selection step (111). The search path selection step consists of searching for a tutor using a search engine (El l), searching for a tutor based on the posted student advertisements and searching for a tutor based on the proposal (Fl 1), and searching for a tutor through the automatically generated recommended tutor list step (Gl 1).

[149]

[150] The detailed structure of each of the search steps (El I)(Fl I)(Gl 1) is given below.

[151]

[152] FIG. 8 is a flowchart representation of the procedures to search for and select a tutor using a search engine in the present invention. This procedure consists of a Basic and a Detailed Search. If a user selects a Basic Search, the desired languages are listed (E13); if one of the languages is selected, tutor advertisements for the corresponding language are listed (E 15).

[153] Then, by filtering the search result (E16), the tutor conditions are compared (E17).

The student then selects a candidate tutor (E 18) or changes the search type (E 12).

[154] It is recommended providing the following items for the Detailed Search step

(E14); Tutoring Languages, Tuition Fee, Preferred Class Subjects, Class Schedule, Class Size (Type), Class Mileage, Class Evaluation Rating, Teaching Content, ID.

[155] When a candidate tutor is selected, a message appears asking the user if they want to proceed to the class agreement with the tutor (E19). If there is no class agreement, the advertisement of the current candidate tutor is saved for later use (E20), the candidate tutor advertisements are saved as a list in the database (E21), and the procedure is finished (E22).

[156] If class agreement is selected, the class agreement process step starts (Hl 1) and is described in detail in the class agreement process.

[157]

[158] FIG. 9 is a flowchart representation of the procedures to search for and select a tutor through the Proposed Tutor List in the present invention. The system checks if the user is already a member (F12), and if the user is not a member, the sign up step of FIG. 3 is started (F13). If the user is a member, the system allows the user to log onto the system (F14), and the user can search for and view the Proposed Tutor List (F15).

[159] The Proposed Tutor List is created by tutors reading student advertisements and then entering their proposal message. The Proposed Tutor List is created by listing the combination of the proposal message and the tutor advertisement of each tutor so that it can be easily filtered. The proposal message includes sending a message.

[160] A student filters the received Proposed Tutor List (F 16), compares the tutor conditions (F17) and selects a candidate tutor (F18).

[161] When a candidate tutor is selected, a message appears asking if the user wants to proceed to the class agreement with the tutor (F19). If not, the advertisement of the current candidate tutor is saved for later use (F20), the candidate tutor advertisements are saved as a list in the database (F21), and the procedure is finished (F22).

[162] If there is a class agreement, the class agreement process step starts (Hl 1) and is described in detail in the class agreement process.

[163]

[164] FIG. 10 is a flowchart representation of the procedures to search for and select a tutor through the automatic system recommendations list in the present invention. The system checks if the user is a member (G 12), and if the user is not a member, the sign up step of FIG. 3 starts (G13). If the user is a member, the system allows the user to log onto the system (G 14), and the user can search for and view the Automatically Recommended Tutor List (G 15).

[165]

[166] The Automatically Recommended Tutor List is generated by the automatic tutor recommending application (G23) that analyzes and compares student and tutor advertisement lists and creates a recommended tutor list according to their similarities by connecting to the database. For example, the teaching and learning language in the advertisement field should be the same and for the other fields, a text string comparison, nearest value comparison, or maximum or minimum value limitations can be applied. The target fields may include the tuition fee, the preferred class the subject, the class size, the class schedule, the class mileage, the class rating, the existence of class teaching materials, etc.

[167]

[168] A student filters the recommended tutor list (G 16) generated by the application, compares tutor conditions (G17) and then selects a candidate tutor (G18). When a candidate tutor is selected, a message asking if the user wants to proceed to the class agreement with the tutor is displayed (G19). If not, the advertisement of the current candidate tutor is saved for later use (G20), the candidate tutor advertisements are saved as a list in the database (G21), and the procedure is finished (G22). If there is class agreement, the class agreement process step starts (Hl 1) and is described in detail in the class agreement process.

[169]

[170] FIG. 11 is a flowchart representation of the class agreement process of the present invention. If the class agreement process is selected, a screen is displayed where the user can select one of 3 class agreement types (H 12) consisting of a query message exchange type, a sample class type, and an immediate class purchasing offer transmission type.

[171]

[172] If the query message exchange type is selected, the system checks if the candidate tutor is logged on (H 13). If the tutor is logged on, a real-time query and answer session between the student and the tutor is provided through a messenger program provided by the system (H 14). If the tutor is not logged on, the student can write and send a query message to the tutor and the tutor can read the message and send a reply when the tutor logs onto the system (H15).

[173] When the query is answered, the student can determine whether to purchase the class (H16) and finish the process (H17) or send a class purchasing counter-offer (H23).

[174]

[175] If the sample class type is selected, the system checks if the candidate tutor is logged on (H18). If the tutor is logged on, the student requests a sample class by sending a message to the tutor. If the tutor accepts the request, the real-time sample class process starts (H 19).

[176] If the tutor is not logged on, the student can write and send a sample class request message to the tutor (H20). Then the sample class process starts depending on the tutor's answer (H21). When the sample class is finished, the student can determine whether to purchase the class (H22) and finish the process (H17) or send a class purchasing offer (H23).

[177]

[178] If the immediate class purchasing offer transmission type is selected, the student can immediately send a class purchasing offer (H23). The class purchasing offer formally notifies the student's intention to purchase a class. It is recommended describing conditions such as the class tuition fee, content and schedule in the offer and to send it to the tutor in electronic form for the later negotiation with the tutor.

[179]

[180] Example screen shots of the above step are shown by FIGS. 21 to 25 so that they can be referred to in the following detailed structure and descriptions.

[181]

[182] If the student sends a class purchasing offer (H23), and the tutor receives the offer

(H24), the tutor determines whether to accept the received offer (H25). If the tutor decides to not accept the offer, the tutor can decide whether to send a counter-offer to the student (H28). If the tutor decides to not send a counter-offer, the process is finished (H29). If the tutor decides to send a counter-offer, the student receives the counter-offer (H30). The student can decide whether to accept the counter-offer (H31). If the student decides to accept the offer, the student sends an acceptance notification (H32), and the tutor receives the notification and the class agreement is finalized (H33) and the process is finished. If the student rejects the offer (H31), the student can decide whether to send another counter-offer (H34). If the student decides to not send a counter-offer, the process is finished (H35). If the student decides to send a counteroffer, the student can send a counter-offer and the tutor receives the offer (H36). Then the tutor decides whether to accept the received offer (H25) and restarts the process.

[183] In the step where the decision is made whether to accept the offer (H25), if the tutor decides to accept the offer, the tutor sends an acceptance notification (H26) and the student receives the notification and the class agreement is finalized (H27). It is recommended saving and managing the offer and counter-offer correspondence (history) between the student and the tutor once the class agreement is made.

[184] In addition, the contents of the final class agreement are saved to the server and the tuition fee information of the agreement is retrieved from the database and is displayed for the tuition fee transaction.

[185]

[186] FIG. 12 is a flowchart representation of the procedures for the custody and management of payments to ensure safe transactions. If a class agreement is made, the class purchasing step starts (Il 1). The student purchases the necessary credit to take the corresponding class (112) by connecting to the Real Time Global Settlement Application that is connected to the International Payment System (113).

[187] To purchase credit, international payment methods such as by credit card, or alternative online payment methods such as PAYPAL, CHECKOUT, BILL ME LATER, etc. can be used.

[188] The credit for the purchased class is stored in the database until the class is completed normally (Escrow) by the Real Time Global Settlement Application that guarantees the safety of the transaction (114). The credit corresponding to the class tuition fee is moved to the student's class credit account and the student can see the amount of credit. The credit for the class tuition fee is not sent to the tutor in advance (115).

[189] If the above steps are completed, the tuition fee payment completion message is sent to the tutor (116). The tutor receives and confirms the message (117), the class is confirmed (118), and the class purchase is completed.

[190]

[191] FIG. 13 is a flowchart representation of the processes for starting and completing a class of the present invention. The student and tutor connect to the server at a specified time and enter a lecture room which consists of a VoIP communication application, a chatting application, a shared teaching material board, and electronic dictionary modules. Interacting with a terminal service is recommended.

[192] The present invention saves the time information for each step of each class in the database saving objective data for the settlement of the tuition fee kept (Escrow) by the Real Time Global Settlement Application and for the arbitration of any disputes. Students and tutors can confirm the objective time later.

[193]

[194] The following fields are recommended for the time record log.

[195] - The respective times when the student and tutor entered the lecture room.

[196] - The time when a party begins communication and the other party replies to the message.

[197] - The time when the tutor requests the student to register the start of class.

[198] - The time when the class officially begins by the student accepting the class start registration request from the tutor.

[199] - The time elapsed during the class.

[200] - The time when the class is stopped by one or both of them leaving the lecture room.

[201] - The time when the class is resumed by one or both of them entering the lecture room.

[202] - The time when the tutor requests the student to register the completion of the class.

[203] - The time when the class is officially completed by the student accepting the class completion registration request from the tutor.

[204] In the step that checks if the student and tutor have entered the lecture room (J 19)

(J12), if either the student or the tutor is not in the lecture room, it is classified as a not- started class (J20)(J13) and the not-started class verification, conference and handling process begins (KI l).

[205]

[206] However, if all goes according to plan, the student and tutor enter the online virtual lecture room at the specified time and launch the class applications (J21)(J14).

[207] It is recommended that the class applications consist of a VoIP communication application, a chatting application, a shared teaching material board, and electronic dictionary modules, as well as a terminal service.

[208]

[209] Example screen shots of the above steps are shown by FIG. 26 so that they can be referred to in the following detailed structure and descriptions.

[210]

[211] If a tutor or student sends a class start registration request to the other party in the lecture room (J15), the target tutor or student receives the request in real-time (J22). If the tutor or student reads the content and sends an acceptance message (J23), the corresponding student or tutor receives the message and starts the class (J16).

[212] If the class commences (J24)(J17), the present invention provides functions for recording the chatting, audio, and video streams of the class so that the student and tutor can use them later. For the student taking the class (J24), a Create Event button is provided on the lecture room screen for the student to call the tutor. These recordings and event generations are used by the system for creating the analysis and arbitration report (L31) in the arbitration process (LI l).

[213] When a class is completed, the tutor requests a class completion registration (J18), and the student receives the request (J25) and decides whether to accept the request or not (J26).

[214]

[215] If the student decides to not accept the class completion registration request, the arbitration process for a not-completed class is started (Ll 1). If the student decides to accept the class completion registration request, the acceptance message is sent (J27), and the tutor receives the message and ends the class (J31). The real-time settlement process then starts (Oi l).

[216]

[217] The student moves to the class evaluation step after sending the acceptance message

(J28), and the score entered by the student is reflected in the CLASS EVALUATION RATING and saved in the database. The changed CLASS EVALUATION RATING is reflected in the tutor advertisement table (J29) and is also sent to the tutor (J32). When the class completion (J31) is confirmed, the CLASS MILEAGE is increased accordingly so that the data can be used to calculate the tutor's ranking such as the lecture time, tuition fee, popularity and so on in order to enhance the quality of the lecture and credibility of the education system that has always been a problem with virtual space education (J30). The data as well as the CLASS EVALUATION RATING is reflected in the tutor advertisement table (J29). After the tutor confirms the accumulated CLASS MILEAGE (J33), the class evaluation reception and confirmation step is started (J32) and the process is finished (J34).

[218]

[219] FIG. 14 is a flowchart representation of the verification, conference and handling processes for not-started classes. It represents the flow in case the verification, conference and handling step for not-started classes (Kl 1) is selected during the processes of FIG. 13. If a class fails to start because the student or tutor failed to enter the lecture room before the waiting time passed counted from the determined starting time of the class, (the waiting time refers to the period of time that one party of a class can be accepted to wait for the other party after the determined start time of the class. 5 or 10 minutes is recommended for the waiting time and this may be adjustable in the system.), the system checks if the currently not-logged on object (student or tutor) is within the permitted number of class reschedules (K12). The permitted number of class reschedules determines the number of opportunities for the student and tutor to rearrange the class schedule on the basis of the total number of classes and this is adjustable. It is recommended that the permitted number of class reschedules is determined proportional to the total number of classes and is adjustable so that it can be agreed upon between students and tutors.

[220]

[221] If the allowed number of class reschedules is exceeded (K13), the other party is given the right to submit a claim and the step permitting the claim is activated (K13). If the party has the right to submit a claim, and if the party is a tutor, the step allowing the class tuition fee to be claimed is initiated (K19). If the party is a student, a step allowing the refund of the class tuition fee is activated (Kl 8).

[222]

[223] If a tuition fee claim request is received in the step above (K20), it is handled by the

Real Time Global Settlement Application (K21). If the claming party is a student, the class tuition fee refund step is activated (K22), the tuition fee is received and confirmed (K25) and the process is finished (K26). If the claming party is a tutor, the class tuition fee is transferred (K23), and the tuition fee is received and confirmed (K24), and the process is finished (K26).

[224]

[225] However, if the allowed number of class reschedules is not exceeded or no claim is submitted, the student and tutor enter the class schedule adjustment conference step (K14) (K17). It is recommended that the conference moves forward in such a way that one party sends the available schedule to the other party, and the other party replies to the schedule proposal. If a class schedule readjustment is agreed to by both parties, the agreement result is reflected on the server, the class schedule is changed (K15), and the student and tutor start the class at the agreed date and time (K16).

[226]

[227] FIG. 15 is a flowchart representation of the not-completed class arbitration process.

It represents the flow in case the not-completed class arbitration process is started because a student rejects the class completion registration request from a tutor (Ll 1) during the processes of FIG. 13.

[228] That is, a student rejects the class completion registration requested by a tutor and sends a rejection message to the tutor (L12). The tutor receives the rejection message in real-time (L13) and determines whether to agree with the student's rejection or not (L14). If the tutor agrees with the student s rejection, the tutor sends the agreement message to the student (L15). If the student receives the message (L16), the student can decide to accept the tuition refund or resume the class (L17). If the student wants to resume the class, the student confers with the tutor about the class schedule in the Class Schedule tab of the system (L 18). The agreed class schedule is saved and applied to the system and the class schedule is changed (L 19). The class resumes at the time saved on the system (L20).

[229]

[230] If the student decides to request a refund by selecting that option (L17), the student creates and sends a class tuition fee refund request form (L21). The server system receives the request (L22) and the class tuition fee is refunded by the Real Time Global Settlement Application (L23). When the refund is completed, the result notification is sent to the student and the student receives and confirms the refund result (L24).

[231]

[232] If the tutor disagrees with the student's rejection message (L14), the tutor sends a disagreement message to the student (L25) and requests arbitration to claim the class tuition fee (L28). In this case, the student receives the disagreement message (L26) and requests arbitration to claim the class tuition fee refund (L27).

[233] If the above arbitration request (L27) (L28) is received by the system (L29), the system integrates the arbitration data (L30). This process consists of step 1 conducted by the system and step 2 of the integrated analysis and arbitration by the arbitration manager.

[234]

[235] The arbitration data used for integration (L30) consists of the data from the arbitration requesters including the electronic form describing the reason(s) for the arbitration request with the class time or quality report written by the student and tutor, the chatting, audio and video records of the class that were created while the class was held (J24)(J17) and during the starting and completing the class process (JI l) (using the record and call (for students) functions provided by the lecture room) and which can be used as an objective basis for arbitration. Also included is the time information table of the database created by saving the time code of each class step in the starting and completing the class process (Jl 1).

[236]

[237] Using the above integrated arbitration data (L30), the system creates an analysis and result report by comparing the agreed to class schedule with the actual schedule and checks if the accumulated delayed time of each step of the class is within the permitted time frame set by the system (L31).

[238]

[239] The above analysis by the system is comprehensively described below.

[240]

[241] The analysis consists of 2 steps. In Step 1, the system compares the agreed to class time in the acceptance offer form determined by the student and tutor in the class agreement process (Hl 1), with the actual class time (the sum of the actual class time minus the acceptable delayed timeouts from when the one party accepted the class start registration requested by the other party) that is determined from when the lecture room was entered (J19)(J12) to the class completion registration (J18) of the starting and completing a class process (Jl 1).

[242]

[243] If the actual class time is equal to or longer than the agreed to class time, the tutor is regarded as having done his or her duty in Step 1, and Step 2 begins. If the actual class time is shorter than the agreed to class time, the system judges that the student has the right to submit a claim and the system creates an arbitration analysis and result report recommending the refund of all or part of the tuition fee.

[244] If the actual class time is equal to or longer than the agreed to class time, and Step 2 is started, the system calculates the sum of the accumulated delayed time segments of the student and the sum of the tutor's, calculates the difference between them, checks if the difference is greater than the permitted amount of time set in the system and then starts arbitration using the result.

[245]

[246] The accumulated delay time is determined by referring to the data of the time record logs of the starting and completing a class process (Jl 1).

[247] For example,

[248] - The accumulated delayed time in the lecture room entrance time of the student and the tutor: The delayed time when a student or tutor enters the lecture room after the class start time determined in the class agreement process (Hl 1).

[249] - The accumulated delay time from the time when a student or tutor requests a class start registration when both of them are in the lecture room: The delayed time when the reply to the request is sent after the waiting time set in the system.

[250] - The accumulated delay time from the time when a tutor requests the class completion registration: The delayed time when the reply to the request of the tutor is sent after the waiting time set in the system.

[251] - The accumulated delay time in the class time: A student can call the tutor during a class using the provided event generation function. The tutor should respond to the call within the waiting time set in the system. The time is defined as delayed time when the tutor fails to respond to a call from the student within the waiting time period.

[252]

[253] The difference between the sum of the accumulated delayed time of the student and the sum of the tutor is calculated, and the accumulated delay times are compared to see if the difference is greater than the allowed time period defined in the system policy.

[254] If the difference is within the permitted time range, the system concludes the arbitration result and the tutor's tuition fee is paid. If the difference is out of the defined range, the arbitration request of the person (student or tutor) who has accumulated a delay time that exceeds the range is withdrawn, the arbitration request of the other one is accepted (i.e. that is the claim is accepted), the result is recorded in electronic form (L31) and is sent to both parties (L32).

[255]

[256] The student and tutor who received the report from Step 1 sent by the system can determine whether to accept the arbitration result (L33). If one of them rejects the arbitration result, Step 2 arbitration through integrated data analysis and arbitration by arbitration manager is started. In Step 2 arbitration, the appropriateness of the arbitration request is examined from the viewpoint of the class time and quality through the integration of the arbitration data (L30) and a system analysis of the integrated data (L31).

[257]

[258] First, the system analyzes the class time record log of the system and determines if the arbitration request is appropriate and checks if abusive, violent or insulting language has been used in the class by analyzing the text strings. Thereafter, the system automatically generates and sends an arbitration report to the arbitration manager. The arbitration manager arbitrates the dispute (L34).

[259]

[260] In the above agreement with the arbitration proposal selection step (L33), if both parties agree with the arbitration proposal, the arbitration is implemented (L35), the class tuition fee is paid to the tutor or refunded to the student, and the arbitration process is finished (L36).

[261]

[262] FIG. 16 is a flowchart representation of the real-time settlement process of the present invention. This step (Oi l) is started when the class completion step of FIG. 13 is finished normally (J31). If a class is normally completed and the student accepts the class completion registration requested by the tutor, the server regards this as a permission to transfer the tuition fee kept in the server to the tutor and starts the class tuition fee payment process.

[263]

[264] The Real Time Global Settlement Application (012) transfers the credit corresponding to the class tuition fee minus the commission to the account of the tutor (013). The tutor receives and confirms the transferred amount (014). The system checks if the bank account of the tutor to transfer the money corresponding to the credit is registered (015). If the bank account is not registered, the tutor registers the bank account (016). If the bank account is already registered, the tutor can request the Real Time Global Settlement Application to transfer money to the registered account when the accumulated credit is more than the system credit threshold for money transfers (017).

[265] Upon the above request, the Real Time Global Settlement Application checks the credit on the server (018) and transfers the money corresponding to the credit to the account of the tutor by interacting with the international money exchange system (019). The tutor checks if the money has been transferred to the tutor's account, and the real-time settlement process is finished (020).

[266]

[267] FIG. 17 is a flowchart representation of the process for creating teaching materials of the present invention, when creating or posting teaching material is requested by the tutor (120). Teaching materials can be created on a user's local computer, on the service site, or in the lecture room depending on the creation channel (121).

[268] When a tutor creates teaching materials on their own computer, the tutor launches a general purpose document editing program installed on the local computer such as MS Word, HWP, PowerPoint, and so on (Pl 1). The tutor can create new teaching material using any of the above software or can search for (P12) and load (P13) existing teaching material in the format of MS Word, HWP, PowerPoint, Excel, Acrobat and so on saved on the local computer.

[269]

[270] The above teaching materials (in the form of documents) can be directly posted to the multimedia teaching material room without converting them into intermediate formats. The shared board used during a class should support the above file formats so that users can open the documents directly in the class.

[271]

[272] When a tutor creates teaching material on the service site, the tutor enters the teaching material creation room directly (P 14), and checks if the multimedia teaching material authoring tool has been downloaded (P 15). If the tool is not downloaded, the tutor downloads, installs and launches the teaching material authoring tool (P 16) and enters the contents search and creation step to create multimedia teaching material (PlV).

[273]

[274] The teaching material authoring tool is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You

Get) type multimedia content editor that provides a search engine optimized for content searches in each language from various search sources so that the tutor can easily find and acquire relevant content as teaching material. The search target may be teaching material shared on the system, class recordings between tutor and student, web pages in the category predefined as language teaching material, and entire web pages written in the corresponding language. A tutor creates multimedia teaching material using content found through the search engine and the tutor's own content.

[275]

[276] When a tutor creates teaching material in the lecture room, through the starting a class and starting recording class content step (P18), and records class content (P19), when the class is finished and class content recording is completed (P20), the tutor enters the teaching material creation room (P21).

[277] If a tutor enters the teaching material creation room, the tutor first creates a teaching material summary (P22), creates a category by subject, sets up access privileges (P23), and then saves the material in the tutor's multimedia teaching material room (P24).

[278]

[279] The setting the access privilege step above (P23) may include an open/private level setting, a paid/free setting, as well as editing the permission settings for the teaching materials and categories. The editing permission settings may allow setting the editing permission by level for the allowed edit range such as 1-to-l translation, modifications, and attachments, and allow setting the required qualification for participants who may collaborate.

[280]

[281] The editing permission settings may be separated into settings for the editing of already created teaching materials in the same language and settings for the translation of teaching materials into another language. By allowing the material to be edited, the quality of the teaching material may be enhanced and multi-lingual versions of the teaching material are created.

[282]

[283] FIG. 18 is a flowchart representation of the creating multi- lingual versions of the teaching material process and purchasing teaching materials by searching and collaboration. The multimedia teaching materials in FIG. 17 can be found afterwards by students searching for the material (130). A student can choose their search options (131). If a student starts a search for purchasing materials, the student checks if the material is free or must be paid for (Ql 1). If it is free, the student can immediately download and view the material (Q 14). If it needs to be paid for, and if the student pays for the material (Q 12), through the Real Time Global Settlement Application interacting with the international payment system and international money transfer system (Q13), the payment is transferred in real-time (Q15). If the tutor confirms the money transfer (Q 16), the teaching material purchasing procedures are completed.

[284]

[285] If the search option of a user or student is the creation of multi-lingual versions of teaching materials through collaboration, the user searches for multi-lingual versions of the teaching materials to start the process of creating multi-lingual versions of the teaching materials (Rl 1), and selects material A that permits editing (R 17).

[286] Then the user downloads the collaborative teaching material authoring tool to participate in creating multi-lingual versions of the teaching materials (R12). The collaborative teaching material authoring tool provides useful functions for creating multilingual versions of the teaching materials such as an automatic translation tool, an existing translation reference tool, a version control tool, a collaboration tool and so on. The detailed description of each tool is located in the descriptions for the creating multi-lingual teaching material step given below.

[287]

[288] The user finishes the multi-lingual version teaching material A_l using the collaborative teaching material authoring tool (Rl 8) and uploads the material to the multimedia teaching material room (R 13).

[289]

[290] The procedures for creating multi-lingual teaching material through collaboration in steps are described below.

[291] Search Step: A user searches for teaching material A (R17).

[292] Teaching Material View and Edit Permission Check Step: A user views the contents of the teaching materials and checks the editing permissions of each level of 1-to-l translation, modifications, and attachments.

[293] The Deciding whether to Create Multi-lingual Teaching Material Step.

[294] Collaborative Teaching Material Authoring Tool Download And Installation Step.

[295] Collaborative Teaching Material Authoring Tool Launch and Teaching Material

Open Step: The user opens the teaching material A (R17) using the collaborative teaching material authoring tool.

[296] Multi-lingual Teaching Material Creation Step: Create teaching material through

1-to-l translation, modifications, and attachments according to the editing permission settings.

[297]

[298] For creating teaching material, the collaborative teaching material authoring tool provides the following features and the user creates multi-lingual teaching materials using the functions.

[299] - Multimedia Content Editing Tool: The collaborative teaching material authoring tool is basically a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) type multimedia content editor.

[300] - Automatic Translation Tool: Using this tool, users can automatically translate the necessary words, phrases, sentences, and even entire documents into the desired target language and use the translation.

[301] - Existing Translation Reference Tool: As creating multi-lingual teaching materials are repeated, the resulting translations of previous work accumulates in the database so that users can search for and refer to previous, similar translations for creating new material.

[302] - Version Control Tool: As creating multi-lingual teaching material creations are repeated, users can view the teaching material change history using this tool.

[303] - Collaboration Tool: The author of the teaching material can invite another user to co-author by sending the user an e-mail using the Invite function so that 2 or more users can view, confer, and edit the same teaching material at the same time.

[304]

[305] Save Step: The user records major updates and saves the teaching material. A user who participated in the creation is automatically registered as a version updater.

[306] Upload Step: The user can upload the created material to the multimedia teaching material room.

[307] For the teaching material A_l (Rl 8) that was changed in the previous step (Rl 8), another user or other users using another language, repeat the above collaborative process by searching for multi-lingual versions of the teaching material (R14), download the collaborative teaching material authoring tool (R15) and create and upload the multi-lingual version of the teaching material (R 16) in order to create teaching material in another language A_2 (R 19) and to improve the variety, completeness, and uniqueness of teaching materials from the view point of that language.

[308] As existing teaching material A (R17) in the multimedia teaching material room is translated into other languages, teaching material A_1(R18) is created and teaching material A_2(R19) is created and so on, etc. by the present invention. As teaching material is repeatedly translated and edited by users, the translation is also changed continuously so that multi-lingual teaching material is created. Each version and history of the work is managed by the present invention.

[309]

[310] FIGS. 19 to 27 are example screen shots showing the individual matching of the educational needs and abilities, the settlement of payments over the network using application programs supporting worldwide languages by the embodiment of the present invention.

[311] A best mode for carrying out the present invention is described below referring to the figures.

[312]

[313] FIG. 19 is an example screen shot that appears when a student, TONY, logs onto the system of the present invention and selects the Student Page tab in the Student and Tutor Selection page. He searches for a tutor who teaches English, views the tutor advertisement list and then tries to make an offer to tutor SMARTO. [314]

[315] FIG. 20 is the enlarged representation of the tutor advertisement list.

[316] As you can see in the above tutor advertisement list table, the search result consists of the ID, Tutoring Languages, Tuition Fee, Preferred Class Subjects, Class Size, Class Mileage, Evaluation Rank, Current Content Status, Login Status, Lecture Schedule, Purchasing Offer and Request Button. If a user clicks on a column title, the search result is sorted in the ascending or descending order of the clicked column contents. Besides the above column items, the total amount of tuition fees earned by the tutor can be added to the column. If a user views the above list and clicks the Request Purchasing Offer button, the immediate class agreement step from among the selection steps (H12) of the class agreement process (HI l) is activated.

[317]

[318] FIG. 21 is an example screen shot that appears when student TONY creates and sends a class purchasing request form to the tutor SMARTO.

[319]

[320] FIG. 22 is an example screen shot that appears when tutor SMARTO clicks the

Counter-offer tab to change the conditions of the offer from student TONY.

[321]

[322] FIG. 23 is an example screen shot that appears when tutor SMARTO changes the price proposed by student TONY from $40 to $45 and sends the counter-offer back to student TONY.

[323] That is, if a student makes an offer by sending a class schedule, tuition fee and message to a tutor, the tutor can accept the offer or make a counter-offer by selecting the Counter-offer tab which sends the counter-offer to the student.

[324]

[325] FIG. 24 is an example screen shot that appears when student TONY accepts the counter-offer of tutor SMARTO.

[326]

[327] FIG. 25 is an example of the message screen that notifies both tutor and student that the class agreement has been made. The class agreement completion message is sent to the tutor, SMARTO, and the Purchase Credit tab is displayed asking if student TONY wants to proceed to the class purchasing process.

[328]

[329] The above series of procedures are recorded in an 'offer log'as shown in the right pane of the screen and users can view the log in real-time. The log files are saved to and managed by the database.

[330]

[331] FIG. 26 is an example of a lecture room screen shot during a lecture class. The tutor SMARTO sends a class completion registration request to the student when the class is completed as shown in the cursor at the top right of the screen. As FIG. 27 shows, if student TONY agrees with the class completion registration request from tutor SMARTO, see FIG. 26, the class completion registration request acceptance message is displayed to tutor SMARTO as shown by FIG. 28.

[332]

Industrial Applicability

[333] The present invention has been proposed to resolve problems in existing restricted, uni-directional and closed language education environments. The present invention enables anyone in any place to connect to the system over the Internet, register as a tutor, create unique teaching programs and materials for subjects that only that person can provide, while students can request and learn about any field or technology they want. That is, a student who wishes to learn a language can select or request a desired language, tutor and subject freely regardless of the time and place using the system of the present invention. As a result, the present invention provides a more efficient and convenient language learning environment and opportunities for anyone globally.

Claims

[1] An online foreign language education service that consists of the following items: Sign Up, Class Search, Online Payment, Cyber Lecture Room Class and Teaching Material Support. The education service further includes:

A creating and posting an advertisement step that works as follows: A user who visits the service site signs up as a tutor or student or signs up as both tutor and student. A student creates a class request advertisement for a desired language and uploads it to the student advertisement list while a tutor creates a class advertisement for their language and uploads it to the tutor advertisement list. The student' search and filtering advertisements step works as follows. For the advertisements created and posted in the step above, a student can search for tutor advertisements, view proposed tutor advertisements sent to the student by tutors after the tutors read the student' class request advertisements, and view proposed tutor advertisements recommended by the system s search by comparing the similarities. In addition, a student can filter the advertisements by field.

A class agreement step by exchanging system forms. A step of payments custody and management to ensure safe payments and settlements.

A starting, progress monitoring and completing a class step which monitors and saves the interactions between the student and the tutor for each stage of the class start, progress, end to secure the integrity of the transaction after a class purchase.

A verification, conference and handling step for not-started classes. An arbitration step to secure the safety of and resolve disputes about transactions, payments and settlements of not-completed classes that may occur when a student rejects the class completion registration request from a tutor. The system integrates and analyzes the data of class time and quality, generates an arbitration result report and starts the arbitration process between them. A real-time settlement step for the tuition fee held (escrow) by the Real Time Global Settlement Application Server;

Steps for creating teaching material, purchasing teaching material by searching for it, and creating multi-lingual teaching material in a collaborative way.

[2] An online foreign language education service according to claim 1 further includes: A step consisting of creating and posting advertisements by a student or tutor, or the same person creating and posting both student and tutor advertisements. The creating and posting a tutor advertisement step consists of: A step that checks whether a user is a subscriber and which allows users to sign up and then login;

A step that displays the instructions for creating and posting an advertisement; A step that allows a tutor to select their TUTORING LANGUAGES; A step for entering the advertisement fields that allows the tutor to enter their CLASS SCHEDULE, TUITION FEE, and PREFERRED CLASS SUBJECTS; A step that allows the tutor to preview the advertisement entered above; An advertisement registration step after a preview or without a preview; A step that adds the registered advertisement above to the tutor advertisement list and saves the advertisement to the database and uploads the advertisement to the service site.

The step for creating and posting a student advertisement consists of: A step that checks whether a user is a subscriber or not, and which allows users to sign up and then login;

A step that displays the instructions for creating and posting an advertisement; A step that allows a student to select the LEARNING LANGUAGES; A step for entering the advertisement fields that allows the student to enter their CLASS SCHEDULE, TUITION FEE, and PREFERRED CLASS SUBJECTS; A step that allows the student to preview the advertisement entered above; An advertisement registration step after a preview or without a preview; A step that adds the advertisement registered above to the student advertisement list and saves the advertisement to the database and uploads the advertisement to the service site.

Creating and posting both a student and tutor advertisement by the same person consisting of both individual steps above (the creating and posting tutor and student advertisement steps) and is conducted in the sequence above regardless of the order of the creating and posting tutor and student advertisements steps. [3] An online foreign language education service according to claim 1 further includes:

A step to search for and filter the advertisements of tutors and students and which consists of:

A step that allows the selection of the search method by the student from searching for tutors via the search engine, searching for a tutor through the Proposed Tutor List, and searching for a tutor through a system auto recommendation list. A tutor search via the search engine consists of: A step that allows the selection of the tutor search type by the language and by detailed conditions;

A step that displays a search result according to the selection of the above step;

A step that sorts the search results in ascending or descending order of a selected field.

A tutor search through the Proposed Tutor List consists of:

A step where the tutor searches for student advertisements and sends a proposal and the student searches and filters these proposals.

A tutor search through the Automatically Recommended Tutor List consists of:

A step where the student searches for and filters the Automatically

Recommended Tutor List that is generated by the system according to similarities between the student and tutor advertisements;

A candidate tutor selection step using the step above;

A step that allows the student to proceed to a class agreement;

A step where the advertisement of the current candidate tutor is saved and a tutor advertisement list is created and saved to the database for later use if the class agreement is not continued with at this time. [4] An online foreign language education service according to claim 1 further includes:

A class agreement step consisting of:

A step where the student decides whether to purchase a class by sending a query to the tutor or taking a sample class;

A step that the student sends a class purchasing offer;

A step that repeats the sending of counter-offers to the other party for the negotiation of the tuition fee and the schedule. [5] An online foreign language education service according to claim 1 further includes:

A step that ensures the custody and management of payments to secure the safety of transactions and which consists of:

A step where credit is created by the student purchasing a class;

A step that stores the credit in the management server (Escrow) instead of sending the credit to the corresponding tutor immediately;

A step that transfers the credit to the account of the tutor when the class is completed as agreed;

A step that transfers the money exchanged from the credit of the tutor upon request when the accumulated credit amount exceeds the threshold. [6] An online foreign language education service according to claim 1 further includes: A step for starting, progress monitoring and completing a class that secures the integrity of class transaction and which consists of: A step that checks if the student and tutor have entered the lecture room; A step for the verification, conference and handling of not-started classes if the class does not begin on time;

A step that runs the class applications if the student and tutor have entered the online virtual lecture room on time;

A step where the student or tutor sends a class start registration request to the other party in the lecture room;

A step where the target tutor or student receives the request in real-time and sends an acceptance message;

A step where the corresponding student or tutor receives the message and the class starts;

A step that provides functions to record the chat, audio, and video feeds of the class so that the student and tutor can use them later or they can be used later for the arbitration step;

A step that provides an Event Creation button on the lecture room screen for the student to call the tutor. If the tutor fails to answer the call within a certain period of time, the delay time is counted as accumulated delay time by the system that is later used for any potential arbitration step;

A step where the tutor sends a class completion registration request to the student;

A step where the student decides whether to accept the registration request; A step that starts a not-completed class arbitration process if the student rejects the registration request;

A step where the acceptance message is sent to the tutor if the student accepts the registration request;

A step where the tutor receives the message and finishes the class and the realtime settlement process begins;

A step where the student fill out a class evaluation that is saved to the database after sending the acceptance message;

A step that reflects the above evaluation data in the tutor advertisement list table; A step where the CLASS MILEAGE for the tutor is accumulated. [7] An online foreign language education service according to claim 1 further includes:

A verification, conference and handling step which consists of: A step where the verification, conference and handling process for not-started classes checks if the permitted number of class reschedules has been exceeded; A step that determines whether to submit a claim if the permitted number of class reschedules has been exceeded;

A step that lets the class schedule be rearranged if the permitted number of class reschedules has not been exceeded or no claim has been submitted; A rescheduled class progress step;

A step that refunds or pays the class tuition fee if the claim is submitted. [8] An online foreign language education service according to claim 1 further includes:

An arbitration step for not-started classes that determines whether to pay the tuition fee by checking the satisfaction level for the time and quality of the class when a class is not completed as agreed and which consists of: A step where the student sends a rejection message;

A step that allows the tutor to decide whether to agree with the rejection and sends an agreement message when the tutor agrees with the rejection; A step that if the student demands a refund of the tuition fee, the students requests a refund, the system receives the request, the Real Time Global Settlement Application refunds the tuition fee, and the students receives and confirms the refund;

A step that if the student wants to have a class rescheduled, the class schedule is discussed, the schedule is rearranged, and the rescheduled class is progressed; A step that if the tutor disagrees, a disagreement message is sent and received; An arbitration request step for the class tuition fee payment to the tutor or a refund to the student;

A step where the system integrates the arbitration data if the above arbitration request is received by the system;

A step where the system creates an analysis and result report by comparing the agreed class schedule and the actual schedule based on the above integrated arbitration data, and checks if the accumulated delayed time of each step of the class is within the permitted time set by the system ;

A step where the arbitration result report created in the above step in electronic form is sent to the student and tutor;

A step that allows the student and tutor to determine whether to agree with the arbitration proposal;

A step where an arbitration recommendation report is created by the system if the student or tutor disagree with the arbitration proposal;

A step where the arbitration manager conducts arbitration based on the report; A step where the arbitration measures are implemented for the payment or refund of the tuition fee when both parties agree to the arbitration measures. [9] An online foreign language education service according to claim 1 further includes:

A step for creating teaching material which consists of: A step that allows the tutor to selecting where to create the teaching material, whether on the tutor's computer, on the service site, or in the lecture room; A step that allows the creation of subject categories and setting access permissions for the created teaching materials;

A step that allows the posting of the teaching materials to the multimedia teaching material room.

A searching for teaching materials step which consists of: A step that allows the selection of searching for purchasable materials or searching for multi-lingual teaching materials to use or to collaborate on; A step where the user searches for material in the multimedia teaching material room and checks if the material is free or needs to be paid for when searching for purchasable material;

A step where if the material is free, the user downloads the material to use as required;

A step where if the material needs to be paid for, the user can purchase the material by transferring money in real-time through the Real Time Global Settlement Application.

The step for creating multi-lingual versions of the teaching material through collaboration consists of: A step for searching for teaching materials;

A step for viewing and confirming the editing permissions for the teaching materials where the user views the teaching material content and checks the editing permission such as 1-to-l translation, modifications, and attachments; A step that determines whether to create the teaching materials; A step where the user downloads and installs a collaborative teaching material authoring tool;

A step where the user launches the collaborative teaching material authoring tool and opens the teaching material;

A step for creating multi-lingual versions of the teaching material by using the collaborative teaching material authoring tool that supports an automatic translation tool, an existing translation reference tool, a version control tool, a collaboration tool and so on;

A step where the user logs the major updates, saves the teaching material and then uploads the teaching material to the multimedia teaching material room; A step that repeats the creation of the teaching material in other languages by other users;

A step where the teaching material in the multimedia teaching material room is repeatedly updated as multi-lingual teaching material;

A step where each multi-lingual version of the teaching material is updated by different users and the change and version history is managed;