Online Tutoring
Reviews of 5 Most Popular Online Tutor Sites
This page summarizes the services offered by the Top 5 most popular
Online Tutoring sites on the Internet. We provide a brief summary of
each of the companies, the services they offer, the cost of their
services and our opinions of the pros and cons of each Online Tutoring
site.
Sometimes there is just not enough hours in the day and not
enough fuel in your mental and physical gas tank for you to help your
child the way you want and need to, even with our Homework-Help-Secrets.
Sometimes you need the services of a Personal Tutor. But, how many of
us can afford to hire a Personal Tutor? And... traditionally we still
have to take the risk of having a stranger come into our homes or make
the commitment and incur the expense to transport our child to the
Tutor.
Enter Online Tutoring. Today, thanks to the power of the Internet, you
can afford a Private Tutor for you child through Online Tutoring. You
can from the privacy of your own home get your child personal help from
highly qualified teachers in each specific subject your child needs
help with.
The challenge as always, is to find the time to tutor-shop, to read up
on what the Internet has to offer and to choose the best service for
your needs. This can be a daunting task.
We provide below a brief summary of the Top 5 Online Tutoring websites,
the companies behind them, the services they provide and the pricing for
these services. We also offer you our objective analysis of the pros and
cons of these Top 5 services.
TutorVista.com
TutorVista.com is a company founded by Krishnan Ganesh in 2005 with
headquarters and operations in Bangalore, India. Their mission is to
provide world-class tutoring and high-quality content to students around
the world - anytime, anywhere and in any subject.
TutorVista.com only hires experienced tutors. Most have a masters or Ph.D.
degree as well as 5-10 years teaching experience and must pass stringent
certification exams.
You can schedule sessions with your preferred tutor in advance and get
on-demand help too. Using a technology called Voice-Over-Internet-
Protocol (VoIP), the student and the tutor talk naturally with headphone
and microphone using through the students personal computer as well as
communicate through online chat. The student and tutor share a
"whiteboard" that they both can write on.
No special software is required but a headset with microphone is recommended.
The company takes advantage of the highly educated, low-wage-base Indian
population to offer the most cost effective Online Tutoring service on
the Internet. For $100/month your child can have unlimited tutoring
24/7. There are significant discounts for multi-month contracts
($50/month for 12 months)
Pros:
Highly qualified tutors
Unlimited online tutoring
Low cost
Cons:
May be some language problems. TutorVista requires English
speech classes for all their tutors and most are easily
understood.
Voice interaction, requires purchase of headset with microphone ($25-50 from Amazon)
Click Here for a comparison of the top five tutoring websites
Tutor.com
Tutor.com is a company founded by George Cigale in 1998 with
headquarters and operations in New York, NY. Their mission is to
provide 24/7 on-demand online tutoring to English speaking students
around the world. They provide direct-to-customer service as well as
through their after-school "Live Homework Help" programs at over 1,800
public libraries
Tutor.com tutors must be enrolled in or have graduated from a
US/Canadian University and must pass stringent certification
exams.
Since Tutor.com is focused on delivering quick on-demand tutoring
you cannot schedule sessions with your preferred tutor. Using an
interactive "whiteboard" and online chatting the student and tutor
interact directly to learn and solve problems.
No special software is required and since there is no voice interaction
a headset and microphone are not required.
The company offers a very flexible pay-as-you go program with
the minimum usage unit being one minute and unused minutes are rolled forward
for six months. The cost for 50 minutes is $30 (60 cents/min). For 500
minutes the cost is $230 (46 cents/min).
Pros:
English as first language, certified tutors
Flexible program - only pay for minutes you use
Low entry cost - Minimum purchase is $30 for 50 min
20 minutes Free Trial Offer
Cons:
Do not offer unlimited tutoring for a fixed price
No voice interaction
Can be expensive if your child requires more than an hour or two per week.
Click Here for a comparison of the top five tutoring websites
Smarthinking.com
Smarthinking is a company founded by Burck Smith and Christopher
Gergen in 1999 with headquarters and operations in Washington DC, US.
Smart thinking is primarily focused on providing people, technology and
training to help institutions offer their students E-structor Certified tutoring anytime from any Internet connection.
While they are primarily focused on enabling institutions (schools,
universities, libraries...) to help students they do offer individual
online tutoring.
Smarthinking.com tutors are all "E-structor"(TM) Certified and are
seasoned educators, most with advanced degrees in their fields and are
drawn from college faculty, graduate students and active and retired
high school teachers.
Smarthinking's Individual Tutoring program uses a "whiteboard"
based interactive graphical chat tool to allow real-time interaction
between students and tutors.
No special software is required and since no voice option is needed their
is no need to purchase a headset with microphone.
Smarthinking Individual Tutoring is priced at $35/hr for a one
hour purchase. If you purchase 4 hours of online tutoring the price is
$120 ($30/hr). Charges are charged per one minute intervals with a 5
minute minimum charge for each session. Minutes can be rolled over
There are also plans for writing help through their
Online Writing lab and a specific plan for SAT essay practice and
review. There is also an option for submission of specific questions.
Pros:
Highly qualified tutors
Flexible program - only pay for minutes you use
Low entry cost - Minimum purchase is $35 for 1 hour
Cons:
Do not offer unlimited tutoring for a fixed price
No voice interaction
Can be expensive if your child requires more than one or so hours per week.
Click Here for a comparison of the top five tutoring websites
GrowingStars.com
GrowingStars.com is a company founded by Biju Mathew in 2004 with
headquarters Santa Clara, CA and operations in Cochi, India.
GrowingStars is focused on providing individual students with
convenient, affordable, online tutoring.
GrowingStars.com requires tutors to have a master's degree in the
primary subject matter they teach and provides training to each tutor in
in accent reduction and American culture.
GrowingStars.com provides "Always-On Tutoring" available for a 5-hour
window each school evening, Sunday through Thursday from 4pm to 9pm.
Students also have the option to pre-schedule a session with their tutor
any day through a web-based scheduler and can communicate with their
teacher through a chat window separate from the online classroom.
GrowingStars uses an interactive "whiteboard" and online chatting which
enables the student and tutor to interact directly to learn and solve
problems. Growing Stars also offers extensive help with SAT preparation
both one-on-one and in a small online classroom setting. A Voice-Over-Internet-
Protocol (VoIP) option is also available.
No special software is required but a headset with microphone is recommended.
GrowingStars.com charges $120/month for 8 hours of tutoring ($15/hr) and
$80/month for 4 hours of tutoring ($20/hr).
Pros:
Highly qualified tutors
Two tutoring plans: $15/month (8hrs/mo) and $20/month(4hrs/mo)
Low Cost
Cons:
May be some language problems. GrowingStars.com requires accent
reduction training for all their tutors and most are easily
understaood.
For voice interaction, requires purchase of headset with microphone ($25-50 from Amazon)
Click Here for a comparison of the top five tutoring websites
e-Tutor.com
Knowledge Headquarters, Inc is a company founded by Martha Angula in
1997 with headquarters and operations in Chicago, IL. The premier
education product of Knowledge HQ, Inc. is e-Tutor.com, which is an
innovative K-12 instructional program that offers students, parents, educators, and homeschoolers a superior learning experience in a
technology-rich, activity- based online learning program.
e-Tutor.com offers two different programs: Independent Study Program in
which students work independently and can contact e-Tutor via email 24/7
or by phone Monday through Friday 10am to 4pm. A maximum of four lessons
per day is recommended.
The second program offered by e-Tutor.com is a Guided Study Program
which is a one-on-one program in which individual students work one-to-
one with a tutor. This Guided Program features a bulletin board/chat
room that provides students, at least, one hour per week of guaranteed
talk time with their tutor. Students communicate with their tutor the
remainder of the week by email and telephone.
Pricing for the Independent Study Program is $99/month for K-1,
$129/month for grades 2-3, $159/month for grades 4-5, $129/month/subject
of grades 6-8 (additional subjects are $35/mo) and $139/month/subject
for grades 9-12 (additional subjects are $45/month). Guided Programs are
on average priced at the same level as Independent Study + an
additional $100/month.
No special software is required.
Pros:
Highly qualified US-based, English as first language tutors
Systematic complete lesson modules for each subjects
Essentially an online school program
Cons:
Limited one-on-one online tutoring
Relatively expensive compared to on-demand online tutoring
Click Here for a comparison of the top five tutoring websites
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