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Frequently Asked Questions

General/Getting Started Questions
Getting a Tutor/Student Related Questions
Post Tutoring Related Questions
Payment/Billing/Accounting Questions
Technical Requirements/ Online Classroom/Conferencing
Online Content Creation/Management

General/Getting Started 

What is this website all about?
This website is about utilizing specific, easy-to-use and leading-edge technology to provide total learning. Research has shown four components to learning - instructional and demonstrative, active and participatory, collaborative, and individual study. Tutorcentral includes instructional and participatory tutoring providing access to the highest quality tutors locally (face-to-face) or remotely using our video conferencing and whiteboard tools; collaborative whereby students can set up their own online study groups in our chat rooms or post questions and answers on the messageboards, individual study through the multitude of research pages, contents, and links created by TutorCentral tutors for offline study. The aim is to obtain significant grade improvement for college or high school students. TutorCentral is also used for studying professional, non-academic, and vocational subjects as well as for consultative learning.

How do I get started?

Getting started is easy. Click on the register button on the home page, fill out the required information. If you are a parent or student, you will immediately gain access to the site. If you are a tutor, you will be contacted and your application validated, after which your application may be approved. Registration is completely free.

 

How do I register as a student?

To register as a student, go to the home page, click on the register button, enter your location, then select student. Note: If you are under the age of 18, you must have your parents or legal guardian sign you up.

 

How do I register as a tutor?

To register as a tutor, go to the home page, click on the register button, enter your location, then select tutor. You will be contacted by TutorCentral. Be prepared to mail a copy of credentials you claim in relation to the subjects you selected to tutor.

 

What if I am under the age of 18?

For children under the age of 18, your parent has to register, then create an account for you under their account.

 

How do I register as a Parent?

To register as a parent, go to the home page, select the register button, enter your location, then select parent on the registration page.

 

How are tutors verfied on TutorCentral?

TutorCentral has a very serious validation and verification policy which is summarized here. Our objective is to ensure claims and credentials are accurate as well as maintain a secure, predator-free environment for students and parents.

 

I can not find the states in my country while registering. Which countries are allowed to participate?

All countries with the exception of those on the US government restricted list. We will add the different states or regions in each country as membership increases within that country and local coordinating agents are available to validate tutors locally. In the interim, indicating your tutoring location in the request form may be sufficient to qualify your request for face-to-face tutoring. For online tutoring, your geographic location may not be a factor as long as you have sufficiently fast Internet access.

 

What subjects do you current provide tutoring for?

Click on this link to see the subject list. Courses/Subjects.

 

What subjects do you plan to provide tutoring for in the near future?

TutorCentral facilities is being used for all learning - academic, professional, or vocational, - mainstream or supplementary. Tutoring provided has ranged from college courses, curriculum-aligned K12 subjects to home improvement training and consulting. We hope to add more special and vocational subjects or subjects that new tutors suggest or indicate a desire to teach. In addition, other schools and institutions are requesting to host their subjects on our network and these will be added when approved.

 

Tutoring Request Related Questions

How does a student find a tutor?
There are three ways to get a tutor -
(1) Make a request and leave the tutor open. Tutors will be able to view the request and contact you  via email about possibly tutoring you (At this point, they do not obtain your email address but respond through the system).
(2) Go to the tutor search area and search for a tutor by factors such as the course, location, qualifications, and/or tutoring rate.
(3) Go to the tutor lounge and discuss with tutors about your potential tutoring subject and select a tutor that meets your needs.

 

How do tutors find students?

There are several ways in which a tutor  may secure a tutoring session:
(a) Post a good profile and a competitive rate and students may select you via a tutor search (see previous question).
(b) Respond to tutoring requests posted on the open calendar for subjects you can tutor.
(c) Maintain a good rating for students you have tutored. This results in repeat tutoring, referral as well as enhances the number of requests you receive via method (a) and (b).
(d) Maintain tutoring materials, homework, and quizzes online to help you deliver total learning that actually adds value to your students (TutorCentral provides you space and simple content management system to do this).

 

How many students are allowed in each online instruction session?

Yes, there can be as many as 5 students per class in our online classrooms. The tutor may then charge the rate as agreed with the students. However, we emphasize one-to-one tutoring.

What if my tutor cancels my class late and I can not get another teacher on time?
TutorCentral will attempt to find you a tutor if a confirmed tutor has cancelled at the last moment. However, tutors are unlikely to cancel a schedule they have confirmed unless it is absolutely impossible to fulfill the obligation. This is because cancellations of this type impacts tutor ratings. In fact, tutor accounts may be revoked as a result of frequent unfulfilled committments.

Post Tutoring Questions

What happens if I am not satisfied with a tutoring session?
If you are not satisfied with your tutoring session, there are three actions you may take depending on the level of disatisfaction:
(1) You may choose another tutor for future tutoring of the same course.
(2) You may rate the tutor poorly for this session. This will impact the tutor overall ratings and ensure that other users would unlikely select this tutor in future. Other user's ratings like yours also serve to help ensure that you are unlikely to experience a poor tutor.
(3) For offline tutoring, you may refuse to sign the tutor sheet indicating a desire to not pay for the session. TutorCentral will then investigate the circumstances related to the tutoring session. We advise that you do not choose this course of action except if the reason for disatisfaction rise to a level beyond that of a subjective one. Of course, it is negative if you as a user has a record of refusing to pay for tutoring sessions.
(4) You may submit a complaint to TutorCentral using the form for recording such a complaint against your tutor.
Because tutor ratings and comments determine a tutor's rate and ability to receive sessions, tutors will try to avoid having you resort to any of the above actions.

 

How do Tutors get rated?

Tutors can be rated by students they teach. The access to rate them are automatically provided to their students. Students may rate their tutors only once every month/per subject. Ratings are on a scale of 1 to 5, with a summary average computed. Comments can also be included with the ratings.

 

How can students control the quality of tutoring they get?

Students are advised to rate their tutors occasionally by going to the "Rate a Tutor" page. Tutors that have taught them in the past month are automatically presented to them for rating.

 

Where do I see a tutor's rating and other student/parent comments?

Access tutor's ratings and comments of other students and parents are pasted next to their names in the "Find Tutor" page.

 

Billing/Payment/Accounting

How do I check my account balance?

When you log into your account, you can check and verify your account at any time by clicking "My Account".

 

How do students pay for classes taken?

Simply click on My Account from your home page and then select the Pay button. Students must deposit some funds into their accounts prior to receiving tutoring. For instance, after securing a tutoring agreement for 2 hours at $30/hour, students should deposit about $60 into their account. Tutors will not honour a tutoring agreement for students that have negative or no balance. In general, TutorCentral does not allow student accounts to be in deficit beyond $50.

 

How does a tutor get paid?

Tutor's are paid every month or when their balance exceeds $500, which ever comes first.We recommend that all tutor's open a free Paypal account for easier in transactions with TutorCentral. Otherwise, we mail checks to tutors.

 

What forms of payment are accepted?

We accept most credit cards, and checks. Payments are processed through PayPal.

 

What currencies do you accept?

We handle payments via PayPal and are thus limited to the currencies accepted on Paypal. See Paypal policy regarding payment in foreign currencies.

 

What if I am charged more time than I spent getting tutored?
This is virtually impossible for the following reasons:
Offline Tutoring: You sign a tutoring sheet at the end of the session that records the duration.
Online Tutoring: The system automatically monitors the duration of the session. However, if for an online tutoring session, you feel you have spent some of the time not being tutored (due to clear technical difficulties or other problems), please report this session to TutorCentral. Online sessions are recorded as the time you and your tutor are both present in the classroom. If you are in a classroom with a tutor and you are not being taught for any reason, do leave the online classroom. However, in most cases, tutors will already note any differences between the time you are tutored and the time logged and make adjustments. Tutor ratings and comments determine a tutor's rates and ability to receive sessions and tutors will try to avoid situations that lead to disatisfied students.

What happens if I spend more time getting tutored than the balance in my account?
Your balance will become negative and you should try to make payments accordingly. You may be unable to receive additional tutoring if you maintain a negative balance.

What happens if I have a positive balance at the end of a period and I wish to retrieve the balance?
You may simply request for the balance and TutorCentral will send you a check or remit the balance into your Paypal account.

Are tutor's employees or affiliates?

Tutor's are affiliates. They make their own choices regarding tutoring and what they charge. We only set the rules to ensure that the qualifications are correctly represented and the tutors are verified. We try to maintain quality and provide a secure payment environment that protects both students and tutors.

 

What are the legal tax requirement?

TutorCentral will report all tutoring revenues according to the law. It is the responsibility of every tutor to report income that result to them via tutoring on TutorCentral.

 

Online Classroom/Conferencing

What equipment would I need?

For students, all you need is a Computer with an Internet connection, a computer microphone and computer speakers. For tutors, you will need a Computer with an Internet connection, microphone and speakers. You may also need a webcam if you wish to use video conferencing in the online classrooms (Be advised that for most of the grade levels below college level, it is almost imperative to use the video tool).

 

What are the requirements my computer must satisfy to participate in online tutoring?
Your computer is probably equipped to participate in online tutoring by default. However, you may check the following
list of technical requirements to make sure that this is so.
Online Content Creation/Management (for Tutors)

How do I get help for online content creation?
This is an advanced feature that allows tutors to prepare web pages and tests/quizzes for possible inclusion as tutoring materials - in addition to notes probably prepared on Word or Powerpoint. The manuals for the online content system can be located
here. Tutors may also receive free training on these applications once they commence tutoring with TutorCentral facilities.