Corporations
The corporate world has become directly involved with online tutoring. Free tutoring and ready made online lesson plans for teachers and many online activities that can be posted by teachers are being offered as an incentive to market the publishers' textbooks. Students benefit from this new trend although the higher price of the textbooks reflects this new burgeoning service. In regards to publisher sponsored free tutoring, it is important to notice that the service specifically states "text specific"and "explanation of concepts in the textbook," meaning it is limited tutoring.
SMARTTHINKING has been very aggressive in promoting its tutoring product, by contacting administrators and state and university consortiums. It offers live tutoring, all subject question submittals, all subject writing submittals, prescheduled sessions upon request, and academic resources and student archives.
Live Tutoring:
Math
24 hours a day, 7 days a week
Accounting, Economics, Statistics, Chemistry & Live Writing help
Sunday through Thursday from 3 p.m. to 1 a.m. (EST)
Friday and Saturday, 12 noon to 6 p.m. (EST)
Biology and Physics (Demonstration Subjects)
Sunday through Thursday, 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. (EST)
Houghlin-Mifflin has contracted with SMARTTHINKING to tutor students who have purchased their textbooks. It provides online tutoring in 9 disciplines: Mathematics, Statistics, Accounting, Economics, Spanish, English, Chemistry, Student Success/College Survival and English as a Second Language.
Within each of these course areas, students can receive live, online, text-specific tutoring Sunday through Thursday from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. (EST).
In addition the student can:
● Submit a question to receive a response, usually within 24 hours.
● View past online sessions, questions, or essays on their personal academic home page.
● View a tutoring schedule to find a favorite e-structor (SMARTHINKING's live online tutors).
Pearson Education divisions, Addison-Wesley, Allyn & Bacon, Benjamin Cummings and Longman, have developed The Tutor Center to be available for students using their textbooks. Students may purchase a registration card to access The Tutor Center. This would be necessary if the student bought a used book. The guidelines are the same no matter which of the many disciplines is being studied.
In any combination of these four ways, students can contact the service three times per night.
By Phone: Students are limited to 15 minutes per call.
By Fax: Students are limited to 2 questions per fax.
By E-mail: Students are limited to 2 questions per e-mail.
By Interactive Web: 15 minutes, by appointment.
1.888.777.0463
The hours are Sunday through Thursday, 5 p.m. to 12:00 midnight, (EST).
Students will receive explanations of concepts in the textbook. Students will receive detailed solutions to problems with answers indicated in the textbook.
Each discipline also provides valuable links for its discipline, many being interactive or animated.
The tutors are required to have a minimum of a Master's degree.
This web site offers a listing of companies and individuals who offer tutoring online. It is quite varied as to the
platform used, the cost, and the reliability. This has been mentioned just to give a scope of what is happening in the smaller entrepreneurial world, which is finding its niche along with the corporations in online tutoring.
