Online Tutoring

Best online tutor services

For students who need a quick personalized response to a homework problem, or for those who need more extensive or long-term support, an online tutor service can be a good option. While some tutor sites do include supplementary materials like lesson plans and search utilities, their main function is to provide an interface for one-on-one instruction.

TutorVista (TutorVista.com), which is based in India, offers online tutoring via virtual whiteboard, instant messaging and voice chat for $20 an hour or $100 a month for unlimited sessions. Students are able to log on from any computer and get personalized instruction from a tutor with formal teaching credentials and at least a master's degree in the subject. Tutors are theoretically available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, although some users report not being able to access a tutor when they needed one. Students can stay with one tutor for continuity or switch if they aren't satisfied. TutorVista covers a wide range of subjects including math, English, science and test preparation, and is geared toward students from K to 12 and into college.

User reviews for TutorVista are mixed. For every student who is impressed with the quality of instruction and the difference in grades, another is frustrated with connection difficulties and customer service problems. A common complaint about TutorVista is their problematic track record when it comes to issuing refunds. Several users report receiving monthly charges despite having cancelled their subscriptions and made multiple calls to customer service. The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Edersheim Kalb reports getting a hard sell and a wrong answer from a salesperson but excellent results once she was able to access the actual tutor.

Peggy Edersheim Kalb's experience with Any Time Tutor (AnyTimeTutor.com) was less positive. She reports having difficulty accessing the free trial. Also, the instant help was offline, so she got a correct but less helpful answer to her test problem. Though initially less expensive than TutorVista, Any Time Tutor's plans (*est. $1 to $4 per question, $18 per week or $63 per month) are also more restrictive. Answers to individual questions cost between $1 and $4 depending on the subject and the required turnaround time. An instant live answer to an accounting problem, for instance, costs $4, while an e-mailed solution to a math question in 24 hours costs $1. Any Time Tutor does have subscription plans ranging from $18 for a week to $63 for a month, but there's a daily maximum of 15 minutes.

Tutor.com offers two types of homework help. Their Live Homework Help service offers 20 minutes of daily homework help through libraries and is free to cardholders. Tutor.com Direct allows students from grades four to 12 to buy tutoring services for a fee of $30 for 50 minutes. Top Ten Reviews ranks Tutor.com in 13^th place out of 14 homework help sites, though, and user reviews at Epinions say the tutors had trouble answering more advanced questions.