Tutor Handbook
How Do I…
Schedule a lesson with a student?
With Scheduled Lessons, students can request a lesson with a specific tutor on InstaEDU.
They’ll pick out a date and time that works for them send you the request. If the lesson is at a
time that works for you, simply accept the request and be ready to work when the time for the
lesson comes. If you cannot make the suggested time, please let the student know within 24
hours and suggest a different time that you could meet with him or her. You can also add a note
with other availability windows, which will help cut down on back and forths between you and the
student. If you are real­time chatting with a student, you can send him/her a lesson proposal
directly from the chat box.
Tell a student if I can’t make it or need to reschedule?
If you schedule a lesson with a student, please make every effort possible to make the lesson. If
for some reason you cannot make a lesson with a student, let them know ASAP by sending
them a message on the message tab of your account. When you do this, please suggest an
alternate time for the two of you to meet via the scheduling interface.
Get started teaching an on­demand lesson?
Whenever you’re available on a chat client that you’ve authorized us to contact (Facebook or
Gchat), you will periodically receive chat messages from InstaEDU Lessons asking if you’re able
to help a student in one of your subjects of expertise. If you are dressed appropriately and in a
quiet, well­lit location, you can begin tutoring with a simple click of the message link. Make sure
your computer is set up for video chat before accepting the lesson. If you don’t want to, don’t
have the proper setup, or aren’t available to conduct a lesson at that time, simply ignore the
message. Clicking on the link will bring you immediately to the lesson space to begin, but there
may be a brief wait while the student approves you as a tutor.
Get started teaching a scheduled lesson?
After you and your student have confirmed a time, you’ll receive an email with a link for the
session. Click that link a few minutes before your scheduled start time so that you’ll be ready to
go when your student enters the lesson space. You can also log into your InstaEDU account
where there will be a link on your homepage to go the lesson. If you don’t arrive on time, you may
lose the lesson, since your student may not wait around for you to show up! Repeat offenses
may also result in getting removed from InstaEDU. Make sure you’re in a quiet space with all the
materials needed to teach the lesson.
Begin a lesson?
Before connecting with your student, try to gather any materials you may need (pencil, paper,
calculator, etc.). At the beginning of each lesson, be sure to introduce yourself and find out
exactly what kind of help is needed. Try to find out not only what type of question the student has,
but also what it is about the question that he/she finds challenging.
End a lesson?
Before you wrap up a tutoring session, make sure that your student has a solid understanding of
the material and doesn’t have any additional questions. It can be helpful to give him a problem to
try on his own. Once the student seems confident with the material, simply wait for him or her to
let you know. Before ending the lesson, the student will be given the option to schedule an
additional session with you.
React when I don’t know an answer?
Despite your — and our — best efforts, you may be asked a question that you can’t answer. If
the issue is simply that you don’t remember a key term or formula, a quick Google search can
often fill in for forgotten knowledge. If you need a few minutes to get re­acquainted with the
material, click the “pause” button. This will give you time to research the problem without
counting it as billed time. If, for whatever reason, your student has a question that you really can’t
help with (e.g. the material is above your level of knowledge) simply apologize to the student and
let them know you are going void the session so they won’t be charged, and that InstaEDU will
connect them with another tutor who can help. At this point, click the “void” button in the
workspace to end the session. This will cancel all monetary transactions for the session.
Get paid?
Every time you work with a student on our site in a paid or written lesson, the duration of the
session will automatically be credited to your account. Instantly, on your “Lesson History” page
you’ll see the lesson and how much you earned. Within a week, that money will be deposited into
your preferred payment processing account set up during your application. At any time, for no
charge, you can then transfer funds to your personal checking account.
Take a break from tutoring?
If you’re schedule has changed and you don’t currently have time to tutor, you can change your
availability at any time by adjusting the availability toggles on your homepage (on the left side of
the page under your profile picture).
Get more lessons?
Students are most likely to choose to work with tutors who they know more about. To fill out a
little more about yourself, simply log in to your account on InstaEDU and click “Update Subjects”.
From this page you can update the subjects you can tutor in. If you click “Update Profile” you can
fill out the rest of the information on your tutoring profile including outside of school activities and
tutoring experience. Any responses for topic descriptions and open questions will also be added
to your profile to demonstrate your knowledge on your areas of expertise.
Report an issue?
If any unforeseen issue arises, please email [email protected], and we will work with you
to resolve it as quickly as possible. You can also chat with us directly by messaging “InstaEDU
Support” in your live chat contact list.
Tutor Conduct Guide
Acceptable places to work with students
To work with a student on InstaEDU, you should be in a quiet, well­lit place with little to no
possible distractions. Your dorm room, a private study room, or a quiet area in a coffee shop all
work well. If you’re in a common area, where people will be walking through the field of view or
talking in the background, it’s best not to accept the lesson.
We trust you to use your best judgment, but the following things should never be visible during a
tutoring session:
• Pornographic or sexually suggestive material
• Alcohol, drugs or drug paraphernalia
Failure to heed these requirements will result in immediate removal from the website.
Acceptable attire
As you might imagine, there’s no strict dress code for holding lessons on InstaEDU. Use
common sense — if you wouldn’t wear it to a student’s home, you shouldn’t wear it for a video
lesson.
Acceptable computer setup
Before starting a lesson, please make sure that you will be able to take advantage of all lesson
features. This means having a working webcam and microphone, as well as an updated version
of Flash. Although you may not know when accepting a lesson if a student will prefer a video,
audio or text lesson, you are expected to be prepared for all three. If you are not able to turn on
your video feed at the start of the lesson, please do not accept a request.
How much help is too much?
At some point, you may meet with a student who has no intention of learning the material — all
he or she wants is the answer. Under no circumstances, should you ever complete an
assignment for a student on InstaEDU. Beyond that, it can be challenging to define when help
becomes “too much help.” That said, as a student and a tutor, you should have an inherent
sense as to where the line falls between teaching and cheating. Academic integrity is critical at
all levels of education, so please be mindful of it.
What to do if a student is disruptive, offensive, or otherwise unproductive?
If a student acts inappropriately in any way, simply exit the session and email
[email protected] to let us know what happened. The more details that you can provide,
the better. We’ll respond to you as quickly as we can.
Guide to the Lesson Space
1. Tabs: Switch back and forth between the whiteboard (default) and Text Editor here.
2. The Text Editor: If you’re working on a document (discussing an English essay, for
example), you can edit together in this space.
3. The “Share A File” button: Allows you to upload a problem for your student to work on
with you. This feature will more frequently be used by your student to share specific
problems from their homework. If their homework is on a website, suggest taking a
screenshot and uploading it. If their homework is on paper, suggest snapping a photo
with a camera phone and uploading it.
4. Toolbar for the Whiteboard: You can draw in various colors, erase, etc.
5. The Whiteboard. By default this is blank when a session starts. Here we’ve already
uploaded a geometry problem to tackle.
6. Text Chat: Some students prefer to communicate via text instead of video. You can enter
your message to a student here. It can also be helpful for sending word problems, etc.
7. Pause Session: If you need to look up information to help your student, you can pause
the session. During paused session time, your student won’t be charged for time in
session. (You also won’t be paid for this time.)
8. On the rare occasion that you cannot help the student you’re working with because you
don’t know the content, you can Void the session, which will allow the student to connect
with a different tutor and void all monetary transactions for the time.
Guide to Written Lessons
Periodically, you’ll have the opportunity to help students by providing a written lesson for a
specific question instead of meeting in the online lesson space. As we receive questions in your
area of expertise, you’ll receive pings asking for your assistance. By clicking on the ping, you’ll be
able to view the question, the amount of time the student expects you to spend on your
explanation, the due date and how much you’ll earn for your time (you’ll still be paid the regular
rate of $20/hour).
If you decide to claim the question, you’ll have until the allotted due date to provide your
response. Once the question is claimed, it will no longer be open to other tutors, so if you decide
that you won’t have the time to write a response, please unclaim the question as soon as
possible. When providing a lesson, we expect you to teach students how to tackle the question ­
imagine you’re writing a custom textbook section. The goal is to provide the student with a
thorough explanation, not just a solution.
Not only is this a great opportunity to make a few extra bucks, but there are a number of other
benefits for providing explanations:
1. Let us know what you’re good at ­ leading to more lesson opportunities
Every quality answer provided will factor into the number of lesson opportunities you receive for a
given subject.
2. Introduce yourself directly to students
Providing written lessons is a great opportunity to connect with new students. After submitting
your response, we’ll send it to the student who can then schedule lessons with you moving
forward.
3. Boost your profile and website reputation
Written lessons will be added to your profile, so you can further display your expertise to potential
students (and even potential employers). The more comprehensive your profile, the more often
you’ll receive messages and lesson proposals from students.
Helpful Resources
Powerful calculator, solver and knowledge database: http://www.wolframalpha.com/
Math formulas and solutions by subject: http://www.math.com/tables/index.html
Basic physics formulas: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/physics­formulas­list.html
Practice SAT questions:
http://sat.collegeboard.org/practice/sat­practicequestions?s_kwcid=TC|7002|sat%20test%20pra
ctice||S|b|7811845724
Practice ACT: http://www.actstudent.org/testprep/index.html
Practice ISEE (all levels): http://isee.erblearn.org/default.aspx?level=unknown
Grammar rules: http://www.grammarbook.com/english_rules.asp
Foreign language translator: http://translate.google.com/
Calculus integration rules: http://myhandbook.info/form_integ.html
Calculus derivative rules:
http://www.freehomeworkmathhelp.com/Calculus_I/Calculus_I_Rules/calculus_I_rule
s_for_derivatives_integrals.html
Periodic Table: http://www.webelements.com/
Matrix Rules:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Linear_Algebra/Addition,_Multiplication,_and_Transpose
Biology Vocab: http://www.cgrove417.org/bio/biovocab.html
Stoichiometry Rules: http://www.unit5.org/chemistry/Stoichiometry%20Rules.htm
Assorted Finance and Econ Equations:
http://www.math4finance.com/financial­formulas.php
Let us know if you find any other helpful websites so that we can add them to this
list!