The Wonder of Tech: InstaEDU -- Online tutoring on-demand

It's getting late when your child starts to panic about tomorrow's test and asks for your help. He thought he could figure it out on his own, but he just doesn't get the concept that they just covered in algebra, or geometry, or physics, or history, or, well, you get the picture. You want to help but ...

There comes a time that every parent dreads: your child asks for help with homework and you have no clue. Or worse, you think you know, but you're wrong.

At this point you're probably wishing for a magic fairy to come help your child with his studies.

Technology can help.

I recently spoke with InstaEDU founder and CEO Alison Johnston about the online tutoring services. Among the goals, she said, was to provide tutoring services that were flexible and affordable.

"Our goal is to allow any student to get one-on-one academic support whenever they need it," she said. "The way we do that is by allowing both high school and college students to connect with tutors from top universities, both on-demand and through scheduled lessons on our site."

The company uses students as tutors because it believes that students can establish rapport with those seeking help. "We think that having tutors who can relate to students is really important," said Johnston.

Connections between students and tutors are made through InstaEDU's website using shared lesson space, including video, audio and text chats. The site provides document sharing as well as a virtual white board, so students can upload papers for a tutor's review and discuss suggested changes.

Students have the option of rating a tutor after every session. "We monitor those ratings very closely," said Johnston. "We see that the vast, vast majority of sessions are rated positively." The company hasn't had an issue with a tutor getting consistently bad reviews, but if that were to happen then they would act quickly to remove the tutor from the program, she said.

To get tutoring through InstaEDU, either a parent or student can sign up for an account. Parents who sign up for an account for their child will get an email every time their child uses the service and can see summaries of their child's activities on the site. Parents can also schedule sessions for their child.

Students can get direct access to tutors whether they sign up themselves or through a parental account.

InstaEDU offers three types of tutoring:

With Instant tutoring, students choose a subject and the site shows tutors who are available. It includes a photo, schools and qualifications. Johnston said the average time to connect a student with a tutor is 35 seconds.

Scheduled tutoring is handy for those who know they need help ahead of time and want to schedule a tutoring session, perhaps with a favorite tutor. "A lot of our scheduled lessons actually come from people having an on-demand lesson, liking the tutor and saying, 'Hey, let's work together again,' " said Johnston.

InstaEDU also offers SAT/ACT prep tutoring, which are long-term, customized courses. Available programs run from eight to 24 hours of one-on-one instruction and are priced from $360-$960, and include practice tests. You can get more information about SAT/ACT prep at the website.

According to Johnston, most of the clients are high school and college students, but the site will accept students as young as 13.

Johnston also noted that InstaEDU is getting more adult students who may be taking online classes but don't have the classroom experience to get extra help when they need it.

InstaEDU charges by the minute, with a minimum of five minutes per session.

Tutoring costs 50 cents a minute or $30 an hour.

There is a discount when purchasing tutoring ahead of time. For example, if you commit to one hour per week of tutoring, the price is 42 cents a minute or $25 an hour. If you commit to two hours or more of tutoring a week, the price falls to 37 cents or $22 an hour. You can cancel the commitment at any time.

InstaEDU lets you try their service for free. The site gives you 10 minutes of free tutoring when you sign up. If you commit to an hour of tutoring a week, you get an hour of free tutoring. If you commit to two hours a week, you can get two free hours of tutoring.

To sign up for InstaEDU, you can go to its website, which will get you an extra five minutes of tutoring free. (This is not an affiliate link.)

My daughter – a high school student – tested the service.

She went to InstaEDU for help with chemistry and found 11 pages of possible tutors, including students from Cornell, Princeton, MIT, Stanford, Duke, Columbia, Harvard, and other prestigious universities. (You can view InstaEDU chemistry tutors here.) She chose Blake, a biochemistry major at Washington University in St. Louis.

Her tutoring session lasted 15 minutes and she was impressed not just with Blake's knowledge, but also his ability to explain complex concepts in a clear manner. He repeatedly checked to make sure she understood what he was saying. Blake also contacted her after the tutoring session was over to make sure she understood the concepts and to see if she wanted to schedule another tutoring session.

My daughter used InstaEDU two more times. However, one time her Wi-Fi connection at school was too weak to maintain a connection with her tutor. The other time, Acata, a Marine Biology student from Stanford University was very helpful in explaining chemistry.

My daughter was very impressed with the service and plans to use it again in the future.

University students who attend top U.S. universities and who have previous tutoring experience can apply to become an InstaEDU tutor. They are paid $20 an hour. "It's a great job if you're a college student," explained Johnston. "$20 an hour from your dorm room, no commute, on your schedule, it's basically the perfect college job."

To apply, you must connect with Facebook or have a .edu email address from your university so that InstaEDU can confirm your attendance. After you're approved, go online with either Facebook or GChat (Google Chat) when you're available. InstaEDU will contact you using Facebook or GChat to connect you with a student who needs tutoring.

To learn more more about becoming an InstaEDU tutor, go to its website.

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The ninth annual Pennsylvania Conference for Women was held earlier this week at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The conference was attended by over 4,000 women and high school students, who attended the Young Women's Program. Featured speakers included Arianna Huffington (President and Editor-in-Chief of Huffington Post), Barbara Bradley Baekgaard (co-founder of Vera Bradley), Charlotte Beers (former CEO of Ogilvy & Mather), Monica Malpass (co-anchor of Action News at 5 pm), and Philadelphia's Poet Laureate Sonia Sanchez, with a special appearance by former Governor Ed Rendell. The conference offered panel discussions, workshops, exhibits and networking opportunities for women to develop their leadership, networking, negotiating and professional skills.

Carolyn Nicander Mohr is a Chester County resident and the creator of a website, the Wonder of Tech. Contact her at wonderoftech@gmail.com.