Online Tutoring: Scheduled or On Demand

choi

Sue Shellenbarger, With Digital Tutors, Solving Calculus Problems via Text. Wall Street Journal , Nov 13, 2013
http://online.wsj.com/news/artic ... 4579186043194947628
(ordering up a tutor online on-demand. with a credit card)

Quote:

"connect [online], sometimes in less than a minute, with a live tutor. Such 24/7, no-appointment-needed services can be especially helpful to students with tight budgets or tight time frames or those in remote areas. * * * using text chat and an interactive "whiteboard" that displayed their writing and calculations on a shared screen.

"Most sites enlist moonlighting or retired teachers, college professors or professionals with tutoring experience; most offer scheduled tutoring in addition to on-demand sessions.

"About 95% of the 1,200 tutors available on Bangalore, India-based TutorVista are recruited from India, says C.S. Swaminathan, president of TutorVista, which was recently acquired by the London-based publishing and education company Pearson PLC. * * * The drawback, she [a college student in California who is a customer] says, is that communicating via text chat 'takes a lot of time.' Mr Swaminathan says TutorVista can provide audio-chat sessions if scheduled in advance.

Note:
(a) Shellenbarger/Shellenberger are American forms of German surname Schellenberger, “for someone from any of the places called Schellenberg.”

Battle of Schellenberg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Schellenberg
(July 2, 1704; The engagement was part of the Duke of Marlborough's campaign to save the Habsburg capital of Vienna from a threatened advance by King Louis XIV's Franco-Bavarian forces ranged in southern Germany [where Schellenberg heights is located, in Bavaria])

UK prime minister Winston Churchill was a descendant of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough.

(b) "the quality of on-demand scholastic support can be uneven, and the catch-as-catch-can approach to enlisting a tutor may not be best for struggling students who need sustained help."
(i) catch-as-catch-can (adj): “using any available means or method”
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/catch-as-catch-can
(ii) Origin of "Catch As Catch Can"
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=342578
(Shodan on Nov 1, 2005: “It's a term from wrestling. ‘Catch as catch can’ as opposed to Greco-Roman, where there are no leg pickups or holds below the waist. ‘Catch as catch can’ = grab whatever you like. More like free style, in other words. It derives from Lancashire wrestling”)

Cite: catch-as-catch-can wrestling. Encyclopaedia Britannica, undated.
(iii) catch wrestling
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch_wrestling
(In 1871, Mr JG Chambers * * * endeavored to introduce and promote a new system of wrestling at Little Bridge Grounds, West Brompton [in London], which he denominated, "The Catch-as-catch-can Style")
"Prices, ranging from about $24 to $45 an hour (and often prorated to the minute), are cheaper than what many skilled tutors charge in a student's home."

(c) "When he [James Nickerson] turned to InstaEDU recently to help his 16-year-old daughter Emma with an advanced-Latin class (they couldn't find a skilled Latin tutor in their hometown of Stevens Point, Wis), he didn't turn Emma loose online. Instead, he sat beside her while she chose a tutor
(i) Stevens Point, Wisconsin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevens_Point,_Wisconsin
(county seat of Portage County; 2010 census: 26,717)
"crowdsourcing sites such as StudyBlue enable students to share study guides, notes and flashcards"
(ii) turn loose:
“1
a :  to set free <turned loose the captured animal>
b :  to free from all restraints <turned them loose with a pile of theme paper to write whatever they liked — Elizabeth P. Schafer>”
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/turn