Chegg Tutors (formally InstaEDU)

Chegg Tutors (formally known as InstaEDU) is an online platform that matches students with tutors. I taught math on InstaEDU from 2014 to 2015. The platform offers multiple communication methods to facilitate tutoring all of them have some advantages and some disadvantages. The three methods I used most often were video chat, the whiteboard, and text chat. Video chat as is sounds, allows the tutor and student to see and talk to each other though webcams. While this allows face-to-face communication, it is cumbersome to show math written on paper though a webcam. The whiteboard allows tutors and students to see and draw on the same white screen using their mouse or touchpad. 

While this facilitates written communication it was difficult to write this way and resulted in poor handwriting. Text chat provided an easier way to send written communication but was not able to express certain mathematical symbols. One drawback for the tutor is that they may have to wait for a while between students. Another drawback is that, if you teach multiple subjects or grade levels, you never know what your next student will want help with. Speaking from experience, it can feel strange to finish a session with a seventh grader and then move on to help a college student with vector calculus. While I enjoyed my time on InstaEDU, I left the site in 2015 when I began to acquire steady in-person clients to tutor.