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Frequently Asked Questions

What is Skooli?

Unlike other online tutoring services, Skooli doesn’t let just anyone teach. All tutors are certified teachers who have had their identity, education, and teaching qualifications vetted by our team. Our focus is on quality education and we achieve that through accredited and experienced educators.

The safety of our students is a top priority at Skooli. All tutoring sessions are recorded, and we ask for personal information from our tutors during signup to verify their identity. We also verify their credentials and work experience before they become available for sessions. We’ve integrated ratings and reviews to put you further at ease, and of course, parents and guardians are invited to supervise the sessions.

Tutors are required to submit official documents that verify their personal identity, as well as proof of their education and teaching license. Until a tutor has provided these documents, they will not be verified as a Skooli tutor.

Qualifications and experience vary between tutors, but you can view individual qualifications in each tutor’s profile. At minimum, Skooli tutors are required to have a bachelor’s degree and a valid teaching license, but many have anything up to a doctorate in a specific subject. For more professional topics, you’ll find tutors that hold relevant professional certifications.

Before you schedule your first session, we recommend watching our short getting started and classroom tour videos. If you still have questions, browse the articles in our help center at help.skooli.com.

Getting Started

The tutor list is available on the main page of Skooli, which you can always access by clicking the logo on the top left side. Clicking subject or find tutors will let you search by subject, but you can also use the search bar to filter the list by subject and grade level. If you’re looking to find tutors with the best rating or highest availability, there is also a drop-down menu to apply these filters.

There are thousands of topics currently in the Skooli database. Start searching by clicking subject on the homepage of Skooli.com. Currently, we are focused on academic subjects, but may expand to professional topics in the future.

Once you find a tutor you’d like to book, go to their profile and click schedule session. The tutor’s calendar will open, and will allow you to choose a time that works for you.

Skooli tutoring sessions are the same as in-person tutoring sessions. Live conferencing puts you in direct contact with the tutor, and the virtual classroom environment offers a whiteboard, file sharing, and a host of other features. To get a better idea of what your tutor can help you with, discuss your upcoming session with them via direct messaging.

Tutoring sessions can be as long or as short as you need them to be, as long as your desired tutor is available for the length of time. There is no maximum lesson time, but the minimum is 15 minutes.

To complete a session on Skooli, you will need a computer with a stable internet connection, speakers/audio, and at least a microphone (the one built into your computer is fine). We highly recommend a webcam and headphones, as Skooli sessions are based on live video chat. No downloads are required.

We take the professionalism of our tutors seriously, but we understand that sometimes, unexpected events can arise. As a first step, we recommend getting in touch with your tutor via direct message to see what has happened. If you are having any issues with your tutor, please contact us at info@skooli.com. You will not be charged if your tutor does not arrive for a scheduled tutoring session.

Payment

Get started on Skooli with 60 minutes of tutoring, or save with a pre-purchased tutoring plan. Add a new plan once your existing plan runs out, or you’ll automatically continue with our pay-as-you-go rate of $0.82/minute. More information can be found on our Pricing Page.

We accept all major credit cards and PayPal.

Scheduled sessions are charged for the full scheduled duration, then by the minute if you need some extra time. If you’re not sure how much time you need in advance, chat with your tutor to help make a best-guess before booking, or request to connect instantly to only pay for time used. The cost per minute you are charged is determined by the subscription package you are signed up for.

Starter (1 hour): $0.82/min

Genius (8 hours): $0.73/min

Mastermind (16 hours): $0.70/min

Einstein (32 hours): $0.65/min

More information on our tutoring plans can be found on our Pricing Page.

If you run out of credit during your immediate session, it will be cut short. Before booking a tutor live, double check your current credits to make sure you will have enough to complete the session.

An unused tutoring plan can be cancelled within 7 days of purchase. More information can be found in our Cancellation Policy

Tutors

Anyone who is a certified teacher in North America with a valid teaching license. We also accept tutors with ESL and TOEFL certifications.

No. At this time, all tutor profiles are publicly visible on Skooli.com.

Social Media Connect allows Skooli to streamline the signup process. It also helps us verify your identity and college/university associations. Skooli will never post anything to your social media accounts without your explicit permission.

Access my basic information: this allows Skooli to seamlessly create your account without requiring you to fill out a bunch of basic fields.
Post to my wall and post to my friends’ walls: we’ll never post to your wall without your explicit permission, and we’ll never spam your friends. This will just make it easier for you to share things from Skooli if you choose to.

Currently, at least one of these accounts is required to become a tutor. We may add other ways to sign up in the future, so check back again later!

Tutors are paid a competitive hourly rate based on qualifications and experience. As a courtesy to our tutors, we require a minimum session length of 15 minutes (i.e. if you connect with a student and answer their question in 8 minutes, you’ll still be paid for 15 minutes).

In the earnings section of your dashboard, click the request payout on the top right of the page.

You can update your PayPal information in the earnings section of your dashboard.

No. At this time, a PayPal account is required to be paid from Skooli, but you can sign up for a free account at www.paypal.com

Students will find you in the tutor directory based on your subject areas/topics. They will reach out to you directly by sending you a private message or scheduling a session during one of your available times.

  • Have a complete profile, including a cover image and video message, and as many subjects/topics as possible.
  • Collect ratings and reviews (but this comes with time). If you are looking to improve your profile quickly, you could ask your students to kindly rate you after the session. The highest rated tutors appear first in the list, so you’ll climb the ranks if you have several positive reviews.
  • Keep your availability flexible. If your available times don’t match with your potential students’, they won’t book you. Keep your timezone in mind as you select your timeslots — Skooli is 24/7 and its students are all over the globe.
  • If you have some time, set yourself as available now which opens you up to immediate booking and live chat from students. When a student requests an immediate lesson, Skooli will render a pop-up where you can click to either start or decline the session.
  • Respond quickly and be helpful when an inquiring student sends you a direct message.

A tutoring session on Skooli is meant to simulate a typical in-person tutoring session. The same is expected of you — to help your students master topics they’re struggling with or interested in.

You can set your availability by logging into your tutor account on Skooli.com and going to your dashboard. Click My Availability to access the tool where you can manage and set your availability to tutor.

At this time, only students can schedule lessons based on the availability in your calendar, or your current availability status.

Scheduled sessions:
Simply log into your tutor account on Skooli.com a few minutes before your lesson is scheduled to start. You will see your upcoming session in your dashboard, then click the link on that lesson to join your classroom.

Immediate sessions:
If you want to accept an immediate lesson that you received, just click start session and you will be taken directly to your classroom.

Not at all. We have tutors who teach as little as 15 minutes per month and others who tutor for several hours per day. It’s completely up to you! You always have the choice to accept as many or as few lessons as you wish. However, once you accept a lesson for a specified time, you are expected to work with the student at least until the end of that scheduled time.

As long as you have availability in your calendar, or have yourself set to available when you’re online, students can book you for sessions. To prevent this, toggle your availability to off (indicated by a grey dot instead of green) and delete the available blocks of time in your calendar.