Live tutoring
Running a live tutoring session
The session room is the part of the app that behaves least like a chatbot. You speak, Johnny speaks back, and he works the problem out on a whiteboard beside the conversation while you watch. The controls are deliberately few.
Open the room
Start a Session in the sidebar, or the session button on the Dashboard. The room fills the page: Johnny on one side, the whiteboard and your session tools on the other.
Check your microphone
The control bar has a Hold to talk button. Your microphone is off until you press and hold it, and Johnny answers the moment you release it, so nothing else in the room is heard and he cannot cut you off mid-sentence. If Johnny is not responding, check that you held the button while you spoke and released it when you finished.
Show Johnny the problem
Three ways, and they all beat typing. Turn on your camera and hold the page up to it. On a computer, press Share screen and pick the tab or window with your assignment in it. Or just read the question out loud.
Watch the whiteboard
As he explains, Johnny writes the steps out by hand and sketches graphs and diagrams. This is the part worth watching rather than only listening to. For anything geometric, the drawing is most of the explanation.
Interrupt when you're lost
You can interrupt him. Saying "wait, go back" or "why did you do that step" works, and it is the single most useful habit in a session. A tutor you never interrupt is a lecture.
Save anything worth keeping
The whiteboard has a Save this whiteboard button. It suggests a title and description you can edit, and saved boards turn up later under Classwork, in the past work tab.
End the call
The red End call button closes the room. The session is written to Sessions, in the Study section, so you can find what you covered later without having taken notes.
Screen sharing is per-tab
When your browser asks what to share, choosing a single tab rather than the whole screen is usually the better option. It keeps everything else private and it is easier for Johnny to read.
Live sessions need a connection
The room is the one part of the app with no offline mode at all. Offline, the sidebar shows Session unavailable offline in place of the button, while read-only pages like Progress, Grades, Sessions and Chat keep working.
Common questions
Can it see my screen the whole time?
Only while you are sharing it, and only the tab or window you chose. Press Stop sharing screen to end it. The button replaces Share screen while a share is running.
Do I have to turn my camera on?
No. The camera is off by default and the session works entirely without it. Turn it on when you want to hold a page or a worked answer up to it, then turn it off again.
Can I go back to a previous session?
Yes. Sessions, in the Study section, lists your past sessions, and anything you saved from the whiteboard is under Classwork in the past work tab.
Johnny talks too fast, or too slowly.
Say so. "Slow down", "you can skip that part, I know it" and "explain that like I've never seen it" all work, and adjusting to you is the thing a live session can do that a written answer cannot.
Still stuck?
The support page goes to a real mailbox, and a reply comes back from a person.