The Clarendon Hills Public Library has added a new free service for cardholders that offers online on-demand tutoring, homework help, test preparation and writing assistance for those in kindergarten through adults in more than 60 subjects.
Tutor.com was added in Clarendon Hills in mid-January and provides tutors daily from 3 to 10 p.m., with no appointment necessary. The service also offers drop-off reviews, practice quizzes, video lessons, and The Princeton Review, and SAT/ACT Essentials for self-study, which is available 24 hours, seven days a week.
The expert tutors at Tutor.com can help users work through a tough homework problem, improve writing skills, study for a test, review a difficult concept, and more.
“We added this because we know how important academic success is to the parents of school-aged children in Clarendon Hills,” Library Director Lori Craft said. “Because this service is available every day from 3 to 10 p.m., if a student needs help understanding a certain concept or help in figuring out a specific homework question, they have someone to reach out to, even if a parent is not home.”
Craft said she likes Tutor.com because it is available every day and can be used from home.
“That means no one has to drive a child to meet up with a tutor,” she said. “I also like that if you are writing a paper or essay for class, you can send it to Tutor.com and have someone proof it and give feedback on how to make it better.”
Craft said the online tutoring service differs from in-person tutoring by having tutors work one-on-one with a child through text- or voice-chat and use an interactive whiteboard to share work and ideas.
“So as long as you have a Clarendon Hills Public Library card and a device connected to the Internet, you can connect with a tutor wherever you are,” she said.
Cost of the service to the library is $2,250 annually.
“For seven hours of tutoring availability a day, it’s a great deal,” Craft said.
She said the newness of the service makes it difficult to gauge usage at this point.
“It is new enough that we are still trying to get the word out about it,” she said. “We would certainly like to build up the usage.”
A middle school student using Tutor.com for math has been impressed with the service.
“My tutor was very welcoming and very understanding in helping me,” the student said. “She went out of her way to help me better understand how to break down my math word problem so I knew what information I needed to find and what to solve for.”
More information about Tutor.com is available on the library’s website, www.clarendonhillslibrary.org.
Chuck Fieldman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.