For anyone interested in booking sessions individually as opposed to being part of a 12 week class for an entire term, we put great effort into finding a solution to make the booking process as simple and convenient as possible. This may be useful for one on one sessions or if there is a desire to join a 12 week class only for particular topics or to stay within a budget. All of the relevant information on tutors is in one convenient location including schedules and the booking area has all available, partially booked and fully booked time slots displayed in real time and colour coded for easy identification.
When we launch paying for sessions will also done conveniently via PayPal through an existing PayPal account (requires a PayPal account due to restrictions imposed on the Caribbean by PayPal) and depending on the results of the market survey we will also investigate implementing an alternative payment process to allow you to pay directly with a Debit / Credit (without the need to use PayPal if you do not have/want to create a PayPal account). In the future we may also implement an account top-up feature which would allow users to top up your accounts and simply use the funds to make any payments directly from your account page.
As a reminder to users, West Indies Tutor will not see or store credit card numbers from any of our customers at any point in time, all processing will be handled by 3rd party PCI compliant service providers like PayPal.
*We have spent years conceptualising and working on this project so there may be differences to the look of some elements (e.g. the logo, tutor booking screen and webpages on the site) from the way they appear below if changes are made over time. Some processes may also change when live if they are not practically meeting the needs of customers.
Please click any of the tabs below for more information.
Booking a session
Simply go to https://www.westindiestutor.com/tutors/ to search for a tutor in any of the subjects offered.
Check the schedule of any tutor you have an interest in by clicking on the “Group Tutoring Schedule” tab if you prefer or you are ok with the possibility of receiving tutoring in a small group or click the “Private Tutoring Schedule” tab if you desire private tutoring sessions to see if the tutor’s schedule matches your requirements. These tabs are conveniently located next to the tutor’s information.
So in the example image and video the “Group Tutoring Schedule” is selected.
Ok, so now that you have your tutor for the subject area you desire and to suit the day(s) of the week when you are free to receive tutoring, then all you need to do is simply click the “Book” button located under the Subject and Subject Level (Primary, Secondary etc) you require.
Once you click the corresponding “Book” button this will take you directly to the session booking area for the selected subject area and level for your desired tutor.
Here we will select Group Tutoring and Mathematics at the Secondary Level.
All available days are shown as green as seen below.
You are now ready to go through the final stages of the booking process. When you click “Choose” to display the calendar you can left click on the day you wish to have your tutoring session, the time(s) the tutor offers sessions on that day will become available as highlighted on the image below.
Left click on the time for the tutoring session and the cost of the session will immediately display ($1.00 for example purposes) as seen in the image below.
When you see the price displayed, just left click the “Book now” button and your session will be automatically added to your shopping cart. If you need to add additional sessions, you can add them in the same way as outlined above.
For an alternative method of adding multiple sessions, you can review the section on booking multiple sessions to see an easier method of adding multiple sessions if you require a large number of sessions. That section also offers a brief explanation on how the system works to explain why manually adding multiple sessions may be more convenient in some circumstances.
After clicking “Book now”, the booked session automatically goes to the shopping cart.
After clicking the “Book Now” button your session will be added to your shopping cart as seen in the images below. ou can review your booking in the cart tab in the upper right hand corner of your screen, you then have the option to either:
1. Click “View Cart” to visit to your shopping cart to further review your order and left click “Proceed to Checkout” to proceed to the billing page to make your payment to confirm your booking and complete the booking process.
2. Click “Proceed to Checkout” to go directly to the billing page to make your payment to confirm your booking and complete the booking process.
Confirming your booking and completing the booking process will just require a payment via Debit or Credit card through your PayPal account (or directly if we can feasibly implement another 3rd party compliant processor).
Please note again West Indies Tutor will not see or store credit card numbers at any point in time. All processing will be managed by PCI compliant 3rd party card processors like PayPal.
For a guideline to see if any particular PCI compliant processor is registered with Visa and MasterCard you can check the following links for.
Visa Global Registry of Service Providers:
http://www.visa.com/splisting/searchGrsp.do
Mastercard Compliant Service Providers List:
https://www.mastercard.com/globalrisk/en/resources/pci360.html
Search the Mastercard link for “The Mastercard SDP Compliant Registered Service Provider List”
The Cart review tab where you can conveniently review your bookings before going to the checkout page.
You can also view the shopping cart as a full page. Here you can then click “Proceed to Checkout” to complete your booking.
Once you proceed to the checkout page you can complete the payment process to confirm your booking.
HOW TO BOOK A SESSION: Show me how videos
This example videos will show how easy it is to make a booking. There are explanations and information offered at various points throughout the videos so they are a bit longer than the actual booking process would take from start to finish. These videos were created when we were first working on developing the various processes required for the business so the date on the booking is in the past.
Please note since this is only for illustrative purposes there is no user account creation. When the service is live, users will need to register for accounts to manage your bookings and access to the classroom.
After this initial process shown in the video, once a payment is made the booking will be confirmed.
Also see STEP 5, for a guideline to check if any particular PCI compliant processor like PayPal is registered with Visa and MasterCard and up to date with security compliance.
Part 1: How to book a session
Days with tutoring sessions will have limitations on the number of people who can book the same day and time and sometimes days may have more than one time slot as seen below. Whenever someone books a time slot then the slot becomes partially booked and is reflected on the calendar.
If we book one of the 10:00 a.m. time slots then it becomes partially booked and as seen in the example below there are now 4 slots (so 4 more students can book this session) remaining.
Any fully booked days will be indicated by a red square and can be immediately recognised when viewing the calendar.
Booking multiple sessions
If you want to book multiple sessions, you would simply need to select the first tutoring session you are interested in as described in the “Booking a session” section above and then return to the calendar and repeat the process for all of the other sessions you want to book.. All of the tutoring sessions booked will automatically be added to your shopping cart as shown below.
Also refer to the alternative method of booking multiple sessions by typing your dates as it may prove useful to some users and is more convenient in some instances.
So if for example you already selected a session for July 12th at 10 am and decided to book another tutoring session in Mathematics at the Secondary level but on August the 2nd, then just select your August 2nd date and time and click the “Book now” button to add it to your cart as well. After all of your sessions are in the cart, simply checkout and make the payment to confirm all of the bookings at once.
You will also notice if you are considering a group session, the number of places left available will be displayed.
You can book multiple sessions by repeating the booking process for a single session for each booking you need to make as outlined in previous sections.
However, you will realise that adding a booking to the cart will cause the calendar to reset to the current month which occurs because the system does a refresh to display the session availability as accurately as possible in real time for all customers. At any time customers may be initiating bookings or removing bookings from their carts and therefore the system refreshing after a booking is added or removed from a cart also works to try to prevent double bookings in addition to attempting to ensure all customers have an accurate reflection of session availability.
This is especially important for private sessions when there may only be one slot available and it is therefore important to reflect accurate information on the calendars in real time.
With this in mind, if you want to book multiple sessions but you do not want to scroll through the calendar for each one, you have the option of viewing the calendar to ensure the dates and time you need are available and then you can manually enter the dates on the booking page and in no time at all your bookings will be ready for finalisation.
For example if you wanted to book September 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th, you would simple check for availability and then manually enter the month and dates as seen in the images below.
Check Availability:
Then manually enter your dates:
HOW TO BOOK MULTIPLE SESSIONS: Show me how videos
These example videos will demonstrate how to book multiple sessions. Users can choose multiple dates and times for tutoring sessions and make one payment to confirm all of the dates at once as describe above.
Of course all pricing is for testing purposes only and do not reflect the actual pricing or a real credit card number.
Both methods give the same end result, so use is based on general preference or preference on a booking by booking basis.
Method 1: How to book multiple sessions using the calendar view
Method 2: How to book multiple sessions by typing your dates
Activate access to your classroom
Customers gain access to a free activation key/product to unlock access their tutor’s classroom with every confirmed booking. Users get 1 point for every confirmed booking (confirmed by making a successful payment). This point is then redeemed to activate the key/product when it’s time for the tutoring session to begin. This is done as a means of:
1. Allowing users to book sessions at any point in time and well in advanced if desired, while then being able to access their tutor’s classroom when the time comes for their tutoring session. All done online without having to contact anyone.
2. Making it easier to enter the correct classroom without having to note, bookmark or remember the URL if the student is in a different location or uses a different computer to connect.
When it’s time for your tutoring session activating the key/product will give you access to your tutor’s room allowing you to join.
We refer to it as a key/product because it is actually a special product available to you which can only acquired by redeeming points. The process is simple and outlined below.
Activating access to your room when it’s time for your session:
Step 1. Go to “My Account” in the menu bar at the top of the website and sign in.
Step 2. Click the “Room Access Activation” link in menu bar at the top of the website.
Step 3. Select your key/product and click “Add to cart” and click “Checkout“
Step 4. Proceed to the Checkout Page and click “Apply Discount” to redeem your point.
Step 5. Click “Place Order” at the bottom of the checkout page.
Access to your classroom will be immediately activated after the order is placed.
Once access is activated either return to “My Account” and view your activated key to click on your room link.
OR
Enter the URL (for example www.westindiestutor.com/room/example-room) directly into the address bar of your browser.
VIEW THE STEPS WITH IMAGES BELOW
Step 1. Go to “My Account” and sign in.
Step 2. Click the “Room Access Activation” link.
Step 3. Select your key/product and click “Add to cart” and click “Checkout“
Select the activation key/product and add it to the cart
You can also click on the activation key/product to see more details and then add it to the cart.
Click “Checkout“
Step 4. Proceed to the Checkout Page and click “Apply Discount” to redeem your point.
Successful point redemption message
Point redeemed and discount applied bringing the total to $0.
Step 5. Click “Place Order” to complete the process and activate access to your room.
View the activated key/product in the “My Account” dashboard and proceed to your room for your session.
Click on the room to go directly to your tutoring session.
ACTIVATING ROOM ACCESS: Show me how videos
These example videos will show how activate access to your tutor’s classroom when it’s time for your tutoring session. Access can be activated hours in advance if desired but it is suggested to do so no more than 20 hours in advance to ensure access remains activated.
The room activation/access is meant to add another layer of security to protect your booking and ensure the correct user accesses the room at the appropriate time. The room activation/access acts like a key that will only be available to the person who booked the session.
Activating access to your room when it’s time for your session
This video:
- Starts at the point when a session is due to begin
- Gives a quick and clear run through of the process with just a few simple accompanying comments
Booking and activating access to your room: full process described
This video:
- Starts from a new booking and reviews the entire process
- Gives a full explanation of the entire booking and room access activation process
Cancelling Sessions
To cancel a session you will need to log into your account and click the “Cancel” button next to the appropriate session as seen below.
Once a session is cancelled from the dashboard of your account West Indies Tutor will be automatically notified and you can begin the rescheduling process.
As outlined in our Terms of Use if a session was appropriately cancelled in advance please do not pay a second time to reschedule your session.
Continue reading below for the rescheduling options set out to give customers flexibility.
RESCHEDULING SESSIONS
When you are rescheduling you may:
1. If you see an available time and date in the future that suits you then you can contact us at customerservice@westindiestutor.com and provide us with the “Booking ID” or “Order ID” of your cancelled order as well as the rescheduled date and time for your new session and we will manually create the booking for you.
2. Contact your tutor or another tutor if desired and coordinate with them to set a new date and time. Once both parties are in agreement contact us at customerservice@westindiestutor.com with the “Booking ID” or “Order ID” of your cancelled order as well as the rescheduled date and time for your new session and we will make sure your access to the session is set up and ready in advance.
3. If you are unsure about a rescheduling time-frame or decide you would like to go through the rescheduling process on your own by restarting the booking process from the tutors page then contact us at customerservice@westindiestutor.com. Simply inform us and provide the “Booking ID” or “Order ID” of your cancelled order so that we can provide you with a 100% discount coupon or store credit coupon to facilitate the new booking.
If you wish to cancel your account, cannot/ do not wish to reschedule a session please refer to our refund policy in the terms of use as all refunds must be made to the debit/credit card used to make the payment.
Please note, to avoid being charged for a session, cancellations must be done before the scheduled start of the session unless there is an unforeseen emergency in which case you can contact us at customerservice@westindiestutor.com once you have the relevant documentation. It is not meant to be inconvenient to customers but tutors arrange their time taking schedules into consideration and will be make themselves present online for sessions based on bookings.
Please make sure to refer to the section on Session Cancellations in our Terms of Use.
