From a tutor's point of view, it is good to be in a centre because they find students for you and if you have a group you get more per hour. But I know when I tutor one to one I can be much more helpful.
I don't really see the difference between having an MSN conversation and exchanging emails, and I don't really think I am less able to explain a concept in words in an email than I am in person.
As a HSC teacher it has been very successful for my students to contact me at their convenience...
I don't think you need to be so negative. You could argue that all tutoring is stupid if all the answers are available on the forum. The answers to all maths problems are in the textbook! So should we not have maths tutors? It just helps people to have 1 on 1 help and I am offering it in a more...
I have been tutoring since I was at Uni and the thing I have found is that it is very inflexible for the person I am tutoring. Recently I have been tutoring via email because:
You can ask questions when YOU want
If you have a question that only takes me 10 min to answer you only pay for 10 min...