No! Any personal computer, laptop, or tablet will work just fine with our online tutoring platform. We recommend using a computer, laptop, or tablet instead of using your smartphone. We promise you’ll find it much easier to help the student from your computer!
Yes, we have voice chat! However, there is no video component to UPchieve due to student safety and student preference. If you’re helping a student with STEM tutoring, you’ll see a collaborative whiteboard and a text-based chat. In college counseling and humanities subjects, you’ll see our collaborative document editor instead of the whiteboard.
Most tech issues can be resolved by refreshing the page and asking the student to do the same. For persistent whiteboard problems, you can use the whiteboard reset button available to you.
Important: If you click the whiteboard reset button you won't be able to retrieve the information on the whiteboard
If this doesn't fix the issue, report a tech issue using our chat widget (click the question mark bubble in the lower-right). Our tech team will look into it within 48 business hours.
No worries, this is normal! We notify several volunteers when a student requests help. Sometimes another volunteer picks it up first, or the student ends the session quickly.
If this is happening frequently, please let us know by reporting a tech issue.
UPchieve is an on-demand service, so the number of requests you receive can vary. Here are some tips to increase your chances of working with a student:
Block out more time on your UPchieve calendar to receive text notifications of students needing help. The hours where you see red 
icons indicate when request volumes are highest!
Get certified in more subjects.
Have the dashboard open to see requests as they pop up. You can even accept them outside your set availability!
Please note, that if you have never received a tutoring request, it may be because you haven't completed onboarding. If this isn't the case, please feel free to send us a message!
If a student is unresponsive, they may have experienced a connection issue. Many of the students we serve face barriers, such as limited access to quality internet or reliable devices. Students may be nervous about using the platform for the first couple of times.
Don't wait longer than 10 minutes for a student to respond. If you've reached out a few times without receiving a reply, end the session and assist other students. The student can request a new session whenever they're ready.
Here are a few ways to delete or erase items on the whiteboard:
Delete specific items: Use the 'Pick' tool, click the item you want to delete, then press delete on your keyboard or click the red trash can icon that appears.
Erase everything: Click the eraser tool (it looks like a trash can) to clear the whole whiteboard.
If you accidentally click on the trash icon and delete all the contents of the whiteboard, you can undo it by clicking the 'Undo' icon which looks like an arrow pointing left
Hide items: Use the eraser icon to drag a white marker over the parts you want to hide.
Tip: Hover over any button to see what it's called!
Avoid clicking the ‘Reset whiteboard’ icon—it will erase everything, and you can't undo it.
You'll need assistance from our staff to update your email address. Please send us a message and provide your full name, the email address that is currently in your account, and the new email address.
To update your phone number, please follow these steps:
Click on "Edit" in the upper right corner.
Update your phone number.
Click "Save" to confirm the changes.
If you encounter issues verifying your phone number and you are outside of the U.S. and Canada, please note that your country's regulations may prevent us from sending text messages.
The session doesn't automatically close for the student. When either the volunteer or student ends the session, the tab on the other user's screen turns gray, indicating the session has ended.
Until the student closes the session, they can view the whiteboard/document editor and access the chat. Students have a "session history" feature to review all past sessions.
Yes! Click the upload image button and select the image you'd like to share.
If your image won’t upload, the file might be corrupt, in an unsupported format, or mistakenly flagged by our new moderation tool. Try refreshing the page. If it still doesn’t work, report the issue or email support@upchieve.org.
UPchieve provides support for learner variability, including color blindness, speech-to-text, translations, and dyslexia. Check out this doc for more info.
Currently, only text notifications are available. You can also enable browser notifications to hear a ping when a student needs help
If the student doesn't send at least one message after you accept their tutoring request, the session will not appear in your session history, even if you've sent messages.
