Hello Fellow Tutors & Students… It appears that Edufire has a very small staff. If we are concerned about how much $ we can earn then tying the limited staff up with policing the behavior of each and every class is a daunting and counterproductive solution. If they have to hire more employees to babysit the class length and such then the amount of $ that is available to pay tutors goes down because that is a recurring cost.
If they can find a software solution even though that might cost a little more in front once it is in place it does not need to be paid again.
All of the forum comments about the staff monitoring and the like requires a large increase of people hours to make it happen. People hours cost money and if more money has to be spent for police work that means less for advertising, infrastructure support and admin. Already people were irate because the pay was a few hours late…
Let’s put ourselves in the place of Jon… If it were our company how would we react or respond and what would the repercussions of our response be.
Edufire is a relatively new company that is implementing leading edge ideas and along the way there will be rough spots. Solutions are forthcoming and patience goes a long way to making it easier for the decision makers to iron out the problems.
Looking over past forum discussions it appears that every time a problem has come up it has been worked through. With new ideas and new concepts it is counterproductive to squash the growth with over monitoring, and heavy handed rules… It will slow the organic nature of the growth.
Yes prevention would be best and is ideal however if there is a current infraction, it needs to be dealt with first.
So my suggestion:
Make sure the guidelines are clear. If there is a question of an infraction, pay should be withheld until it can be clarified, Tutors who break the rules will be barred from the site. If they want to be reinstated there would be a process that they have to go through to come back… If they are looking for a quick buck they won’t bother.
As for length of superpass classes… How about this – teachers are paid by the hour so… If the amount is 3.00 on a superpass it is 3.00 per hour per student so then if a teacher has multiple classes with the same students they will only get paid for hourly increments with that student not per class. This might need tweaking but it should be a win / win
Meanwhile Tutors and students do whatever you are capable of doing to market the site so that more people are attracted to be involved here.
Some ways include telling everyone both virtually and in person that you are teaching and learning here talk it up create a buzz If you have a forum or a class in the “real” world put up posters or flyers, put your edufire class URL in the signature line of your emails The more advertising we do the more students and the more $. If we are helping to carry the advertising ball then Edufire has more money to put in infrastructure in the way of software upgrade and the like.
This is our platform… let’s help the people in charge so that it serves everyone.
And most of all remember—- You DONOT have to make your classes available for superpass. It is a choice!

Well said Alaia!

ahhhh….guys we still need a solution to our current problem regarding overlapping classes and a 5 – 15 minutes classes under the superpass program…..so far Dr. Aldrin’s suggestions do indeed have some good points. It has merits. We don’t need supervision or control, we simply need to upgrade the system and add some basic necessary tools when posting or creating a class – PREVENTION/Validation from the system. Valerie said SUPERPASS is still a baby, so we are adjusting and upgrading the system or the program. Policies….rules are quite suffocating. Enrique, Alaia, Valerie and others have uttered the same voice and I for one agree ….. it is a choice!

The solution has to be technological. Simply the system won’t allow a teacher to be in two places at once, and that once you have registered a SuperPass class the timer is set and classes than run for less than this are flagged up. When the teacher transgresses x no. of times, eduFire is notified. The teacher can then face sanctions, such as a suspension. The answer is to change the back-end. But I guess this will need investment.

well then the onus is still on Us to bring more people to edufire to get more money to be used to update the back end… there was an excellent class today on crowdsourcing… Jon was there so I am sure he will be implementing some of those ideas. Those of us who were there can see how these ideas apply to our venues and lives and spread the word. If each of us tells even one other person who tells one other person… you get the picture… it can’t just be on line and not just for our classes but for everything that is on edufire… other subjects, other teachers… let people know what they can find here… set the intention to tell X number of people a day about edufire. put it on your signature of your email if you’re a teacher then put it for a class you’re teaching, if you’re a student just put up the edufire URL with a note like great source for language and business classes. People who know and trust you will be curious and check it out… every little bit counts you never know how many people will receive that one email. we forward everything else… let’s forward eduFire.

check out this article that Alan wrote about edufire in his local paper.. we could all do something like this.. can you imagine the buzz!!

click here

i appoint Alaia to be the first ambassador of edufire in the northern hemisphere, she is very enthusiastic.

Agreed. Go Alaia! :)

I do agree with Enrique on PREVENTION…. It’s a principle that is applied everywhere. What about a quick background check and screening for people who wish to teach on eduFire?…. Okay, that doesn’t mean it would stop everyone with fraudulent intent to join, but it would certainly discourage most of them. Right now, this site is a barn with open doors and I do believe that it’s eduFire’s responsibility as the middle man to make sure that people working here are legit….

In my own biz, my clients do check my background and my rate of success and, when some ask for names of former trainees, I have no problems providing them with such information…. Here students assume that all teachers/tutors here are professional and have ethics…. And if ever someone is insulted because of that, well…. so be it! It’s how it works both in the real world and online. Although the philosophy of eduFire is to be open for anyone , I think after what happened, they will have little choice but try and protect their site from stuff like this happening…. because their reputation is at stake…

My 2 cents!

I am very happy that we are having this discussion and are working on ways to improve this situation. We definitely are taking in what everyone is saying. We will work hard on finding the best solution. This is just a “bump” in the road, and things will pan out. Keep the suggestions coming.

There are some simple solutions that can be implemented. They will not eliminate the problems completely, but they will help. There are others.

Make it Mandatory for a new teacher to take the orientation class before he/she can set classes.

Have a waiting period of (2-3) days between the orientation class and creating classes.

What would we check in a background check? There are so many subjects that I find appealing on eduFire that neither I or anyone else can know if someone is capable of teaching. There is no certification process to determine if someone is knowledgable in some subjects that I see here. And if we are talking about perhaps doing a criminal background check to weed out crooks, unfortunately the cost of doing so would be too much for the site to absorb.

I believe we as consumers will determine if those who are less scrupulous continue to teach on eduFire. I for one agree with somehow making teacher orientation classes mandatory before being allowed to teach a class on eduFire. And I have already implemented this policy for myself by simply refusing to take a class from anyone who has yet to attend any of these classes. If more people took up this policy as individuals it would begin to affect somewhat of a change in eduFire.

In regards to the eventual profitability of using the SuperPass program….

There are ways to create classes and promote them as SuperPass that will prove profitable in the future!

Maybe I am less informed than most people here regarding the educational business. But for me I view eduFire and myself somewhat of a loose partnership. I promise to do my best to create classes potential students want to attend. I promise to market these classes to the best of my ability and budget. EduFire promises to provide the infrastructure required to conduct these classes, as well as market the site as a whole. From what I can tell so far, eduFire has been doing its part of the deal; the verdict is not yet in on my part.

It’s just like television in a way. EduFire is like the cable or satellite system in which I as a tutor can join the Japenese Teaching Network, the Spanish Teaching Network, the Business Teaching Network, and countless other networks. But in the end, it is up to me to create and market my classes (the programming) that potential students want to see! This is similar to the way that a television producer (such as a Dick Wolfe with the various Law and Order television shows) creates his or her own genre of programming. While not every single class I create will become a hit with my students, I will begin to see what types of classes resonate with my target student. Once I determine this, then I will pour all my energy into creating these types of classes. As more and more people discover eduFire and SuperPass, if I am creating quality classes that inform and encourage my students to want to learn more, then I will ultimately be successful.

SuperPass will work. Is it for every type of class? Not at all! In fact, if I don’t feel there is a market for repeating the class series 3 or 4 times throughout the year, I will not create the class at all. To revisit the television analogy, the real money is made in syndication. There is actually a mountain of debt that is incurred bringing a network television program to fruition. If it was not for the ability of producers to create a project that could later be sold into syndication, television would be unable to create programming as it stands currently because of the high cost associated with getting the most talented people to work on a project.

Therefore, realize that we are more than just tutors giving classes on eduFire, we are in fact partners in the educational industry with eduFire!

This partnership is what makes SuperPass work. I and thousands of other competent teachers create classes that students want to attend. At the present time, maybe the subscription size of eduFire is less than what we may wish to see in the future. But it is growing, and I for one firmly believe what Jon said in regards to creating classes that are interesting, informative, and will give us all the opportunity to create a decent part-time income for ourselves. And for many who work harder than perhaps I will, they will eventually make what some of us consider a full-time income.

But this will take time!

In the meantime, I look for ways outside of the internet to promote not only my services, but also eduFire as a whole. For example, because I was lucky enough to be chosen as an eduFire Ambassador, I was given three eduFire T-Shirts to give out to others. My friend owns two Thai restaurants in southern California. In one of these restaurants he allows his two servers to wear the eduFire T-Shirt one day a week as their uniform for the day. I went out and had special made bookmarks that hilight the different types of subjects that is taught on eduFire and touting the SuperPass subscription program. When customers ask them about eduFire, the ladies give them a bookmark to promote the site. It’s not anything official, it is just something they do as a way of saying thanks for the time I have spent helping them to learn English.

The reason I am telling you this is to help people understand that like any other business opportunity, it will take creativity and hard work to find ways to market your eduFire business. It relies not only on SEO and online social marketing, but good old fashion pressing-the-flesh style of Social Marketing! As Alaia suggested, tell others about the opportunities to learn with eduFire.

It will pay off. Of that I am quite sure!

Speaking personally, my biggest challenge with the whole SuperPass issue is not how to get a larger cut of the pie, or prevent abuse from taking away from the pie, but growing the pie itself. I’d like to take much more responsibility for bringing students in so that they can enjoy classes through the eduFire platform, but I have not found that the easiest or simplest thing to do. And, since I prefer to record my classes, it seems I’m inadvertently ruling out people under 18 for my classes. Well, I’ll live with that – there’s always direct tutoring on Skype or something – but I’m still more interested in showing that I am reliable and I am trustworthy than trying to eliminate fraudulent competition, even though I think that’s important too.

I just think that it’s important not to lose sight of the need to grow the pie too.

I feel that a background check could be something like the person sign up to be a tutor on eduFire, he/she may not need to have a certificate (but good to have some credential at least) Describe a bit about himself/herself, her speciality etc and what kind of lessons offering and eduFire will just click ok if all sounds fine and he/she will be a tutor on the site. I don’t think this will go against the principle that “anyone can teach” rather I view it as protecting the interest of tutors and students here. Right now even if a tutor’s profile is empty or has simple sentence that says “I can teach you”, they can just set up any superpass classes and with a few other email accounts, this is sure to be an easy way to cheat the system. I do feel that an additional step is necessary for the best interests of everyone here. When bank started requiring a 2nd security code from our cell phone, many of us complained that it is a hassle, but do you really think so now?

Claire, I wrote something similar to what you said in my first post Here

I’m not in favor of a background check either. I would insist on a completed profile. Along with what I mentioned before. This are measures prior to begin to give classes.

At least it could work as an indicator of how serious the person is.

it is simple and easy, you break the rules, you are out of here.

Correct me if I am wrong please, but I am under the impression that the 18 year-old age restriction for recorded classes is no longer enforced.

I am not certain you are correct on this because there used to be a radio button on the Create Class page that you could select to indicate that this class session would be recorded. This has been done away with, and I am certain I recall reading somewhere that this limitation would be lifted. I am going to do a search in the forums and see if I can find the information.

Ron, that is correct. There’s no longer a rule about the 18+ thing for recordings.

Thanks, Koichi!

I was coming up for air reading the 249 results of forum threads with the words “recording a class on eduFire” in it! I now have at least two hours in free time I didn’t have before!

Thanks for clarifying, Koichi. I have no idea how I would even begin to enforce such a rule anyway.

I just normally tell people when I’m recording so they know, and then they can choose whether or not they want to come up on video / audio based off that information (or just leave the room, if they really don’t want to be recorded). Nobody’s ever had a problem so far, as far as I can tell.

@Ron – Woohoo! 2 hours is a lot! Do something incredible with it!

@the white Prince and @Austin… thank you but I am the new kid on the block and I don’t even know what an Ambassador does. It just makes sense to me to support where we are to make it better and to have it be a fun place for all to work and prosper including the people who have the pleasure of creating such a great platform. I’m sure it is not a walk in the park to juggle all the balls in the air necessary to manage all of this so I am really appreciative.
@Ron… could you post that book mark someplace maybe… I have a retail location in Hawaii and about 200+ people a day pass through my little corner of the world. I would love to give them something other than the URL for edufire scribbled on the back of my business card.
We get a LOT of Japanese tourists and other languages as well that would probably love to know of this site. If I can ever come up for air I want to take Japanese so that I can communicate with them better. for now I can steer them to where they can learn English ;-)

I suggest that:

• Orientation should be mandatory.

• The mandatory orientation process could include:
• The edufire spirit (vision, values, expected behavior, and how the system works),
• Tips about the best use of the platform, and
• Prepare, upload, and teach a 1 hour test class.

• Orientation activities would be evaluated by a group of peers (old hands).

I believe that only competent professors would go all the way through that process. Then we could be set loose in our own classroom.
I also believe that competent professors don’t cheat.

I agree with the mandatory orientation and with the test class. even if it were a1/2 hour test class. I don’t think it needs “evaluation” so much as monitoring…. we have the orientation and it covers some of those points but it would be nice if it was required.
If this were put into place it would be daunting for edufire to monitor it all, however if the “rule” was that you don’t get paid until you have done all of the above, my guess is that everyone would do what it takes to asure that they were compliant. This way they are monitoring themselves rather than edufire needing to “go after them” or babysit.
I agree that if they jump through all the hoops they will be less likely to be someone looking for a quick buck.
It’s all a process and I am sure the middle ground will be found….

There will always be those who try to cheat the system. THey must be called on this! I would like to comment that the other day I discovered that I had double listed a class for the same hour. This is, I had accidentally scheduled 2 classes for the same hour. I did not recognize this until it was time for class but since no one signed up for those classes, it did not matter. I would like to see Edufire create some type of calendar based scheduling screen so that you could more easily tell what hours you have scheduled for and which you have not. However, these tutors should be warned once and then removed.