Introductions - What would you like to see?

Hey all. As many of you know, we’re rolling out a new platform soon and as we’re in the midst of getting ready to go with that we were discussing something and thought we’d get some feedback from the tutors here.

Currently on the site we allow for a 10-minute free introduction to a tutor. If a tutor is online and has their status set to “Ready to Teach” a student can contact them and hop into an “Introduction” session right away. This session lasts for 10 minutes and at the end of 10 minutes, the student receives a message that their Introduction is complete and they can either leave the session or remain for a regular session in which case they’ll be billed.

Our question to all of you is whether you like this system or whether there’s a system that would work better for this?

For example, some teachers have suggested that they’d prefer to offer 30 minutes for free or even a full hour session as a trial for new students. One option is to simply leave Introductions open-ended and they could last as long as the tutor and student wish. However, there’s a challenge with that in that some tutors have told us that it’s tough for them to stop an Introduction and by having the 10-minute time limit in place it makes it easier to convey to the student that their Introduction is over and inquire about whether they want to do a regular session.

There is a possibility that perhaps we could allow a teacher to specify whether they do free intros and if so, how long those last. However, a concern there is that this introduces some additional complexity and is one more thing that must be communicated to a prospective student.

So we’d love to hear your thoughts? Should we try to keep the system the way it is? Make it open-ended? Do it some other way? Thanks in advance for any suggestions or advice you have here!

I’d say first thing is simplicity. Regardless of what the outcome is, it needs to be straight forward and easy to understand.

Personally I’d like to have the ability to give new students their first lesson free, I’ve always done this for years and think it’s fair. I also appreciate and respect other tutors may not want this but that is easily resolved with a “First Lesson Free” type logo on profiles.

The current system is limited to only those in ’I’m available’ mode which is restrictive plus I don’t think 10 minutes is long enough to get acquainted with the tutor, student and discuss goals etc. Additionally, I really don’t like the idea of putting a time limit on anything where you actually get cut off. Conversations cannot be timed naturally to finish like this. I think part of planning a lesson is just that, planning and I believe all good tutors should have the ability to know how to begin drawing a lesson to an end.

I don’t mean to sound harsh, but this skill is imperative to tutoring as without it, what else can’t you do within a timeframe during a lesson? I’d be more than willing to help tutors, individuals or collectively in ‘workshop’ on it as I believe it will really help all areas of tutoring, not just knowing how to end a lesson.

So for me at least, first lesson free for every new student that registers where the tutor, if they so wish, doesn’t get paid. Perhaps this could be achieved with a voucher code similar to what we’re doing now?

I don’t mind giving a first free lesson.

In my opinion, I like the way it is now as a 10-minute introduction but I also agree with the idea that this can be too short. Is there any possibility for tutors to extend the introduction if they have not enough time?
If there is a free lesson, which I do not disagree at all, it should be shorter than a real session because in many cases students book sessions with different tutors to have free lessons and they never take paid lessons.

To sum up, I would add the possibility of extending the introductory time if that is ok for everyone.( it would be a kind of free session though! and everyone would be happy!) ;)

Marco:

As I said before, I don’t mind giving the first lesson free. But, if this is implemented, then we must put in force “How many free lessons a student can take?”

A sudent takes a free intro lessons with a teacher one day, another free intro lesson with another teacher the next day, and still another the day after…..The student has taken 3 free lessons right there…..GOOD for him/her…bad for us

10 Minutes may be too short. But I do also agree with Graciela. Some students may book several introduction lessons with different teachers and my not pay for a lesson at all.
What about 20 or 30 Minutes? In half an hour the student as well as the teacher get to know each other a bit and can decide whether they will be continuing with paid lessons or not.

I agree Enrique and Claudia, good point. Perhaps this is something than can be implemented? Max say 3 free sessions with different tutors? You’re right for considering the student’s perspective too. Thanks!

I agree with you Enrique. There should be a limit of free introduction lessons for each student.

And I agree with you too, Marco :-)

Yes, we do have to consider both the student and the teacher’s needs. A student should be able to try out a number of tutors, 3, before they commit to having a paid session. These free sessions could be twenty minutes long. This gives one time to become acquainted a little and to ask a few questions about the student’s level, as well as whether there is a chemistry between both parties. In twenty minutes you can tell whether a tutor is suitable or not. I also agree that this should be a simple system. I dislike confusion, ambiguity, etc.
Once we have the small group sessions going, could we offer free twenty minute group sessions at a specific time or times each day? The tutor would have to clarify that it would be a session for beginners or intermediate, etc. and perhaps the skill or focus of the lesson to help the student narrow down their choices of tutors to try.

Candy! I agree that we MUST be sure the participants in a group session are of the same level

¡Hola!
I agree 10 minutes would be too short, so I think maybe 30 minutes would be ok, as it would give time enough to talk about classes, goals, etc. And it won’t be a problem when reaching the limit time. I had a student (not here, at Edufire) who didn’t know when and how to end the class; when the class was about to finish, it seemed to me as a “never-ending” moment. And I had to learn how to say “oh, time flies! Our class is finished, so please, ….” you know, being polite. I think the word is “assertive”?? That is, saying what you have to say, but trying at the same time not to bother the other person you’re talking to. (Is this the right term, Marco?) :-)

So, in few words, 30 minutes would be fine, but in order not to be “stopped” in the middle of a sentence, 2-3 minutes before reaching the limit, try to end the session in a kind way. I have to say, my experience with practically all my students is so great, they are so kind that I think this won’t be a problem.

Hope this helps!

And yes, I also agree with you all! There should be a limit of free classes for every student.

I’d go for the 30 minute intro and a maximum of 3 intros per student. That way it would be fair for everyone. I believe the 30 minutes will give enough time to get acquainted and test methods and the 3 intros will allow for students to test different tutors or even different languages.
If the multiparty lesson platform caomes out, it would be great to set up free 30 minutes lessons for groups to test different levels and see teacing methods for different groups.

Sue

Oh, sorry! I forgot to tell you about this!
I agree about giving 3 intros to students. I think it is quite fair, as they can test different tutors, until they find the best one for them, as said Susan.

All looks great so far.

So it appears that 30 minute test sessions (bookable in advance?) and a max of 3 test session per student.

Can we have some kind of visual alert or something when there are 5 minutes to go?

Marco, what about if a test session could either be bookable in advance or right away if the tutor is in “ready to teach” modus? A reminder a la “5 minutes left” would be helpful, I think.

I agree with Claudia!

Absolutely, I meant both bookable in advance and in Available mode. Thanks for highlighting it. :)

This is going great. Thanks to everyone so far.

Yo everybody !

All my lessons on EF were compulsive. I mean that all my pupils took the risk to have a bad tutor. I understand now that the free trial has not to be very long. Ten minutes is enough for getting the feeling.
What is important now is to have the possibility of giving some more time after 60 minutes for free and that is the case. But time is money and some day it will be necessary to be paid for this “some more time”. Right now I have a big problem. I don’t know if I must say to my boss “I leave you for Edufire because I can earn sitting in my house”. I think I will tell this very soon and then I will have to earn “seriously”, that is to say, to be paid for each minute spent on EF. This is not science-fiction, this is happening now. That’s why the good decisions must be taken knowing that any detail can be corrected.
One more thing : Living on one planet with 24 different times is a big issue for EF. EF must be planetary for being a planetary success and not only an american story. It’s obvious that giving a lesson to somebody who lives at the same time is easy. If my student lives in LA and I am in Paris we have a problem. For this reason EF must build a worldwide network of pupils and tutors. That will take some more time but I think September will show already a big jump ahead.
Good luck to all !

Just be careful that you don’t end up spending so much time giving free lessons that a lot of your actual paid tutoring time is used up. It would be helpful to have a set time or times when you are willing to give free sessions, perhaps during your slow times.

I love the idea of “bookable in advance” as well as “available mode” trial sessions. I don’t necessarily agree that the free sessions need to extend past 10 minutes. In my experience (from other tutor sites) the student and I can get a feel for each other’s teaching/learning styles in the first few minutes, so I use it as more of an introduction. Of course I answer any questions and provide the students with a general overview of my lessons, but 10 minutes is adequate for me. I think a free trial/introduction is necessary; however, I would prefer having the trial time as an option and not be forced into offering 30 minutes etc.

Hey all. Wow. I’m blown away by all the feedback so far. When we ask for your thoughts and you guys come back with so much, in less than 3 hours, well, it’s very very inspiring. :)

I love it all and let me offer a few additional things:

1 – It’s important to note that while all sessions on eduFire are currently an hour that might not always be the case. In the future we might allow teachers to do half-hour lessons, 2 hour lessons, etc. So I guess the question then becomes does the free trial period need to change based on how long the teacher’s regular lesson lasts? Or do we simply set a time and say thats the free lesson time for everyone?

2 – I hear you all about the issues inherent in students “freeriding” by doing trial lessons with a bunch of teachers. However, one way to minimize this is to post on a student’s profile page how many free trials they have done. That way, as tutors, you could check a student’s profile page before agreeing to a free lesson and determine whether or not to accept the request. The reason I think this might be better is that we have to keep the long-term view here and realize that while three sessions is probably good for a student one subject there will be students learning multiple subjects at different levels over many years at eduFire and cutting it off at 3 might be too small of a number.

3 – I think the piece of advice that resonates the most with me is “keep it simple.” I was over on another language-learning site earlier today and I was astonished by how complicated it was. While eduFire is pretty simple to use right now our goal is to make it even easier to use. So I think whatever direction we choose to go in here will hopefully reflect that.

Keep the feedback coming y’all. This is a very important decision for us!

Keep it simple Jon. Leave the trial lesson at a set time length regardless of the real length of the class.

I agree with Enrique. And also the point you mentioned, John, with displaying the free lessons of a student on his/her profile page.

Jon, are you suggesting that the teachers accept or deny the free trial request? Or, will it be standard feature