Category: General Announcements

Humanity Launch + Scaling Updates

HUMANITY SCHEDULING LAUNCH

We’re proud to officially announce a soft launch of Humanity Scheduling Software for Yup tutors starting today, August 16th. Please keep an eye out for an introductory email as well as an activation email inviting you to the Yup Humanity Platform.

Full launch of the platform is expected to occur on Friday, August 30. We will send an email to all tutors to confirm this date closer to full launch.

Please note that all scheduling procedures and policies will remain the same for now. This means that you should still claim shifts through our Available Shifts Sheet and fill out the Scheduling form through next week. No changes made on the Humanity platform (such as shift claims or releases) will reflect on the final schedule until full launch.


TUTOR GROWTH PATHWAY

As a reminder, tutors have the opportunity to qualify for any Level based on their performance from August 5 – August 25. The new Growth Pathway system will launch on September 2, at which time we will implement all new policies touched upon in the webinar. Please continue to email us any questions at tutor.support@yup.com. Check out the following newsfeed posts to revisit the details of the program: 

 

AUTUMN SCHEDULING

In light of the upcoming Autumn scheduling process, we ask that each tutor submit their updated maximum availability for the 2019-2020 school year by Friday, 8/23 via the Scheduling Form’s “Update Availability” option. Yup will use this information to craft future schedules, doing our best to ensure that tutors receive the hours they want as per their pre-summer schedules (where relevant) and available hours.

In line with the creation of autumn schedules, we ask tutors submit any session disputes by August 25th. This will allow us to accurately assign Tutor Growth Pathway levels and schedule hours according to the program’s hour maximums by level.


Let us know what questions you have and Happy Tutoring!

— Team Yup

Tutor Survey, Summer + #random

TUTOR SURVEY RESULTS

Thank you to everyone who participated in our recent Tutor Satisfaction Survey! Here are some of the high-level takeaways from your responses:

  • OVERALL: The majority of the tutor team is satisfied with Yup, feels motivated/valued, and feels respected in communication with Ops
  • FEATURES: Canned responses and the general interface were rated amongst the best tools, while content cards and the whiteboard were most often flagged for needing improvements
  • SCHEDULING: Most of the team is satisfied with scheduling policies; one common request was to increase the frequency of scheduling issue emails (a change which has already been implemented – see below!)
  • BONUSES: While the team generally understands the bonus system, we did receive helpful feedback regarding how bonuses could be more fairly administered/more reflective of performance
  • EVALUATION/QA: Thoughts on the QA system are similar to that of bonuses – largely understood, but with feelings that there may be better ways we could go about assessing performance or grading sessions
Breakdown of Survey Responses

Short Term Solutions:

  • Increased  frequency of scheduling issue emails to weekly
  • Addition of #random slack channel to strengthen community (see below!)
  • Revisiting eligible vs. ineligible sessions and how we grade them
  • Following-up on feedback from tutors more often via newsfeed/Slack/1:1
  • Revisit and communicate TQM role application process


Long Term Solutions:

  • Upcoming bonus analysis and revisit
  • Consideration on how to address multi-problem sessions
  • Reworking of evaluative process to be more fair, and more clearly communicated

SUMMER SCHEDULE REMINDER

As many of you know, Yup functions on a reduced schedule every summer to adapt to a decrease in traffic. This year, we will be implementing the reduced summer schedule starting Monday, June 10th.

If you have preferred hours to give up, please submit an “Update Availability” request via the Yup Scheduling Form by this Sunday, June 2nd. You will then receive a new, temporary schedule from us by June 5th.

NEW SLACK CHANNEL – #random

Going through Tutor Survey responses, we saw multiple suggestions for a less formal Slack channel in which tutors can connect on a personal level. We are so excited for you all to use the new #random channel to get to know each other and put personalities to the names you often see. If you haven’t already done so, please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your background and what is important to you when you aren’t teaching math!

Launch #random Channel

 

Happy Tutoring!

— Team Yup

New Feature + General Reminders

NEW FEATURE: IN-SESSION PROMPTS

Yup tutors have a lot to do in-session. Remembering which tools to utilize and when, using growth mindset language, and typing quickly – all while teaching math and adapting to students’ needs! This role requires a significant cognitive load, and with so many specifics to remember we know it isn’t easy to stay on top of everything.

In-Session Prompts are designed to encourage appropriate use of teaching tools and growth mindset language. The feature will prompt you when it’s appropriate to use these levers:

We hope this will increase student satisfaction and learning while making your job easier. As you notice the prompts this week, please tell us what you think in the #new-ideas Slack channel! We review comments regularly to inform future feature requests and changes.

GENERAL REMINDERS

  • Is your student using an unfamiliar or unusual solution method? Avoid discrediting the student or their teacher’s method, which could come off as rude or disrespectful.  Instead, ask for a snap of their notes or textbook to gain more insight into the method or check with #tutor-chat (or Google) for support!
  • Coverage Reminders: Both Riemann Sums and calculating volume with integrals fall within Yup’s concept coverage. Please take a moment to brush up on these concepts if you are not already familiar.

 

Happy Tutoring!

— Team Yup

Daylight Savings + Student Feedback Award

DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME

This Sunday, March 10th, 2019, the United States will be setting their clocks forward one hour at 2:00 AM PST in observance of Daylight Savings Time. 

If you reside in an area that does not observe daylight savings, please carefully read through the instructions listed below.  NOTE: This procedure has changed from recent years, veteran tutors!

  • Despite the time change at Yup HQ, do not change your normal weekly schedule in your local time zone if your country doesn’t observe Daylight Savings this Sunday.
  • However, it is important to note that we will be changing from Pacific Standard Time (PST) to Pacific Daylight Time (PDT). This means the timing of your weekly schedule will change by 1 hour when referring to your shifts:
    • For example, a 6PM – 9PM PST shift will become 7PM – 10PM PDT from the Yup HQ standpoint. (This is important for correctly referencing your shifts to Yup Ops/other tutors.)
  • IMPORTANT: If you reside in an area that observes Daylight Savings but on a different date, please respond to the email you received to let us know.

Please don’t hesitate to send questions our way via scheduling@yup.com!

OUTSTANDING STUDENT FEEDBACK AWARD

Congratulations to Rachael Klatt for earning the Outstanding Student Feedback Award! This award is given to tutors who consistently receive outstanding written feedback from students while demonstrating excellent overall performance. Way to go Rachael!

Some of Rachael’s exceptional student feedback comments include:

  • “Thank you so much for your help!! I completely understand this topic now, and your explanations were easy to understand! I hope to have you as a tutor again, thanks!!!”
  • “She is very patient and always explains it in a simpler way in order for me to understand better.”
  • “Thank you Ms. Klatt you are the best tutor I have received so far! You were very helpful, had clear explanations and were very patient!”


Happy tutoring!

— Team Yup

Tutor Dashboard Performance Tips + Tutor Bios

TIPS FOR OPTIMIZING TUTOR DASHBOARD PERFORMANCE

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A common concern we hear from tutors is that the Tutor Dashboard is slow, unstable or failing to perform as expected. Often these issues can be due to technical bugs which the Engineering team must investigate and resolve. Other issues however, may be related to your computer, operating system/browser settings, or internet connection.

The following is a list of guidelines that will ensure both tutors and students are having the best possible experience using the platform. As we work towards a more stable Tutor Dashboard, we ask that you adhere to these guidelines until further notice – this will increase the likelihood that any bugs being reported are an issue on our end rather than yours:

  • Avoid watching videos or using applications in full screen
    For many operating systems this will cause notifications to fail and sessions to be unknowingly passed 
  • Avoid streaming media or downloading large files
    Because these activities require more bandwidth and memory, they may reduce dashboard performance 
  • Disable Chrome’s ‘background timer throttling’ 
    This feature was introduced to prevent backgrounded tabs from using up system memory. For apps like Yup’s Tutor Dashboard, this setting has a negative impact on performance and may cause passed sessions. To disable the setting, copy and paste chrome://flags/#expensive-background-timer-throttling into your Chrome address bar and disable “Throttle expensive background timers” – as shown below:
    .
  • Limit open tabs and applications during a shift
    Keep your Chrome tabs to a bare minimum during shifts to avoid using up memory. Running programs in the background along with Chrome may also have negative consequences for the Tutor Dashboard. We recommend  a computer with 4 GB of memory at the very least.     
  • Ensure reliable internet connection (5- 10 mbps min.)
    See our latest post for more information: Practice Dashboard + Internet Connectivity

 

TUTOR BIOGRAPHIES FOR NEW TUTORS

If you are newer to the Tutor Team and have not been asked to complete a Tutor Biography, please take a moment to do so:

UPDATE YOUR TUTOR BIO   › 

Read more about Tutor Biographies in our post from last Autumn:
Tutor Biographies (2018/10/09)

 

Happy Tutoring!

— Team Yup