Category: Policy Updates

Policy Breakdown + Chat Lag Fix

NEW POLICY BREAKDOWN RESOURCE

As a startup that’s blazing a trail in education technology, we frequently find ourselves uncovering new problems and adjusting our priorities as new data and learnings come to light. At the same time, we know that these policies can be tough to keep track of!

To ensure everyone is on the same page with what is expected of them, we have created the Yup Policy Breakdown. This infographic organizes all of the bonuses and penalties that Yup Tutors can receive into a one-page resource:

In the spirit of learning, improving, and evolving, we’re also taking this opportunity to introduce some updated policies which are a result of feedback from both users and tutors. These changes, which you can find in the above guide, are as follows:

– New bonus opportunities for positive student feedback
– New thresholds for response speed bonuses and penalties
– New maximum absolute totals and minimums for key tags

Check out the links provided on the right-hand-side of the policy page for more details.

CHAT LAG BUG FIX

Many of you have reached out to us with concerns about a bug that was affecting Tutor Dashboard response time, especially when typing in the chat box. We are happy to report that the Engineering Team was able to push out an update this morning that should address the issue. Let us know if you continue experiencing the lag, or if you notice other issues. See the Bug Reporting document for instructions.

Keep up the great work, and as always, let us know if you have questions or concerns about this post by emailing tutor.support@yup.com.

— Team Yup

Create your own user feedback survey

Gap Clarification Updates

Recently, we introduced a feature that asks students if they have started solving or previously solved a problem similar to theirs. Now that this information is available to tutors via the Tutor Dashboard, we will be updating the way we assess rubric standard 1.1, which asks “Did the tutor figure out where and why the student was stuck?”

NEW GAP CLARIFICATION PROCEDURE

Going forward, you will be expected to ask the student about their progress only if one of the following is true:

– The student’s response to “Started Problem“ is Yes, but they didn’t upload any work

– The student’s response to “Started Problem” is N/A

When a student responds “No” to “Started Problem” or responds “Yes” and submits work to the Yup Bot, we consider the task of finding where the student is stuck to be complete. At this point, start figuring out why the student is stuck by probing their existing knowledge!

We would like you to continue asking about “why” the student is stuck regardless of how the student responds to these questions (although we strongly suggest that your questions reflect the student’s answer to “Done Similar Problems”.)

In a recent tutor survey, we were pleased that many of you reported utilizing the answers to these questions to ask more targeted questions in the gap clarification phase. (For example, asking the student how their problem differs from others they’ve solved if they indicate having solved similar problems previously.)

Check out the infographic below for a visual guide to navigating Gap Clarification Phase going forward:

As always, let the Operations Team know if you have any questions about these changes by emailing tutor.support@yup.com.

Happy tutoring!

— Team Yup

Create your own user feedback survey

Bug Reporting + New Feature Survey

NEW BUG REPORTING PROCEDURE

To simplify the way we track and handle technical issues with our site, we ask that you no longer use the “Report Bug” button on the bottom right corner of your screen when you encounter bugs.

The new bug reporting process that we’d like you to follow from now on is outlined in the following document:

Yup Bug Reporting Instructions

NEW INSTRUCTIONS OVERVIEW:

tutor.support@yup.com Report serious and/or time-sensitive issues
System Issues HipChat Room Report minor issues or discuss bugs with other tutors

NEW INSTRUCTIONS SUMMARY:

1. If an issue significantly impairs or completely hinders your ability to claim sessions or communicate with students:

Immediately email tutor.support@yup.com.

Instructions on what to include in your email can be found in the link above. Examples of these issues include not being able to press the “claim session” button or not being able to see the student’s messages.

2. If you run into a system error that does not significantly impair your actual tutoring:

Report the issue(s) via the “System Issues” HipChat room.

You may also continue to use this HipChat room to discuss system issues with fellow tutors, who may be experiencing the same issues as you and may have advice on dealing with them. An example of this is your passed session count increasing without an incoming session notification.

If you have any questions about this new procedure, please email tutor.support@yup.com and someone from the Operations Team will get back to you.

TUTOR SURVEY: New Tutor Dashboard Features

Create your own user feedback survey

— Team Yup

New Key Tag Policies

Key Tags for Quality Assurance

A few months ago, we introduced a policy that places tutors who receive 5 or more Key Tags in a given week under review for contract termination. (As a reminder, key tags include Gave Answer, Wrong Answer or Insufficient Content Knowledge.)

Because our tutors complete varying numbers of sessions each week, we will be updating this policy to reflect the percentage of sessions that receive key tags rather than a set number.

Starting next week, meeting one or more of the following conditions for a given week will be grounds for contract termination: 

– 5% or more of sessions tagged as Gave Answer,
– 10% or more of sessions tagged as Wrong Answer,
– 10% or more of sessions tagged as Insufficient Content Knowledge,
– 20% or more of sessions tagged with any of the above key tags.

While we understand that everyone makes mistakes from time to time, it is unacceptable for a significant portion of your sessions to receive these key tags as they reflect poorly on our service.

Key Tags on New User Sessions

Starting next week, key tags applied to new user sessions will be given higher weight in our Quality Assurance system.

For services like ours, first impressions are everything! The chances of a user abandoning or canceling their subscription are highest in the early days of their time with Yup.

Starting next week, key tags applied to new user sessions will carry the weight of 1.5 tags. See the recent New User flag feature post for more information on how to identify when the student you are working with is a New User.

While new user sessions should be treated the same as any other session (we should be at our best with all users!), we do ask that you put extra care and attention into your interactions with new users. That being said, new users may not yet understand how Yup works; you may need to encourage more participation, push more information, and/or let the user know that their engagement and open communication will help you assist them.

Keep up the great work and email tutor.support@yup.com to let the Operations team know if you have any questions.

Note: if you have not watched the PlayPosit videos detailed in the previous post, please do so as soon as you get a chance!

— Team Yup

Create your own user feedback survey

New Video: Pushing Information

PLAYPOSIT VIDEO TASK

Recently, we have introduced a number of features and policies that place greater importance on pushing information to stuck students. So far, however, we haven’t provided much concrete advice about doing so!

With this in mind, we have added a brand new video quiz to our “Adapting to Students” series on PlayPosit. To watch the video, simply login to your PlayPosit.com account. (If you have not received PlayPosit credentials, email tutor.support@yup.com.)

In the previous video, “Adapting to Student Knowledge”(as mentioned in a recent News Feed post), we briefly discuss teaching in a way that will increase the likelihood of your students answering your guiding questions correctly. The newest video greatly expands on this, describing actionable guidelines on multiple ways of pushing information.

Addressing users’ top concerns (explanation clarity and teaching speed, currently) and continuously improving our ability to do so is utterly crucial to Yup’s success. For that reason, we’re making these two video quizzes mandatory and attaching a bonus for completion:

 

– Complete both video quizzes before January 1st to earn two hours of bonus pay

– Failure to complete these mandatory training exercises before the above deadline will result in a penalty of 1 strike


We hope you find the video helpful, and if you have any questions or concerns about it, please email tyler@yup.com.

— Team Yup