Category: Tutoring 101: Do’s and Don’ts

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:
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  • 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

Slack Tutor Chat + Shift Endings

SLACK TUTOR CHAT

If you are assigned a problem you are unsure about, please take a moment to upload the student’s image in the tutor-chat channel in Slack. Tagging all online tutors using the @here tag will alert your fellow tutors, along with any online TQMs, that you need assistance. If you need a moment to wait for another tutor to respond, politely let the student know that you are working on their problem, thanking them for their patience.

If you are online and receive a @here notification from a tutor struggling with a problem, please take a moment to provide assistance. If you are with a student when you’re tagged, the student takes precedence – however if you have any capacity to help please try your best to do so.


SHIFT ENDING POLICY UPDATE

Starting January 1, 2019, we are updating our policies surrounding ending your shift and overtime compensation. Here are the two changes to the policy:

  1. It will no longer be acceptable to pass sessions towards the end of a shift.
    1. Tutors will be expected to accept incoming requests throughout the entirety of their shifts. This will ensure students are connected in a reasonable time frame and have a great experience with Yup.
    2. Tutors should only claim temporary shifts or takeovers if they are available to extend into overtime. Due to the unpredictable nature of session length, please anticipate the possibility of needing to extend every shift you work by at least 30 minutes.
    3. If there are shifts in your existing weekly schedule that you cannot potentially extend into overtime, it is important to email scheduling@yup.com as soon as possible so we can adjust your schedule accordingly.
  2.  In order to reward and incentivize overtime, we will be increasing the overtime rate from 1.5x your normal hourly wage to 2x your hourly wage starting January 2019.


This policy change aims to address an issue we’ve been seeing with dropped (unclaimed) sessions. It also helps us avoid situations where tutors have to leave mid-solution due to their shift being over, a common area concern for students and parents.

Let us know what questions you have!


— Team Yup

New Resource + Dashboard Bugs

RUBRIC STANDARD INFOGRAPHICS

Earlier this year, we introduced a flowchart-style infographic to guide tutors through the Gap Clarification Phase, as measured by Rubric Standard 1.1. This week, we are excited to introduce similar, infographic-style visual aids to clarify every standard on Yup’s tutor rubric.

These resources aim to break down the best practices for each standard in ways that are easy to reference and understand. In addition to providing tips and suggestions for earning the rubric point(s), they will also guide you through common situations that may arise in a session.

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These resources can also be found within our Yup Teaching Standards document on their respective rubric standard slides.

DASHBOARD BUGS

As the Engineering Team continues to diagnose and tackle Tutor Dashboard issues, it is now more important than ever to report any bugs you are experiencing during a shift. The most helpful way to report these bugs is to share a screenshot of the error messages in Chrome’s Developer Console so we can pass these on to the engineers.

To open the dev console, follow the path below in Chrome:

Chrome settings > More tools > Developer tools > Console

Note: We want to capture specifically the error messages listed in the console. You can click the “Default levels” drop-down menu and select only the “Errors” option to see just error messages.

To see the dev console, go to Chrome settings > More tools > Developer tools > Console

Once you have captured the error messages, please share the image(s) in the Slack #system-issues channel along with a description of the issue you experienced. For urgent errors that prevent you from teaching, please also share this information with us at tutor.support@yup.com.

Thanks in advance for your help, and for your patience and understanding with these issues!

— Team Yup

New: Yup Tutor Expectations + Reminders

QUICK REMINDERS

If you haven’t already done so, please take the October Tutor Satisfaction Survey and the Tutor Bio Questionnaire before the end of the week. (See our previous post for more information about Tutor Bios.)

NEW POLICY FORMAT: TUTOR EXPECTATIONS

Starting next Monday, October 15th, we will be putting an updated policy overview into effect: Yup Tutor Expectations. These guidelines aim to shift focus away from negative behaviors tutors should avoid and towards ideal, positive tutor behaviors. We will still be assessing your performance in the areas mentioned, however with less rigidity, instead focusing on a tutor’s overall ability to meet Yup expectations.

We hope this change will convey the good faith we have in tutors to use their best judgement when making professional decisions. However, it is important to note that an inability to meet the expectations set forth in this document may place your contract at risk.

Yup Tutor Expectations will go into effect Monday, October 15th.

Please let us know what questions you have about this update and have a wonderful weekend!

— Team Yup

Dashboard Bug Update + Tutor Biographies

⚠ URGENT: TUTOR DASHBOARD TIP ⚠

If you are waiting for an incoming request during a shift, it is extremely vital that you are waiting on the ‘Live Sessions’ page at yup.com/tutor_dashboard/waiting_room rather than the ‘Dashboard’ page yup.com/tutor_dashboard/.

Select “Live Sessions” from the drop down menu to ensure you can receiving incoming requests.

Waiting on the Dashboard page during a shift means you may not receive incoming session notifications. It also means you will have to navigate back to the Live Sessions page after receiving the notification in order to see the Claim button.

Stay on the Live Sessions page during your entire shift to avoid passing sessions.

While we do encourage you to frequently check your workbook and completed sessions on the Dashboard page, until a fix for this is released in the coming days it is important to stay on the Live Sessions page throughout the duration of your shift. Note that your workbook is accessible from link at the top of the Dashboard page.


TUTOR BIOGRAPHY QUESTIONNAIRE

We are currently working on a new feature that will help tutors and students build rapport throughout their sessions. After interviewing in-person tutors, we found that they often share fun information about themselves to create a connection with a student. Our new tutor bios with fun personal facts will allow students to learn more about you, creating a more comfortable learning environment.

Please complete the following questionnaire by Sunday, October 14th – this should take no more than 5 minutes. (If you are unable to do so, we will create biography answers for you ?.)

UPDATE YOUR TUTOR BIO   › 

Happy tutoring!

— Team Yup