NEW Speed Policies and Features!

Why is speed so important?

As reported by students, speed is overwhelmingly the number one reason why they stop using our service. Many students tell us that they often find themselves waiting long periods of time to hear back from their tutors. Part of this has to do with the medium we’re using; when kids text each other, they expect immediate responses. With some minor changes in how we communicate, we can use this to our advantage to keep students more engaged.

How are we measuring speed?

If you’ve taken any sessions in the last few days, then you might have seen this bar in your Tutor Dashboard, which appears when at least 30 seconds have passed since you sent your last message:

If it shows up while you’re drawing on your whiteboard or waiting for your student to finish some work, don’t worry! This is just a reminder to be vigilant and periodically check in with your student. We will not be penalizing you just for letting this bar show up. We’ll soon be introducing policies that do depend on your response speed, though, so it’s important that you know how we measure it.

The feature above depends on how long it’s been since your last message; the new policies in the list below are linked to the time since your student’s last message or since anyone’s last message. In the future, we’ll refer to these last two values as your Tutor-To-Student (TTS) and Tutor-To-Anyone (TTA) response times.

When we calculate your TTS and TTA for a given week, we’ll use the median of these times, not the average, so that letting the student work alone every now and then won’t skew your data. For example, let’s say that your median TTA for a week is 15 seconds. This means that exactly half of your messages came more than 15 seconds after the previous one, and the other half came less than 15 seconds after.

What are the new speed policies?

Next Monday, July 17th, we’ll give you a way to see your median TTS and TTA from the previous week (meaning this current week). For each day of that week, we’ll also show you your median TTS and TTA for the day. The following Monday, July 24th, we’ll start holding everyone accountable for the following policies.

  1. Median TtS for a week is less than 10 seconds: $25 bonus
  2. Median TtA for a week is greater than 30 seconds: 2 infractions
  3. Any session contains a TtS response that took 5 minutes or more: Session refunded

Breaches of these last two policies are rare. Still, we are giving them real consequences to ensure that speed is a high priority in the coming months. We look forward to gathering your feedback on these policies in a few weeks’ time and continuing to refine them as we learn more. We’re fully aware that good explanations take time, but we’ve still found that several of our highest-performing tutors, including some whose native language isn’t English, have maintained a median TTS and TTA of under 10 seconds!

What are some strategies for increasing speed?

The following are some ideas to help you make sure that speed is never an issue. If you think of others, don’t hesitate to share!

  • Break messages into pieces. Be as brief as you can in each message while still being informative. When responding to interruptions and questions, send a short response immediately, then expand on it from there.
  • Explicitly acknowledge what the student has said. Try to use specific words or ideas that have recently shown up in the student’s messages. This helps them understand upcoming steps more quickly and creates a sense of continuous progress.
  • Reassure the student that you’re there. This is a good practice to follow in general and a simple way to avoid response times greater than 5 minutes. That said, you don’t need to check in every 15 seconds or so (which may actually annoy the student) because we use your median times and not your averages.

Keep up the great work,

Team Yup

Session Analysis

After reading through the following session, what are some ideas that come to mind for increasing the likelihood of the session reaching Gap Bridged?

 

 

We look forward to hearing your thoughts!

— Team Yup


Reminder: Please complete to the computer survey before Friday, July 14th if you have not already done so. Thanks!

Discussion:

Computer Survey + SotW & Bonuses

COMPUTER SURVEY

The engineering team at Yup is currently building us a shiny new Tutor Dashboard and needs your help! Please follow the directions below to give us a better idea of your computer and internet capabilities before Friday, July 14th.

INSTRUCTIONS – We are looking for the following information:

1. Internet speed: Please go to fast.com and take a screenshot of your speed (example right).

2. Computer specifications: Follow the appropriate link below to learn how to find your computer’s system information, then take a screenshot.

Instructions for Mac (‘About Mac’ Page)

 

 

 

 

Instructions for Windows (‘System Information’ Page) 

 

 

 

3. Once you have these two screenshots, use the form below to submit them. 

 >> Screenshot Submission Form <<

Thanks for helping us build the best version of our new Tutor Dashboard! Let us know if you run into any confusion.


SESSION OF THE WEEK

Congratulations to Session of the Week winner, Helen Herring! Great job supporting the student in taking independent steps, Helen!

Nominate one of your own exceptional sessions via the submission form and you could win a $25 bonus!


PERFORMANCE 
BONUS RECIPIENTS
Week of 6/19 – 6/25

Congratulations to the following tutors who achieved a Top Ten tutor ranking for two or more consecutive weeks, earning them a $25 performance bonuses. Great work!

–  John Wollney
  Avee Mahato

Happy tutoring!

— Team Yup

SotW & Performance Bonuses

SESSION OF THE WEEK

Congratulations to Session of the Week winner, Usha Rani! Awesome job using the whiteboard to facilitate the student’s understanding of their problem!

Nominate one of your own exceptional sessions via the submission form and you could win a $25 bonus!


PERFORMANCE 
BONUS RECIPIENTS
Week of 6/12

Congratulations to the following tutors who achieved a Top Ten tutor ranking for two or more consecutive weeks, earning them a $25 performance bonuses. Great work!

–  Joshua Khalil Candaza
  Steve Park

Happy tutoring!

— Team Yup

SotW & Performance Bonuses

SESSION OF THE WEEK

Congratulations to Session of the Week winner, Becca Jensen! Awesome job checking in with the student frequently to make sure they were following along, Becca!

Nominate one of your own exceptional sessions via the submission form and you could win a $25 bonus!


PERFORMANCE 
BONUS RECIPIENTS
Week of 6/5

Congratulations to the following tutors who achieved a Top Ten tutor ranking for two or more consecutive weeks, earning them a $25 performance bonuses. Great work!

–  Joshua Khalil Candaza
  Julia House
–  Robin DeShazo

Happy tutoring!

— Team Yup