Tutor Code of Conduct

Dear Tutor,

We wrote the following Code of Conduct in order to make our cooperation clear, easy, and stress-free, and make sure we have no misunderstanding in the future. We hope it will provide clarity about what we are looking for, as well as help you navigate the process of teaching, interacting with students, getting paid, and other steps of the way. Please read it carefully and sign in the end if you agree. If you encounter any problem or have any questions related to the following, you can always reach us at eLearn.aischool@gmail.com (please include your first and last name). We wish you all the best as you grow in your teaching career, and we are glad to be a part of it.

Yours truly,
the eLearn.ai team

Please, do! Rules for a great lesson:

Fill in your profile as much as you can. Post a welcome video, talk about your experience and teaching style.
Choose a bright room for the lessons.
Have a good internet connection.
Use a headset or earphones with a microphone.
Take advantage of the free resources for tutors on our website.
Feel happy to see your student, ask them how they are, or how their weekend went. Not only are you teaching and guiding them, for many of them you will become a great friend.
Speak English as much as you can. Students pay for your knowledge of this language, so (even with beginners!) try to use it as much as you can. Instead of translating, go for finding a synonym, giving an example, demonstrating, or showing them an image.
Frequently ask what they want to focus on and give them a choice. Example: “Would you like to do some more listening now, or we can have a conversation instead?”
Ask students if they have time for homework, and what kind of homework they would like to receive.
Treat your student as an equal adult, not as a child (especially if you have experience teaching kids). Have a friendly, stress-free, shame and scolding free conversations with them.
Do not ever yell or get frustrated if a student doesn’t understand something.
Praise your students. Find something they are truly good at (listening, pronunciation, etc.) and give them some positive feedback. This will encourage them to continue learning with you.
Be culturally sensitive and politically correct with students.
Cancel on your student no less than 1-2 days before the lesson. This way, you will (at least try) to not disrupt their plans too much.
Reschedule instead of cancelling whenever possible.
Let your student know in advance you will be late if you are.
Politely interrupt the student and let them know you have to go if the time is up, and you need to start another lesson immediately.
Allow a student a drink or a smoke if they ask. Some students might do this because they are tired after work, or they are just stressed out by the situation. Please refrain from eating, drinking alcohol, or smoking during the lesson yourself.
Talk to us if you have any problem with a student, you are uncomfortable, there’s a constant issue with internet, etc.
Report to us immediately if there’s any inappropriate behavior on student’s end.

Tutor's profile:

All tutors should be at least 18 years old upon registration.
Upon filling out your tutor’s profile, you agree and authorize us to use your personal information, such as your full name, date of birth, to perform a background check and an identity check on you for security reasons.
Upon filling out your tutor’s profile, you agree to provide the correct and true information about yourself, your education, experience, and a detailed description of the services you provide.
You may use your preferred first name in your tutor’s profile.
Do not include any personal information, such as your phone number, email, or social media and other personal profile links in the public sections of your tutor’s profile.
By becoming a tutor with eLearn.ai, you grant students and eLearn.ai the right to use, view, and copy the information you submit to eLearn.ai as a part of your tutor’s profile.
Additionally, you grant eLearn.ai the right to use, view, copy, modify, distribute, publish, and otherwise exploit the information submitted to eLearn.ai as your tutor’s profile for marketing and advertising reasons. If you prefer your content not to be used for the purpose of marketing and advertising, please submit a written request to eLearn.ai.

Commission fees:

When filling out your tutor’s profile and agreeing to teach with us, you simultaneously agree toour 20% commission for every transaction made by a student. Your balance will reflect the amount after the 20% deduction. Please consider the commission whenever you set your lesson price.
Our commission fees are significantly lower than that of many other similar platforms, and they allow us to advertise our platform and continue providing you new interested students. All you have to worry about is your own career growth, and we will take care of the rest.
After working with us for 300 hours, you can apply to have their commission reduced to 15% for life. In order to achieve that, you need to email eLearn.aischool@gmail.com, and indicate your name, last name, and a link to your teacher’s profile. Our support will look into your application and reduce the commission if 300 hours were achieved.

Avoidance of commission fees:

Tutors are not allowed to solicit, suggest, or accept payments outside of the eLearn.ai payment system. This will lead to the termination of our cooperation and removal of the tutor from platform.
If a student is offering you to pay outside of the platform, kindly decline the request by stating that it is against our policy, and inform us about the situation.

Cancelations:

Tutors are allowed to cancel a lesson only 3 times a month; all other times, lessons should be rescheduled instead (if the new time doesn’t work, a student will cancel on their own). Cancelations negatively impact student’s motivation and confidence, and these are the things we are trying to improve, not diminish.
Cancelations should always be followed by an apology and an explanation of the reason(s) of the cancelation.
More cancelations and frequent rescheduling (more than 50% of all tutor’s lessons were rescheduled by the tutor) will result in the termination of tutors account.

Rescheduling:

Tutors are allowed to reschedule up to 50% of all their lessons, although this is not recommended. Rescheduling means that you are not able to properly plan and manage your time. Please do this as little as possible.
Rescheduling of a lesson should always be followed by an apology, an explanation of the reason(s) of the rescheduling, and a question if the new time works for the student.

Lateness:

In case a student is late, a tutor is required to wait for student the entire lesson time. Meanwhile, the tutor can do something else but should be able to start lesson at any time if a student shows up.
A tutor doesn’t have to make up for student’s lateness, no matter how long or short it may be (e.g. add time to lessons/provide extra lessons for free/etc.).
If a tutor is late for class, he or she should inform their student as quickly as possible. Failure to inform the student and explain the situation will result in a no-show. More than two no-shows per month will lead to the termination of your account. No-shows are impolite and dismissive and send students a message that you don’t care about their time and the lesson.
If a student didn’t show up for the lesson, a tutor will get paid for the entire lesson time.

Trial lessons:

As a tutor, you agree to organize, prepare, and lead free trial lessons (30 minute each). Trial lesson should demonstrate tutor’s teaching style and what’s going to happen during the actual lesson.
Connect with a student before the lesson. Respond to their messages within half a day or so, address all their concerns, and answer all their questions.
Initiate contact with a student through the chosen platform.
Trial lesson should be led in English. Please refrain from chatting with the student in their native language, unless a student is an absolute beginner.
Trial lesson should address all questions and concerns a student may have about the learning process, their goals, etc.
Trial lessons are free for everyone – us, students, and you (students don’t pay us for trial lessons). They are a free guarantee for both parties that they can work comfortably together. Please treat trial lessons as a way to get to know your student better and figure out if you’re comfortable working with them.
During the trial, tutor should make sure they can help a certain student reach their goal. If this is impossible (or there’s any other problem), tutor is entitled to refuse teaching services to a student after trial. In order to do that, you can message a student after the trial lesson and politely state that you are not able to help them reach their goals. If a student already bought a package with you before you could refuse, please contact us, and we will refund that student.
In the “Useful sources for tutors” page, you can find a suggested questionnaire for the first-time students. This can greatly help you understand their goals, difficulties, as well as their interests, and other things.

Paid lessons:

Connect with a student before the lesson. Respond to their messages within half a day or so, address all their concerns, and answer all their questions.
Initiate contact with a student through Zoom or Skype.
Paid lessons should always be 60 minutes, with an optional 5-minute break.
Tutors should start and end lessons at the indicated time in accordance with the schedule.
Tutors are allowed to end the lesson earlier if a student requested so. Tutors may, but are not obligated by this policy to then have a longer lesson to make up for that time since an early ending was student’s decision. It’s up to you if you choose to make up for that time or not.
Please use English most of the lesson. Refrain from chatting in student’s native language as they are paying for your knowledge of English. Instead of translating, go for finding a synonym, giving an example, demonstrating, or showing them an image. If a student keeps using their native language, do not interrupt them but keep responding in English.

Homework:

Tutors are expected to assign homework, check it, and send it back checked in a timely manner (preferably at least 1 day before the next lesson).
Homework checking is included in your lesson price and is not paid for separately.
A good rule of thumb for homework is that it should take you additional 15 minutes to check it and send it back. Therefore, do not assign too much homework.
Tutors are not required to complete any other services for students (e.g. check more homework than assigned, help with translations, help with homework from another institution, etc.). Tutors have the right to politely refuse a student, citing this policy. Be mindful of your time and personal boundaries.
Please ask a student if they wish to receive homework beforehand. Do not assume they have time for homework as some of them won’t. Do not insist or push the idea of homework if a student doesn’t want it (although we all know it’s so useful!)
Please do not be a homework police or a grammar police. If a student makes the same mistake over and over again, kindly correct as many times as needed.
Do not scold a student if they didn’t have time to complete homework, they feel guilty enough. Kindly allow them to complete the same homework for the next lesson, or whenever they have time.

Withdrawal of funds:

All earned funds will be sent to tutor’s bank account on or around the 15^th and 30^th of every month (on the 14^th and 28^th in February) through money transfer services (e.g. but not limited to Wise).
Funds will be sent to the tutor regardless of the amount earned.
If a tutor doesn’t have their bank account information on file, funds won’t be sent until they fill in all the required details.

Taxes:

All tutors are freelancers; they are responsible for their own taxes according to their country. We don’t offer any assistance with taxes.

Tutors' Rights:

Any tutor working with us has the right to:

Set their own price per hour.
Choose their own students.
Choose their own resources for lessons, recommending resources to students, sharing resources with students.
Plan their own lesson.
Give students an honest feedback, without being rude or making a student feel like they are failing.
Refuse students if they feel like they are not able to assist with their goals, or their goals are outside of a tutor’s expertise.
Lower the commission to 15% for life when reached 300 hours of teaching with us.
Raise the lesson price to up to 10% every year.
Receive fair treatment on student’s end. In case of unfair treatment or any kind of discrimination from a student, report to us immediately.
Reschedule a lesson 24 hours or more before that lesson time.
Cancel a lesson in case of emergency but not more than 3 times a month.
Get paid 2 times a month through a transfer to their bank account (bank details should be filled in your tutor’s profile).
Receive the remaining balance at any time if decided to delete tutor’s profile, or if tutor’s profile has been removed.

Profile termination/Prohibitions:

The following will cause removal of tutor's profile from our platform:

More than 3 cancelations/month.
More than 2 no-shows/month.
More than 50% of lessons were rescheduled.
More than 50% lateness to lessons, or frequent students’ complaints about lateness.
Frequent/repeated students’ complaints about Internet connection, noise on tutor’s end, repeated inability to provide a proper setting for a lesson.
Offeringor accepting offers to take payment outside of the platform to avoid the commission fee.
“Stealing” students from the platform to work for self or another business.
Promoting another tutor, learning center, language school, a similar or a competitor platform to students.
Trying to convert a student to their religion, political affiliation, donating to a cause, or any other “recruitment” type of activity.
Discriminating a student, giving them different treatment or refusing services based on their gender, race, sexuality, ethnicity, religion, or disability.
Being personal/flirtatious with a student, asking personal and intimate questions, attempts to create an intimate relationship with a student. If you experience this from student’s end, please report to us right away.
Arguing with a student. Any disagreement should be resolved through us in case an agreement could not be reached in a calm manner.
Asking student’s phone number, social media, email address, etc. Communication is only allowed through the school platform for legal and safety reasons on both ends.
Eating or consuming alcohol during lessons.
Refusing to lead trial lessons.
Leading trial lessons for less than 30 minutes.
Finishing lessons too early and/or starting lessons later (lessons are under 60 minutes) without a prior agreement with a student.
Being on the phone or doing something else not related to lesson during the lesson time.
Any other violation of the above policy.

Termination of tutor's profile is permanent. eLearn.ai will pay the tutor the remaining balance upon termination.