Updated June, 20204

If you desire to offer Tutor Services on Our Platform, you must read and agree to be bound by these policies for Tutors (“Tutor Policy”). Capitalised terms (including “Speakede”, “Us”, “We” and “Our”) used but not defined in this Tutor Policy shall have the meaning ascribed to such terms in our Speakede Terms.

If you do not accept this Tutor Policy in full, you are not authorised to tutor on Our Platform and you are not eligible to receive any benefits from Us for any Tutor Services you provide.

This Tutor Policy is designed to encourage the highest standards of Tutor behaviour in their relationships with Learners by setting clear expectations, and to provide the principles to guide Tutors in their conduct when providing Tutor Services and interacting with Learners. However, our Tutors come from all over the world and are thus accustomed to a variety of different cultural norms. As a result, this Tutor Policy attempts to adopt universally accepted standards of respect and tolerance. This Tutor Policy does not attempt to address every potential situation that could arise when Tutors interact with Learners on Our Platform, but instead provides principles for ethical and professional behaviour that can serve as guidance regarding Our expectations. 

Tutor Registration and Service Description

1. Tutor Signup

In order to become a Tutor, you must first register through the Instructor registration, wait to hear from us and after we have verified you, we will approve your status as a Tutor. You may create a lesson on Our Platform and you can begin providing Tutor Services, including offering and providing paid lessons (“Lesson”) to Learners.

To the extent permitted by applicable laws, We may obtain (i) background check reports from public records or through third party vendors regarding matters such as criminal convictions or sex offender registrations, and/or (ii) identity verification check reports. As a condition of engaging Our Platform as a Tutor, you agree and authorise us to use your personal information, such as your full name and date of birth, to obtain such reports.

1. Tutor Services Description

All Tutors must create a description of their Tutor Services on Our Platform. When creating the description of your tutoring Services, you agree to the following:

• Write a specific, detailed service description with clear tutoring scope and Lessons;
• Set expectations that you can meet or exceed;
• Do not offer services with the intent to commit fraud, provide services other than those outlined in your description, or offer any services in exchange for positive feedback or at no cost;
• Do not advertise any third-party tutoring service, platform, software, or application; and
• Do not include any personal contact information, including but not limited to, email, telephone number, social media handle or account number.

• Tutor Services Guidelines

1. Tutor Service Request

Once you receive a Tutor Service request from a Learner, you agree to the following:

• Use Our Platform to manage all Tutor Service requests from Learners;
• Respond promptly to all Tutor Services related communications, whether from a Learner or from Us;
• Maintain a record of all important details of the communication between you and the Learner. For the avoidance of doubt, communication may be conducted via the platform or via emails only, and important details generally includes information related to the scope of your Tutor Services, your time frames and availability to provide any Tutor Service, your price, your feedback to Learner, any schedule changes, any delay of providing your Tutor Service, and completion of Lessons; and
• Respond to all Tutor Services requests with accept, decline, or propose a time/date change. Do not ignore tutoring Service requests and allow them to expire.

1. Lesson Policy

All Tutors are expected to comply with the following policies when providing a Lesson:

• Commit to your scheduled Lesson: A confirmed Lesson is a commitment you make with a Learner. Reschedule or cancel as a last resort and only after you have communicated this with your Learner. Where you know you will be away and unable to respond to Learners for a certain period, take the responsibility to notify your Learners of your absence and update the availability information on your Account profile accordingly.

• Make records: Tutors should maintain a record of all important details of communications with the Learners. Where there is a dispute between Tutor and Learner, We will request both Tutor and Learner to provide evidence in the format of screenshots, and such screenshots shall contain all information related to such dispute, such as the date, time and other communication details.

• Start Tutor Services on time: Tutors should start any Lesson at the time scheduled with the Learner, and should initiate contact with the Learner, particularly with a first-time Learner.

• Connect with the Learner: Tutors should connect with their Learners on the agreed communication platform well before the scheduled start time for the Lesson. Don’t wait until the last minute.

• Waiting for a late Learner: Where a Learner is late for a scheduled Lesson, the Tutor should wait for the Learner until the end of the period for the scheduled Lesson. The Tutor should be available to start the Lesson at any time during the scheduled period for the Lesson. The Tutor is not, however, required to make up for lost time due to the Learner’s late arrival.

• End Lesson on time: Tutors should politely let Learners know that their lessons are ending by reminding them before the end of the Lesson time period. You may politely tell the Learner that you need to prepare for an upcoming Lesson with another Learner.

• Rescheduling a Lesson due to Learner’s absence: Where a Learner fails to attend a Lesson and requests to reschedule the class, it is the Tutor decision to agree or reject.

1. Flexible Tutoring:

Our platform empowers tutors to take control of their teaching experience, while providing learners with a comprehensive learning environment. Tutors can now: Upload unlimited courses and lessons, either directly or via links, Create quizzes with time expiration prompts and automatic grading, set assignments and host live classes via Google meet, classroom, or Youtube, Make courses announcements and send push notifications, set courses prerequisites to assess student’s preparedness, earn and withdraw funds directly on the platform, track performance and earning statistics, and also design unique certificates for their courses.

1. Cancellation and Rescheduling

Where you are unable to provide your Tutor Services at the time previously agreed between you and a Learner, you agree to (i) immediately inform the Learner that you are unable to provide your Tutor Services at the scheduled time, and provide the Learner with an explanation; and (ii) immediately inform Our Support Team. Where you were unable to inform the Learner in advance due to an emergency, you are required to give an explanation to the Learner as soon as you are able to do so.

After obtaining the consent from the Learner, a Tutor may cancel or reschedule any scheduled Tutor Service (including a Lesson) at any time that is more than 24 hours before such Tutor Service is scheduled to start. Cancelling or rescheduling a Tutor Service must be handled through Our Platform.

Except in the rare case of true emergencies, no Tutor Service (including a Lesson) may be cancelled or rescheduled by a Tutor or Learner within 24 hours of the start time for such Tutor Service.

• Payment and Feedback

After you provide any Tutor Services, you agree to the following:

• Use the Our Payment Service to handle all financial matters related to your Tutor Services; and
• Provide helpful, objective, balanced feedback for the Learner.

• Additional Guidelines

You also agree the following additional guidelines in connection with providing your Tutor Services on Our Platform:

• Maintain the privacy of Our Learners pursuant to Our Privacy Policy, including refraining from requesting any personally identifiable information from Learners, such as birth date, age, government issued identification number, phone number, or home address;
• Maintain the privacy of your own personal information, including details related to your Tutor Wallet (as defined in Our Payment Policy);
• Maintain records of all invoices and payments in connection with your Tutor Services;
• Cooperate with Us in any anti-fraud actions and in resolving any disputes; and
• Report any violation of the Our Terms or Policies, including misuse of ratings and feedback.

• Service Standards

1. Be Culturally Sensitive

• Respect the values and traditions of your Learners. Unless specifically requested by the Learner, please avoid asking about the following:

• Your Learner’s personal life. For example, do not ask a Learner whether he or she is married, or whether he or she has a girlfriend or boyfriend.

• Your Learner’s political affiliations. For example, do not ask a Learner whether he or she supports a particular political party or ideological view.

• Your Learner’s religious affiliations. For example, do not ask a Learner where he or she believes in God or identifies with a particular religious group.

1. Be Patient and Polite

Since Learners come from different backgrounds and have different language abilities, it is important to be patient and polite. Help them through their language learning difficulties. Be encouraging, not discouraging.

• Do not berate, yell at, or insult a Learner.

• Do not tell a Learner he or she is dumb or insult their current level of language ability.

• Do not use rude or offensive language with a Learner. Instead, use respectful language and speak to Learners with professional courtesy.

• Do not lose your temper with a Learner.

Where you are not sure whether you are able to handle a situation with composure, you are welcome to contact Our Support Team for help, or to suggest that a Learner contact Our Support Team to resolve an issue.

1. Be Professional

• Tutors must take the initiative in communicating with and managing Learners. In addition to the Tutor Services guidelines described in Section 2 (Tutor Services Guidelines), Tutors are expected to provide Tutor Services in a professional manner, which includes:

• Being responsive: You should respond to messages from Learners promptly. When you receive a Tutor Service request from a Learner, you should respond within 48 hours OR before the start time proposed by the Learner for the Tutor Service (whichever is sooner). Our Platform will send you notifications when a Learner send you a message or a Tutor Service request, but we recommend that you login to your Account at least twice a day to check and respond to messages and Tutor Service requests.

• Actively manage your calendar and profile: Maintain your calendar to accurately reflect the times you are available to provide Tutor Services. When you login to your Account, you should check and adjust your time availability schedule, and update your status. Learners can view a Tutor’s last login time, so Tutors who actively manage their profile will naturally attract more Learners. Where you plan to take time off from providing Tutor Services, update your profile accordingly so that you will be removed from active Tutor listings.

• Respect Learner privacy: Recording audio or video of a Learner is not permitted without the Learner’s prior written or recorded consent.

• Teach your language or in your language: Learners are paying you to tutor them a new language or in their language. Do not use this time to practice anything outside the scope of learning and give Learners more speaking time, to understand thier comprehension.

• Provide accurate and respectful feedback: We provide a feedback and rating system to allow Learners to publicly express their opinions on their Tutor’s instruction quality. We do not monitor, censor, or investigate feedback and rating posts unless a problem is brought to our attention. Where you believe a particular Learner’s feedback or rating is improper, untrue or violates Our Terms or Policies, please report the incident to Our Support Team.

• Violation of this Tutor Policy

You are expected to perform Tutor Services in a manner that satisfies the tutoring standards described above and results in a consistently high level of Learner satisfaction. You are in breach of this Tutor Policy, Where you:

• Fail to deliver any Tutor Service for which payment was accepted;
• Fail to take reasonable efforts to resolve a dispute with a Learner;
• Create unacceptable levels of Learner dissatisfaction; or
• Violate any Terms or Policies that we have put in place.
• We reserve the rights to take any of the following actions at any time and in its sole discretion:
• Cancel your listed Tutor Services;
• Limit your Account privileges;
• Adjust your Wallet balance and/or freeze or suspend your Wallet;
• Suspend or terminate your Account; or
• Contact law enforcement or seek legal remedies.

• Tutor Content

The terms of this section regarding Tutor Content applies to all Tutors providing Tutor Services on Our Platform.,

1. Tutor Content Ownership

Any article, video or any other materials used in your Tutor Services or submitted on Our Platform in connection with your Tutor Services, such as your introduction video (the “Tutor Content”), constitute Member Content. As a result, pursuant to this section you own the copyright to your Tutor Content, and We do not claim any ownership rights in any Tutor Content.

1. Learner License to Tutor

You hereby grant each Learner who purchases your Tutor Services a right to use, view and copy your Tutor Content that you use in providing your Tutor Services to such Learner solely for personal and non-commercial educational purposes. You acknowledge that all of the representations, warranties, license grants and other provisions of Speakede Terms apply to all of your Tutor Content that you submit on Our Platform.

1. Speakede License to Tutor Content

In addition to the license you grant Us to use, view, copy, modify, distribute, publish and otherwise exploit your Member Content (including your Tutor Content) , you hereby grant Us a license to use your Tutor Content (including your introduction video) and information about your tutoring Services in marketing, advertising and promotion of Our Platform in any medium. For the avoidance of doubt, We may publish your introduction video on Our official channels in third-party video hosting and streaming services, such as Youtube, Vimeo, Youku. We will remove any Tutor introduction videos from our official channels on third-party video hosting and streaming services upon written request from such Tutor sent to Our Support Team. You also grant Us the right to use your profile name as part of our marketing, advertising and promotion of Our Platform.

• Prohibitions

In addition to complying with the restrictions regarding improper use of Our Platform , you agree not to, and will not assist, encourage, or enable Learners or other Tutors to:

• Provide or post false, misleading, inaccurate, or plagiarized information on Our Platform, including in your Tutor profile, course content, lesson history and feedback.

• Fail to establish or maintain your Tutor profile to ensure that it contains complete, accurate, and updated information.

• Provide your Tutor Services for free or in exchange for positive feedback or ratings from Learners.

• Provide your Tutor Service, including offering and providing Lessons, to any “fake” Learners that uses an Account created by yourself or any third party to drive up your lesson counts and ratings in bad faith.

• Forge or alter your education background, curriculum vitae, work experience.

• Advertise or promote third party skills or language learning services.

• Encourage or allow Learners to work with you outside of Our Platform or accept payment outside of Our Platform. Where a Learner asks you to provide Tutor Services outside of Our Platform, please remind the Learner that lessons must be scheduled and paid for through Our Platform. You can report the Learner or contact Our Support Team.

In the event that you violate the prohibitions set forth in this section, We reserve the right to immediately suspend or deactivate your Account. We also reserve the right to confiscate any earned funds, and you may lose access to your lesson and tutoring history on Our Platform. Where you believe that others have violated these prohibitions, or where you are not sure whether any specific actions would violate these prohibitions, please contact Our Customer Support Team immediately.

• Contacting Customer Support

Where you wish to report a violation of this Tutor Policy, Speakede Terms or Policies, or have any questions or need assistance, please contact Our Support Team through:

Email: support@Speakede.com