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Joining Expert Community on Slack

Hey there,

Since Jan 2022, we create the Slack workspace to offer experts opportunities to interact with and help each other.

New experts are encouraged to join our Slack channel via this link. Reach out to our Support team at expert@gotitapp.co if you need any help joining the workspace. 

Once you are a member of the Slack workspace, please honor the following rules to help build and maintain a healthy community.

Community Guidelines:

  1. Be nice. 
  2. Try to find the answer yourself first in the Portal Training/FAQ section (Login required). We find 80% or more of expert’s concerns are already addressed in this section.
  3. Try to search for the question first instead of asking the same questions over again.
  4. Don’t share your personal information (which includes your email, Expert ID, phone or any kind of personal links) either to any channels or through a direct message.
  5. Don’t send unsolicited advertising or promotions, requests for donations or “spam” messages. This includes the prohibited sharing of any invitation links to join groups without explicit Got It’s permission.
  6. Don’t harass or abuse other members.
  7. Don’t discuss finance or pay. 
  8. For any personal inquiry, reach out to our Support team at expert@gotitapp.co 

Misuse of messaging may result in the suspension of account privileges and/or termination of your Study Expert account(s).

LaTeX Editor

*The images being used are taken from the Wiris website and might differ slightly during actual use on our website for additional training please visit http://www.wiris.com/editor/docs/manual*

Please make sure that you practice with the editor in the practice session before you use it on the portal. The biggest advantage of the Wiris editor is that you will have the option to enter your equations by clicking on the symbols, or typing them in the equation editor using LaTeX language.

Wolfram Alpha

How to use Wolfram Alpha

As a PhotoStudy Expert, your job is to provide unique and original explanations for students’ problems.  In some cases however it makes for a better student experience to insert additional content, such as graphs or charts. PhotoStudy provides all Experts with the Wolfram Alpha tool in order to supplement their explanations.  You can also use the WA tool to check your answers, but by no means it is a tool to copy and paste an entire explanation.  

Here are the DO’s and DON’Ts while using the Wolfram Alpha Tool:

  • Do enter your equations into the tool to double-check your explanations.
  • Do not copy and paste the graph generated by the integrated Wolfram Alpha into the chat. These photos will expire and neither students nor auditors will be able to view them. You will be marked down in your audit if auditors are not able to view the chat image(s) that are necessary for your explanation.
    • Alternatively, you may take a screenshot of the graph and clip the image to the chat by uploading the file.

 

 

As a reminder, you can always practice using the Wolfram Alpha tool in the ‘Practice Area’ of the Expert Portal. Good luck!

About Your Performance

AUDIT OVERVIEW

The first tab on the Performance page will show you your audited sessions, your overall audit score percentile in the expert community, and the breakdown of your dimension scores. You can access the specific audit criteria and feedback for each session by clicking on the detail button of the session in question. You can file a dispute for any of your most recent sessions by clicking on the dispute button and following the prompts.

You’ll notice that there are tool tips next to the headings of each metric which will direct you to the relevant training documents.

STUDENT SUCCESS

The middle tab will take you to your student-related metrics including your student ratings, your claimed-but-unanswered (CBU) and low-star rating metrics. Remember to practice all of our best tips and tricks to make sure your students have the best 5-star session experience! The chart will track your student ratings over time and provide the average rating at the top of the page. 

On the other hand, you want your CBU and low-star rating statistics as low as possible. Make sure these metrics don’t get too high or you risk getting your account banned or even permanently suspended.

BIDDING STATISTICS

Navigating to the last tab on the Performance page will take you to your workspace related metrics, including the total number of completed sessions, number of claimed sessions, and other bidding metrics. You can also click on the tooltips next to these metrics to view the relevant training documents to help you improve your performance.

You can adjust the timeframe for these metrics to view the most recent ones (the current date, the last 7 days, 30 days, 90 days) or adjust to set your own custom date range. You can also view and select your metrics for different subjects that you are certified for.

5 Dimensions of Answer Quality

At Got It! our core values are helping students learn while always providing useful information and interactions.  We want to ensure a positive experience by providing consistent and accurate explanations.

What parts make up a great student experience?

  • Explain each step while solving a problem, beginning with the general knowledge needed to solve the problem
  • Present a visually appealing and easy to understand explanation
  • Demonstrate polite, friendly, and helpful customer service that is attentive to students’ needs and questions
  • Answer accurately and consistently
  • Provide safe, non-personalized interactions

As such, we’ve developed 5 categories on which Experts are audited:

  1. Format — the structure in which the explanation breaks down the problem into logical steps to solve the problem
  2. Polish — the ease of reading through the explanation
  3. Service — the manner in which the explanation is conducted
  4. Accuracy — the correctness of the explanation and solution
  5. PII (personal identifiable information) — the anonymity within the learning sessions

This FAQ is pivotal to understanding the guidelines to which Auditors review a session.  All Experts are strongly encouraged to read through this document and understand it completely.


 FORMAT

4 criteria are used to score for Format:

  • Proper concept, method, or general steps to solve the problem
  • Step-by-step math
  • Step-by-step worded explanation
  • Piece-by-piece explanation and timing of overall explanation

At Got It!, we value learning by providing explanations, not just giving answers.  Any explanation that solely provides answers will receive the lowest score automatically.

This is an example of an ‘A’ score.  Note how the example satisfies all 4 criteria.

This is an example of a ‘B’ score.  Note how the example satisfies only 3 out of 4 criteria since it does not piece out the explanation and sends it in one big message several minute after the concept.

This is an example of a ‘C’ score.  Note how the example satisfies only 2 out of 4 criteria since the concept is unhelpful and the explanation is not pieced out.

This is an example of a ‘D’ score.  Note how the example only provides the answer to the question.  This is an automatic D score.


POLISH

2 questions to consider when creating your explanation:

  • Is it necessary to use the editors/tools available given the problem at hand?
  • If so, were the editors/tools used appropriately?

At Got It!, we expect our sessions to be polished and easy to understand.  We have a number of tools available to craft beautiful explanations, so please visit the Portal Tools section of the Training – FAQ section.

This is an example of a ‘No’ score.  Note how much more difficult it is to understand the math.

This is an example of an ‘N/A’ score.  Note how the question asked does not warrant a response with editor usage.


SERVICE

4 criteria are used to score for Service:

  • Conduct: Polite and helpful tone
  • Conduct: Proper English in grammar, spelling, and full sentences
  • Interaction: Addressing student questions and frustrations with appropriate context
  • Interaction: Addressing student questions and frustrations with appropriate timing (< 1 min response)

At Got It!, we know students are frustrated and anxious when stuck on a problem — and that learning goes beyond content and knowledge.  A good session will not only provide the necessary explanation to become unstuck, but also to alleviate these anxieties and promote learning.

Our service criteria is broken up into two categories — Conduct & Interaction

  • Conduct — Assesses for how an Expert carries him/herself through a session.  Proper conduct must be carried out in all sessions to ensure a friendly and helpful environment to learn.
  • Interaction — Assesses the exchange in messages between student and Expert.  Not all sessions will have a talkative student, but for the ones that do, Experts must engage with the student by answering questions appropriately or calming the student if he/she is frustrated.

This is an example of meeting 2 out of 2 criteria for Conduct.  Note the proper English and tone.

This is an example of meeting only 1 out of 2 criteria for Conduct.  Note the proper English but rudeness in tone.

This is an example of meeting 0 out of 2 criteria for Conduct.  Note the improper English and rudeness in tone.

This is an example of meeting 2 out of 2 criteria for Interaction.  Note the proper addressing of the message contextually and timely — the Expert calms the student’s frustration while answering the message in less than a minute.

This is an example of meeting 1 out of 2 criteria for Interaction.  Note the improper addressing of the message contextually but proper addressing timely — the Expert does not address the student’s “help me” and continues to the explanation.

This is an example of meeting 0 out of 2 criteria for Interaction.  Note the improper addressing of the message contextually and timely — the Expert does not address the student’s “i don’t know what to do” and continues to the explanation several minutes later, leaving the student frustrated for half the session with no information given.

Screen Shot 2017-02-02 at 3.50.06 PM

In addition, please visit the New Portal Improvement FAQ for a new feature that prompts the student to give a suggested response during the session.  We will ask the student for you if they understand the explanation thus far — if the student selects “No, I need more detail” it is the Expert’s responsibility to address that response with proper context and within a timely manner.

This is an example of meeting 2 out of 2 criteria for Interaction for suggested response.  Note the proper addressing of the message contextually and timely.

This is an example of meeting 1 out of 2 criteria for Interaction for suggested response.  Note the improper addressing timely but proper addressing of the message contextually — the Expert provides more detail for the explanation but does not do so within the minute.

This is an example of meeting 0 out of 2 criteria for Interaction for suggested response.  Note the improper addressing of the message contextually and timely — the Expert does not address the student’s “which is the result”, does not provide much more detail, and does not answer within the minute.


ACCURACY

In order for students to trust Got It!,  we need to ensure our explanations are complete and accurate.  Since this is such an important category, we have created a separate FAQ for how to ensure accurate sessions.  For more information please see the Accuracy FAQ.

Accuracy is scored a simple Yes, No, or Not Applicable.  For more information please see the Audit Scoring FAQ.


PII

At Got It!, we protect the identities of our Experts and students to ensure a safe and anonymous learning environment.  As such, we expect our Experts and students to never ask or provide personal information.  If found to provide or elicit PII (personal identifiable information), the Expert or student will be immediately removed from the platform.

Possible PII includes but is not limited to:

  • Usernames of Got It! accounts or any other medium/sites
  • Links or images to any profiles of any medium/sites
  • E-mails
  • Phone numbers
  • Addresses

This is an example of a PII violation.  The Expert was immediately terminated, regardless of his quality of work.

Accuracy

Accuracy

 

While working as a Study Expert, accuracy is extremely important at Got It! Students come to Got It! for accurate explanations of problems they are stuck on and incorrect explanations cause students to never return and decrease question flow.

Our auditing program identifies inaccurate explanations regularly and depending on the number of violations, these Experts are suspended or have their contracts permanently terminated.

Accuracy is also a key part of your Expert performance.  So always be sure you’re giving accurate explanations to the precise question that was asked!

What are some methods to help you provide accurate explanations?

  • Read and understand each problem before bidding
    • Experts sometimes bid on questions that they can’t actually solve. This might be because of the explanation time limit or due to the difficulty of the subject matter. Experts that claim questions they cannot explain waste students’ time and give an extremely poor user experience. This also hurts your accuracy scores. The skip option is available to prevent these situations. Skip when you’re not sure!
  • Confirm with the student the correct question and their understanding.
    • Sometimes it’s unclear to Experts which question the student needs help with or which part of the problem is unclear to the student. Engaging with the students in these types of dialogues guarantees you will not explain the wrong question and also helps you explain the difficult part more efficiently to the student.
  • Pay attention to the requirements of questions posted from an online platform.
    • These types of questions normally come with super specific requirements, such as units, decimal places, and presentation format. Students can instantly check for the accuracy of your delivered answers right after you submit them. And a mathematically correct solution but in the wrong format as required by the system will highly likely result in a low student rating. Therefore, it’s crucial to read the question carefully and double-check your work to make sure it meets all the requirements before wrapping up your session.
  • Wolfram Alpha
    • Not every problem can be solved by Wolfram Alpha, but some can. It’s highly encouraged to enter your problems into Wolfram Alpha when applicable to check if your explanation is correct. If Wolfram Alpha confirms your explanation then you can be even more confident that your concept/theory and explanation are also correct.
  • Take your time
    • Students might ask “Hurry!” or threaten low ratings based on speed. This can cause pressure and stress but in the long run, rushing through your explanation can result in inaccurate explanations and eventual contract termination.
  • Double-check your work
    • We know the timer is ticking and the student is sometimes in a hurry. Regardless, the last thing a student expects is an inaccurate explanation. Double-checking your work significantly improves accuracy rates.

Examples

Here are 2 examples of questions with super clear requirements for the submitted final solutions:

 

 

Below please find some examples of sessions marked inaccurate for very simple mistakes caused by rushing and not double-checking work. These often result in suspension and even termination of the contract.

You’ll notice below that the Expert made a simple calculation error. The equation would be 14,850,000/x – 14,850,000/(x+2200)=75.  After solving this we are left with 19,800.  The Expert listed 1,98,000 and therefore his answer was marked as inaccurate.

Example 1:

Question:

Answer:

In this second example, we can see a simple calculation error. If you look at the problem below, it clearly says “the length of a rectangle is 3 more than its width.” One of the equations is l=3+w but the Expert wrote l=3*w.  This resulted in an incorrect answer because of this error and therefore is marked as inaccurate.

Question 2:

Answer 2:

Remember Experts, everyone is audited so please make sure to use the suggested actions above to protect yourself from providing inaccurate answers.

Suspension and Banning

I’VE BEEN SUSPENDED!

…now what? What does this mean?

Here at Got It!, we’ve developed a product we truly believe in — with Experts of the highest caliber to carry out this product and deliver quality content.  Since Experts (such as yourselves) are such a major component of this product, we need to ensure all sessions and actions within the platform continue to perform at the desired quality and capacity.  As such, our Got It! policies were created and enforced — it is the lack of following these policies that may need to one of the following disciplinary actions:

  • Suspension — 3 to 30 days temporary suspension
  • Decertification — removal of a subject
  • Off-boarding — permanent ban

Disciplinary Triggers

Sessions are subject to auditing for the 5Ds of our company policy and are given ratings by our student users.  Low audit scores trigger temporary suspension while multiple audit scores and multiple low student ratings result in decertification or off-boarding.  The details for which these triggers are below:

  • Suspension
    • Format score of D
    • Service score of D
    • Accuracy score of No (specifically for the wrong concept used)
  • Decertification
    • Multiple Accuracy scores of No
    • Multiple low student ratings
    • Multiple claimed but unanswered (CBU) sessions
  • Off-boarding
    • Multiple Format scores of C or D
    • Multiple Service scores of C or D
    • PII score of Yes

In addition, we expect all experts to maintain a level of professional behavior when talking in session.  As such, behavioral actions may also trigger disciplinary action.  This includes but does not limit to:

  • Use of profanity or rudeness to student
  • Unprofessional behavior
  • Collusion/fraud

Early prevention

To steer clear of violating our disciplinary regulations, consider these practical suggestions:

  1. Attentiveness to Audit Feedback: Carefully review feedback provided by auditors. This will help you pinpoint areas in your explanations that require enhancement. Strive to incorporate these improvements in your subsequent sessions.
  2. Mitigation of Incomplete Sessions (CBU – Claimed But Unanswered): Refrain from delivering an excessive number of incomplete sessions, where you claim questions but don’t provide answers. A general guideline is to maintain a CBU rate below 18%.
  3. Caution Regarding Low Ratings: Keep in mind that students might occasionally leave unjustified ratings, which have a limited impact on your overall student rating score. If you consistently receive low ratings, consider taking a break, reviewing auditor feedback, and revisiting the training material focused on achieving 5-star ratings from students here.

Other useful information

  • How can I tell how long I’ve been suspended?
    • You will receive an e-mail communication regarding the details of your suspension.  In addition, when you attempt to log into the Expert Portal, you will receive a time and date (in Central Time) for when your suspension will be lifted.
  • Does receiving a warning or suspension affect my ranking?
    • No, the two are separate processes.  However, audit scores are the key influences to both ranking and disciplinary actions.
  • Can I get suspended or off-boarded while I’m still logged into the Expert Portal?
    • Yes, the suspension and off-boarding will log you off the Expert Portal and provide you with the expected time and date (again, in Central Time) for when you can re-enter.

Audit Scoring

What is an audit?

Our team of specially trained auditors evaluate sessions to provide regular feedback to experts about their performance. Auditors follow strict guidelines to ensure they are providing consistent, objective, and standardized evaluations with valuable feedback. Sessions are audited according to our 5 Dimensions of Quality that are necessary to provide the best experience for students.

How do we audit?

We have recruited top performing experts and trained them to review and evaluate sessions. Our team has established a set of criteria for each dimension that has been deemed the most important for an ideal session experience. Auditors answer these questions accordingly then the expert is awarded a letter grade for the dimension. 

What’s the difference between the percentage score and the letter grade?

You may have noticed that the percentage breakdown for each dimension at the top of your performance page no longer consistently corresponds to a specific percentage score. With the new audit scores, similar to how you’d be evaluated in school, a range of percentages can now earn the same letter grade. You will still see letter grades in your audit details but your high-level metrics use the specific percentages associated with that letter grade. Be sure to check the audit form details to see how the auditor scored your session.

Overview of the Five Dimensions

  1. PII → No audit score

Got It has a zero tolerance policy for sharing of Personal Identifiable Information. If any expert is found to be in violation of our PII policy, they will be immediately removed from our platform.

  1. Accuracy → A or D

Because of the importance of ensuring accurate explanations (including both solution steps and the final solution), experts are required to receive full marks for both Accuracy questions in order to receive an A. There is no partial credit awarded for Accuracy.

  1. Format → A, B, C, or D

Experts are expected to deliver a complete explanation and solution while following the proper structure in order to break down the problem in the most appropriate manner for the student. Our sessions follow a four phase format: Concept, Step by Step, Solution, and Discussion. Please make sure to follow this format and provide a complete and relevant explanation. 

  1. Service → A, B, C, or D

This dimension takes a look at the quality of the overall communication and coherence of the expert’s explanation. An important part of the session experience is that it’s individualized for the user and the user feels heard and listened to. 

  1. Polish → A, B, C, or D

The goal of Polish is to evaluate how easy it is for the user to read the expert’s explanation, particularly for heavy calculation-based ones.. If the problem requires the use of editor tools, then they should be used and used effectively. Editor tools should primarily be used for calculations and math steps. 

Why do we audit?

Auditing is important to ensure quality and consistency of our platform’s service. We want to provide our users with the best experience possible, which is why we maintain a strict standard for our expert community. Although the feedback itself is valuable, the audit scores also factor into expert rank, which has implications for expert payment. Additionally, high-ranked experts are also granted priority during the bidding process.

All of these mechanisms are established to encourage experts to grow and improve their performance and to maintain a high standard for our platform. 

How can you improve your performance?

  1. Review your audit details and feedback provided by auditors on your performance page.
  2. Before a session begins: 
    • Carefully read the student’s question on the bidding screen and confirm that you are able to provide a detailed explanation and solution for the student’s question.
  3. During a session:
    • Remember to click through all four phases of the explanation: Concept, Step by Step, Solution, and Discussion. If you do not click through all four phases your session will be marked CBU and you will not be paid for that session.
    • Encourage student engagement by asking the student if they understand the step(s), especially at the beginning and end of the explanation.
    • Use Wiris/LaTex to write out calculations so it’s easier for the student to read and process.
    • Send each major step as an individual message. Bulky messages are difficult to read and process and usually require more time to prepare.
    • Keep your response time within 2-3 minutes.
    • Double-check the accuracy of your calculations by using our integrated solver Wolfram Alpha. 

Earn More During Peak Hours

At certain hours of the day, Got It! experiences a higher volume of questions from students. During these times, it is critical to have Study Experts online to handle the higher demand. These are also the times when you can make the most money as an expert!

In order for you to understand when these higher volume times are, please see the chart below. There are four colors, one for Monday – Thursday, one for Friday, one for Saturday, and one for Sunday. Each of those four colors is stretched across the 24 hours of that day (in the Pacific timezone), showing the amount of incoming question volume historically measured for that hour. The higher the peak, the more questions we typically see for that hour.

Example:

  • On Monday – Thursday, you can see that the question volume starts to increase in the early morning and has a sharper Question / Hour rise starting at 01:00 PM. Volume increases until it peaks around 8:00 PM PST (20:00) and then lowers as the evening progresses.
  • Sunday afternoon/night has peak hours since students are getting ready for Monday classes!

To convert to your time zone, you can use this website (it will open in another tab).

http://www.thetimezoneconverter.com/

This chart is placed here in the FAQ for reference purposes. As an Expert you are an extremely valuable part of the Got It! community and we are constantly working to improve your experience as an Expert. Making sure to be online during the peak hours will help you make the most amount of money!

Newsletter

Hey expert!

Please click on a newsletter to get updated about the product change or policy. You can also learn tips and sharings from Got It team and excellent experts.
If you have any feedback, please feel free to reach out to us at support@photostudy.co

Newsletter July 2023
– Tips & Tricks:
* How To Ace Your Accuracy Score
* Which Subjects May Have The Highest Volume
– Expert monthly nomination
– Summer workouts

Newsletter June 2023
– Portal updates
* More Subjects Await!
* Expected volume in Summer
* Policy Reminder
– May quiz results
– June quiz
– Expert monthly nomination

Newsletter May 2023
– Biology auditing is finally available!
– New audit dispute form
– Messaging students
– April Quiz Results: Congratulations to our Champions! 🏆
–  May Quiz
– Expert Monthly Nomination: Who were the 🐝 in April?

Newsletter April 2023
– Important update: Using graphs generated by Wolfram Alpha. Kindly refrain from directly copying and pasting the charts produced by Wolfram Alpha on the platform. 
– March Quiz Results: Congratulations to our Champions!
April Quiz 
– Who has the highest number of solved questions in March?

Newsletter Mar 2023
– Your voice is important! Take a 3-min survey to share your thought about the monthly newsletter
– Hooray for our Feb quiz victors! 5 top performers are revealed
March quiz to find 5 winners
– Can you guess who the top performers in each subject of Feb are?
– Monthly tips: How to improve your accuracy?

Newsletter Feb 2023:
– New audit dispute flow
– A fun quiz
– Top experts in Math subjects

Newsletter Jan 2023
– Top Excellent experts of 2022

Newsletter Dec 2023
– Let’s review your journey in 2022 with PhotoStudy and beloved students

Newsletter Nov 2022
– A Helpful Feature: Canned Messages
– Auditing Updates: Incorrectly Claimed Sessions
– Addressing CBUs: Stricter review
– Experts of the month

Newsletter Oct 2022
– Digital learning opportunities
– Experts of the month

Newsletter Sep 2022
– Three new features to our platform:
+ Reposted low-rated sessions
+ Longer sessions
+ CBU notification during sessions
– Experts of the month

Newsletter Aug 2022
– Peak hours reminder
– New expert tooling release
– Experts of the month

Newsletter July 2022
– Time for knowledge
– Hard-working experts of the month

Newsletter June 2022
– Summertime break
– New audit process
– Update to polish criteria
– Percentages and letter grades
– Audit disputes
– Join Slack #News channel to get updated

Newsletter May 2022
– April Bonus Grand Prize
– Survey bonus
– What does a great session look like?
– Tutor Chat: Custom Question Sessions

Newsletter April 2022
– Update on quality: low-rated sessions
– Update on quality: CBUs
– Best Practices for Sending Messages and Images
– Experts of the month

Newsletter March 2022
– Upgrading the Expert Portal
– Technique to resolve common technical issues
– Experts of the month