Managed Training
Teachers Network connects teachers, students, training centers and parents together around the world. Free job advertisement is available for all members to directly connect with each other. This can be used to find teachers, training centers or to advertise training services. Teachers Network has no direct involvement with relationships established through our job boards so it is best to proceed with some caution when entering into new relationships.
There are times when having additional structure to a student-teacher relationship can be beneficial to everyone involved. Teachers Network offers Managed Training programs for individual and group instruction. Benefits to this type of program include better foreign language support, class fee escrow services, additional class progress tracking, third party dispute arbitration, and Teachers Network class group creation and learning management tools automatically being made available to the Teachers Network partner instructor.
Chinese Language Support
The person responsible for arranging and paying for classes is often different from the one taking the class. This is especially common for students of high school age and younger. Parents of these students do not always have enough language skills to effectively communicate with English only speaking teachers (greater China area).
The Managed Training program has two sides to it. One side works with students parents. The other works with teachers. In China the student and parent facing side is handled through a local Teachers Network partner company where Chinese is the native language. For Hong Kong we are still considering using a local partner, but the language need is not as great there. The teacher side is handled by Teachers Network English speaking staff.
This arrangement simplifies interactions for both students and teachers as they both have a single point of contact and can communicate in their native language. Teachers Network coordinates with the local partner to resolve any issues.
Class Fee Escrow Services
The exchange of money, especially when there are cultural and language differences, is not always an easy or a pleasant experience. Trust often takes time to develop for both sides. Teachers Network solves this problem by offering a fee escrow service as a standard part of this program. Classes are paid for in advance by the student to our partner company. The number of classes to be paid in advance is determined by both the student and teacher before the beginning of the first class. At the end of each month the teacher is then paid for classes actually taught. If there is a dispute before the payment date, the payment is put on hold while the issues are resolved. If the relationship between the student and teacher is terminated before all classes are delivered the remaining balance is then paid back to the student.
Class Progress Tracking
We encourage all teachers to regularly communicate and keep class records for their students. For individuals or groups that have their own Teachers Network group established, this can be done online in the group area. When our partner CRM system becomes available later (still in the planning phase), teachers will also be required to post short status summaries for each class given. This information will be visible to our Chinese partner company in case they are contacted by the student. The CRM reports are intended to be internal documents not exchanged with the students while the Teachers Network group area reports are visible to students.
Third Party Dispute Arbitration
People don’t always agree on everything. This is also true with teaching unfortunately. When disputes between students and teachers occur, Teachers Network and our Chinese partners can offer their assistance in trying to understand and resolve any perceived differences. There is never any guarantee that a given dispute can be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction but our goal is to try to bring people together and resolve problems before they ruin a relationship.
Private Group and Learning Management System Tools
Teachers Network is a member driven site with four membership levels – Standard, Teacher, School, and Partner. Standard members enjoy free access to all basic services. They can create one group each which they individually manage. Standard membership is appropriate for most students, parents, and teachers that do not need access to premium features or the ability to create more than one site group. Partner members are either official Teachers Network coordinating partner companies or teachers that are enrolled in the Managed Training program and enjoy free access. Partner teachers can create separate groups for each of the classes they provide under the program and can also create blended learning environments online for each of their classes. Teacher and School memberships are paid memberships with access to premium services such as being able to hold online classes (blended learning) and additional group creation.
Teachers Network site groups are separate areas with their own members. Each group can have their own forum discussion areas, file storage (including images, video, music, etc), and their own activity wall. Groups can be private or public depending on the desires of the group owner. For class related groups we suggest making the groups private so that only the group members will be able to see and make group contributions. Groups can be used to share class material, upload homework assignments, and for teacher to student communication. They can also be used for non class related student to student interaction.
We are currently looking into integrating learning management system capabilities into the Teachers Network member area. This system will allow teachers to design and deploy their own courses online and then make them available through class groups. More on this system will be published here as we get closer to an initial release.
For More Information
The managed training program is in its early days and not everything is yet in place. Local partner participation for Chinese language support and fee escrow is expected to come later. For more information, including how we can be of assistance during the building period please contact contact us. For some projects we can help now with support for other areas increasing over time. If you are a teacher interested in this program also please let us know!
