Upswing Tutor Onboarding Guide - Asynchronous Tutors (Assignment Review Only)

Welcome to the team!

Upswing exists to empower the historically marginalized to overcome systemic personal or educational obstacles to achieve their life goals.

How?

Upswing partners with educational institutions to connect their historically marginalized students to educational and personal resources through technology and services.

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Tutor Onboarding (Asynchronous Tutors)

PLEASE READ EACH STEP CAREFULLY AND THOROUGHLY. If you have any questions during the onboarding process, please consult Upswing’s Knowledge Base before reaching out to us at [e-mail]. We want this to be a smooth experience for you!

Step 1: Carefully read and sign Upswing's policies and vendor agreement and create your account.

Step 2: Set up your tutor profile & account details.

1. Fill out all sections in the Account tab
   • Tell students a little bit about yourself in the 'About Me' field
   • Provide some background information about your experience teaching or tutoring in the 'Experience' field
   • Search for your educational institution to in the 'Education Information' field
     • Please note: some schools outside of the United States won't populate as an option. If your school doesn't show, please consider adding your educational experience to the 'Experience' field!
2. Add subjects to your Tutor Profile
   • You'll add the subjects you're able to tutor in within the 'Skills' section on the bottom right of the 'Tutoring' page
     • Please note: Anytime you add new subjects to your account throughout your time with Upswing, you will need to notify Tutor Management so they can verify the subjects and make them visible to students viewing your profile
       
3.  Add your tutoring schedule to the Availability section on your Tutor Profile
   • The schedule that you add in the 'Availability' section shows students the times they're able to schedule tutoring sessions with you
     • For detailed instructions on how to add your availability, please read this article: How do I set my hours of availability as an Upswing tutor? How do I make an availability exception?
   • Consider adding a Buffer Period, found at the bottom of the 'Availability' section
     • A buffer period allows for tutors to be able to set a minimum amount of time for a scheduling notice before the session’s start time
     • For more information about buffer periods and how to set them, please view this article: What is a buffer period and how do I set one?

Please ensure all sections of your tutor profile are complete before moving on to the next step!

Step 3: Review your resources and prepare for Assignment Review.

Upswing's Knowledge Base

The Upswing Knowledge Base is the best resource available for students and tutors to find answers to FAQs. The Knowledge Base is regularly updated and easily searchable with key words.

The information curated on the Knowledge Base reflects the most common tutor and student inquiries, and in many cases, your questions can be answered here - even if they seem obscure, like questions about platform/device troubleshooting, tax forms, or fielding student concerns about inability to book a session with you. This scenario is detailed on the Knowledge Base both for tutors and students.

Assignment Review Resources

1. Watch this brief video explaining how Assignment Review works.
2. Review these Assignment Reviews examples:
   • Example Paper 1
   • Example Paper 2
3. Review the 'Asynchronous Essay Review Instructions and Checklist'
4. Download and save our 'Assignment Review Template' onto your desktop

Step 4: Demo Session Exploration in the VLC

The demo exploration is for you to get acquainted with the Virtual Learning Center (VLC), where online tutoring sessions take place. There won't be anyone on the other side of the session, so you will have as long as you need to explore the tools of the VLC. Be sure to complete every step, especially submitting your completed materials to Tutor Management!

NOTE: If you only plan on completing asynchronous assignment reviews with us, you will still need to complete this step before your profile can be activated.

Launch the Demo Session

1. Log into your tutoring account and click on the 'Tutoring' tab in the left blue panel, or click 'View your tutoring sessions' from the home page.
2. In the 'Upcoming Sessions' section on the left-hand side of the Tutoring page, click the green 'Launch Demo Session' button
   

Complete the following tasks in the demo session

1. Make sure your audio and video are turned on, indicated by green microphone and camera icons.
2. Click on the arrow above the microphone and camera icons to practice hiding and unhiding the chat sidebar.
3. Type a message to the student in the chat box.
4. Add a text box onto the whiteboard using the Text tool in the toolbar and add some text.
5. Add a new page to the whiteboard using the '+' button at the bottom center of the page.
6. Write on the whiteboard with the Pen tool.
7. Use the Eraser tool to erase a pen mark.
8. Upload a file onto the whiteboard.
9. Use the Highlighter tool.
10. If you are a math tutor, use the Equation Editor to add advanced formulas or symbols.
11. Download a copy of the whiteboard and the chat transcript by clicking 'Download' in the toolbar. Take a screenshot of the entire screen as well.
12. Since this is a demo space, the 'Complete' button in the top-right of the VLC will not end the session as it will in a typical session. Simply close out of the browser when you are done.
13. Send your whiteboard download and screenshot to [e-mail] to confirm you have completed your VLC Exploration!

For further assistance with the different tools within the VLC, please view these articles:

• How to communicate in the VLC
• Using the Tools in the VLC
• How do pages work in the VLC?

Here is an example of what a completed demo session could look like:

Once we receive your email, we will verify your subjects, add your pay rate, and activate your profile so that you can start reviewing assignments!

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Once you've completed all of the steps above and have been verified by Tutor Management, you'll officially be able to begin reviewing assignments on Upswing! If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Tutor Management at [e-mail] -- we'd be happy to help!