Disqus - Friends of KALXANDR

Re: eduFire Classes Goes Live! Let Social Learning Begin!

KirstenWinkler — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 20:07:37 -0000

Hi edufire team,
this is great news and I think a major step in the e-learning sector!
I will try it out myself as soon as possible

Re: EduFire.com Classes Goes Live

KirstenWinkler — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 14:48:50 -0000

Hello Koichi, you are welcome :) I really think this is a great feature and I will try it out as soon as I can!

Re: EduFire.com Classes Goes Live

KirstenWinkler — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 18:08:21 -0000

In fact I did already both ;)
I took a latin class and some arabic classes AND I set up a german class today (you can join me there!)

Btw, GREAT, AWESOME, SUPERBE videos and blog you make!

Re: EduFire.com Classes Goes Live

KirstenWinkler — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 09:58:46 -0000

Hello Vikrama,

thanks for your comment. I will take a closer look on your schedule system again and then get in touch with you.

I have some ideas for a "perfect" schedule which I did not found yet on any website. So maybe you will be the first ones ;).

Talk to you soon,
Kirsten

Re: Make Money Teaching Online

KirstenWinkler — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 14:10:45 -0000

Hi Frank,
group classes will be a big thing this year, I think. They are social and, very important in this time of financial difficulties, they are affordable.
Skype is a good point. Skype Prime enables you to take money per minute or per call. Works with language lessons, too.

Re: Make Money Teaching Online

KirstenWinkler — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 15:41:50 -0000

Hi Aniya,
thanks for your compliments :) I like my new blog, too. There is so much to write about!

Re: Livemocha now offers Travel Crash Courses for $9.95

KirstenWinkler — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 09:53:25 -0000

Hello Mike,
great to have your here on my blog. I always enjoy reading your posts and discussing with you.

1) I started with a Spanish course on Livemocha one year ago. Cannot say much to Chinese though, but you are the expert. One thing I found frustrating was that the exercises were too repetative. If you are a bit of a fast learner, this system can easily become boring after a short while.
But I still think the idea is good and the system itself well made. Ok, maybe they need a little course fresh up.

2) Well, they start monetizing what they already have. No investment in new content needed. I think it is the vocabulary + mp3 they are already using in the courses. As the pronunciation in the Spanish course was good I can imagine that this might sell well. Even in times of handheld dictionaries.

3) This theory comes from the direction of facebook, if I remember right. Investors were told that if a web 2.0 site reaches 1 million users, you can start making money with it.
This is because of the conversion rates for advertising embeded on these sites. The last time I visited livemocha, it's quite a while I think, there was no sign of advertising. As I said, just in the chat. Now you have already one on the main site.
I read an interesting article about this issue lately. I hope I can find it. The bottom line was, that investors in web 2.0 sites want to see their revenue now in the crisis, so the new doctrin for web 2.0 sites is: "Get profitable, or die."
That's for example one reason why YouTube / Google is implementing so much ads on the site right now.

Re: Livemocha now offers Travel Crash Courses for $9.95

KirstenWinkler — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:09:17 -0000

Hello Clint,

nice to meet you and thank you for your offer! Yes, I really have to put in a contact button at this site. It's all about the details ;).

Anyway, I will send you an email right away!

Talk to you soon!

Re: Review: Public Session on WiZiQ.com

KirstenWinkler — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 05:14:29 -0000

Hello Vikrama,
thank you for your comment. Fixing the voice chat issue would be an enormous step forward, indeed. Plus I will get back to you concerning the schedule.

@Mike If I compare the group session with the class I had on EduFire last sunday (EduFire uses Adobe Live Connect) the number of students in the classroom does not seem to be the problem. In Jon Bischke's class there were around 70 people using the chat but the classroom was stable. The WiZiQ classroom did not have a problem with many students in it, either.
It seems to me that VoIP is a tricky thing and Skype, which I personally think offers the best quality (even in conference calls there are only minor delays), does not do something else than VoIP. They are highly specialized on that.

The technology behind WiZiQ is the authorgen classroom (www.authorgen.com). So I think WiZiQ is a promotion tool for them to sell their software and to test it in a real environment before bringing out new versions, which I think is a very good idea, btw.

Re: Review: Public Session on WiZiQ.com

KirstenWinkler — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 06:04:55 -0000

You are welcome Mike ;).
Well, from my experience nothing beats Skype at the moment for conducting conversational lessons.

If you use the classrooms (WiZiQ and Adobe) for front teaching, the audio quality is OK. Students never have a problem to hear the teacher. The tricky part is when you get into a conversation.

I tried this one-on-one and in a class situation. And the result was the same. The delay is so big (around 3 to 5 seconds) that a conversation is basically not possible.

On Skype, conference calls up to 5 people are no problem at all. But as I said, it's their business. It's what they do and they do it best right now.

In the end you have always the possibility to mute the sound in the classroom and to use Skype for the conversation. That's the practice on Myngle since they started, although they want to change this, soon. But I can tell you even now: it won't work...

Re: Academic Earth: Thousands of video lectures from the world’s top scholars

KirstenWinkler — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 08:30:38 -0000

Hey Mike,
I think the background of the blog is not correctly loading on your computer, because normally, the bg is perly white :)

Re: Tool of the Month: Dabbleboard

KirstenWinkler — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 07:56:10 -0000

Hi Zohair,
thanks for your comment. Yes, I could have mentioned it, you are absolutely right. But as I tested it, the quality was not that brilliant. Infact a conversation was not possible. The text chat works great though ;).
Let's see what Skype 4.0 brings. I am just testing it :)

Re: Skype 4.0 for Windows

KirstenWinkler — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 09:54:34 -0000

Ok, first update at Skype 4.0. Installed it on my two PCs. On one it works, on the other one (a Asus EEE) it doesn't. I even get notifications of people I never added on Skype. But only in the 4.0 version. In the old version, everything is "normal".
So I switched back to it.
The voice quality in 4.0 is really good, though.

Re: Review: Public Session on WiZiQ.com

KirstenWinkler — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 16:10:44 -0000

Hi Samuel,
thank you very much for your explanation.

But does this also affect one-on-one lessons? Because I had the same problem with only one student in the classroom.

Plus I only give microphone control to one student at a time. But it never worked. Always delays.

Re: Review: Public Session on WiZiQ.com

KirstenWinkler — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:33:53 -0000

Hi Samuel,
ok, let my try to answer your questions :)

1) no, it is more a long delay that you are not sure if the other part can hear you at all. and then you start speaking again, trying to hear you, then their speaking part overlays and everything ends in a "yeah? what? who?" situation.
2) yeah, I would definitely say it's this case.
3) exactly. I mean the both of them plus dimdim.
4) I think more the speaker. the listeners (in my case the students) seem to have no big problems.
5) from my side, windows xp, broadband, no network during classes, no downloads, skype, twitter etc. just me, the pc and the classroom :).

thank you so much for your effort :) looking forward to your reply!
Kirsten

Re: Academic Earth: Thousands of video lectures from the world’s top scholars

KirstenWinkler — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:40:23 -0000

Yeah, it gets quite addictive when you start with it. Makes me want to go back to university again.

I love the lectures about history and entrepreneurship. Good stuff!

Re: Review: Public Session on WiZiQ.com

KirstenWinkler — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 12:05:08 -0000

Hi Kevin,
thanks for joining the talk. I will definitely check out your tool. Maybe I get some new results.

Sam, if I get it right, voice conferences with more than 4 participants don't work over P2P either?

Re: Review: Public Session on WiZiQ.com

KirstenWinkler — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 16:16:18 -0000

Hi Sam,
thanks. that clarifies a lot. It's very important to know, because this has a major influence on my decision what to offer to my clients in the next couple of month!

Thank you very much. That helped a lot!

Re: A Couple of RockStars Teach us how to ROCK

KirstenWinkler — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 07:16:07 -0000

Hey guys,
was a great eduCon. Thanks again, Koichi, for inviting me and thanks to the attendees. Was a great audience. Joe, your presentation was great!

I would slightly change the topic into "education across the globe"

See you,
Kirsten

Re: eduConference 2 on edufire.com – Turning Teachers into Rockstars

KirstenWinkler — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 09:59:03 -0000

Hi Mike,
you really missed something. Was a great evening followed by a mind blowing presentation of Jon Bischke about Connected Consumership. I have to fix my business model because of this, I think.

I will write a detailed review, of course :)

Re: Myngle introduces New Lesson Packages

KirstenWinkler — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 07:23:46 -0000

Hi Mike, hi KO,
well, they only keep 50% of "unused" lesson packages. But still an interesting move. One word: "cashflow".

And about digging their own grave, I don't think that most of the teachers on Myngle already got, what this means according to their payments.

Re: Myngle introduces New Lesson Packages

KirstenWinkler — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 16:57:16 -0000

Hello bigK, Chris and Yasmn,
welcome on the blog.

I don't see a sense in the packages bigger than 30 lessons either. And why are there two 30 lesson packages now? One valid for 30 days, one for 120 days. Don't get the sense in it. Especially according to the discussion "how to simplify the use of Myngle".

The only reason for big packages I can see is to get cash, as bigK mentioned. Be it to pay the bills or to be more attractive to investors. But I don't see a benefit for the teachers, e.g. for me.

I had two students who were interested in booking a 5 lesson package with me this week. Well, when I woke up on monday, the 5 lesson package was just a history...

@Mike There is the biggest problem that I see. If I give a discount on lesson packages, I calculate it on the basis that I know I will get the whole sum.

Now there are two facts that made me stop offering packages on Myngle:

1) I don't get the payment of the packages in one single payment. Myngle just gives me small bites although the money is already on my "virtual" Myngle account. They don't charge the student per lesson either. So what is the reason / explanation for this? I don't have a contract with them that would allow them to hold back my payments! The students buys a package of ME not of Myngle. So why do I only get pocket money like a child? The only thing that I could accept would be a payment of the whole sum at the end of the month but I don't think that even for this there is a legal basis to do so.

2) As I said, the package price with the included reduction is based on the fact that I get ALL the money. Now there is a good chance, that Myngle will keep a part of it. It's not that unusual that a student misses one or several lessons. How can I include this fact in my calculations? I lower the reduction or give no reduction at all.

That Myngle changed once again the rules from one day to the other without prior notice to their teachers is an other thing.

I cannot understand this kind of behaviour but in the end, it's Myngle's decision. I think I said enough about issues like these in the past 6 months.

Re: WiZiQ Sessions are now WiZiQ Classes

KirstenWinkler — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 17:08:49 -0000

Hi Vikrama,

thank you for your nice compliment. This has no effect on my objectivity for future reviews of your site, of course ;).

Maybe we can have a little chat about WiZiQ's plans, if you like. Would love to hear about your new direction.

See you,
Kirsten

Re: Myngle introduces New Lesson Packages

KirstenWinkler — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 08:17:04 -0000

Hello Marina,

thank you for joining the discussion. It's always the best, when the CEO represents his/her company.

According to your post, you changed the business model of Myngle from a learning platform to an online language school. If you want to bind the students on Myngle it's not about teachers offering their services on a marketplace anymore, it's about Myngle offering language courses given by their "certified" teachers. This is a drastic change but would explain the changes in the past weeks and months:

- holding back payments
The student does not pay the teacher anymore. The student pays Myngle and Myngle then gives the "wage" to the teacher. So the teacher is NOT independent anymore but more or less an employee or at least a freelancer for Myngle.

- lesson packages
Same here. Myngle gets the whole ammount of the sold lesson package upfront then pays the teacher his wage. If there are unused lessons in the end, Myngle gives the teacher a 50% "promotion" (because the teacher needn't to teach them).

I always thought Myngle just offers the platform for teachers and students to connect and the binding would be between the teacher and the student. The way you describe it, the teacher is not important. He is more or less the classic lanuage school teacher you get to know when you enter the classroom the first time. You don't book him, you book the school.

But if you want to be a classic language school (just online) you need to make legal contracts with your teachers. You have to deduct social contributions, give them holidays, lay-off protrection etc...

Plus when Myngle is the online language school, I as a teacher are not responsible anymore to look for students, right? I just enter the classroom when the school calls me to teach.

Back to the binding of students. Throughout my studying years I myself regulary subscribed to "classic" language schools all over the globe. I was never forced to subscribe for 3 month or more. Generally my impression was that I could choose between weekly to bi-weekly or monthly intensive courses. These travels were 10 or more years ago and the schools still exist with the same system. Here in France I came across several companies which offered the system you chose. Unfortunately, I have to tell you that most of them don't exist anymore after 3 years. This is not my definition of a long term successful business model.

During my carreer as a teacher (online + offline) I NEVER forced my clients to buy x lessons in advance. This is one of the major reasons why most of my students never quit learning with me. For years! "Au contraire" they were fed up with the schools who made them pay the ammount x in advance. This again is a way to make quick money but not the way for long term clients. And in times of a recession I don't think that people are willing to put so much money away. There are other things to buy.

Brings us to the quality platform. You want the teachers to give reduction on their packages to make them attractive. But with an average price of 10 Euro per 30 minute how much reduction shall they give? Even 10 Euro does not reflect a realistic price. In fact Myngle made this price by setting the rules for the Boost (any teacher that...).

And my last point for now (because I have to think about all this intensively again): the facts.

I don't want to argue about this, but
1) Myngle did not sell ONE SINGLE LESSON, the teachers did! And I don't believe that there were thousands of lessons non promotional. If you can and you want to prove it, I would like to see the numbers.

2) Today at 1pm there were 265 teachers in the search.
13 had -1 or 0 lessons
84 had one lesson
34 had 2 lessons

Adds up to 131 teachers (49%). So, yes, the "majority" of 265 teachers gave more than 2 lessons on Myngle, depending on what you call majority I guess.
The interested reader has now to know that 1 lesson is the consultation lesson with Myngle, so you cannot really count that as a lesson, can you?

46 teachers had between 3 and 9 lessons (17%)
22 teachers had between 10 and 19 lessons (8%)
11 teachers had between 11 and 29 lessons (4%)

I know, this might be incorrect but let's suppose MOST of these teacher had one boost student. This would mean that around 78% of all teachers on Myngle never had more than one student.

8 teachers had between 30 and 39 lessons (3%)
9 teachers had between 40 and 49 lessons (3%)
8 teachers had between 50 and 59 lessons (3%)
3 teachers had between 60 and 69 lessons (1%)
1 teachers had between 70 and 79 lessons (-%)
4 teachers had between 80 and 89 lessons (1%)
3 teachers had between 90 and 99 lessons (1%)

36 teachers (12%) had either more than one student or sold some extra non promo lessons, maybe even just some free needs analysis?!

2 teachers had between 100 and 179 lessons (1%)
5 teachers had between 180 and 199 lessons (2%)
4 teachers had between 200 and 299 lessons (2%)
1 teachers had between 300 and 399 lessons (-%)
1 teachers had between 400 and 499 lessons (-%)
2 teachers had between 500 and 599 lessons (1%)
1 teachers had between 600 and 699 lessons (-%)
1 teachers had between 900 and 999 lessons (-%)

17 teachers (6%) sold more than 100 lessons. And if I may take myself as the "poster" teacher, at least 80% of these lessons were boost lessons. So I don't know, where those thousands of non promo lessons should come from?!

And finally, I am really deeply sorry about the fact that I gave Egbert the title CEO instead of "co-founder". This is very important, I guess ;).

Re: Sexy New Blog Design

KirstenWinkler — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 16:12:49 -0000

WOW!

and I don't mean world of warcraft, more the classic wow ;). very good work koichi!