General

 How does MyMedskool work?

MyMedskool is an integrated online E-learning and Tutoring portal focused on enabling global medical education In MyMedskool tutors and students meet to study online. Here's a simple step-by-step description of how they go about doing it:

1. Tutors post their profile listing with information on their expertise, pricing, availability

2. Students search through listings to find a tutor most suitable for them

3. When they find a tutor, they check his or her schedule and send a "request for lesson" message. In this they specify the date, time, price and other details about the lesson.

4. Tutors receive requests for lesson(s) and accept or reject them. They can also change some of the conditions and send the request back to the student for confirmation.

5. When the request is accepted, a lesson is officially scheduled. This is indicated in both the tutor's and student's calender.

6. At the scheduled lesson time the tutor and student log into MyMedskool and interact with each other using the high end collaboration tool provided by MyMedskool.

7. After the lesson the tutor sends an invoice to the student, requesting payment. The student receives the invoice with instructions on how to pay the tutor.

Note:
MyMedskool does not guarantee payments from / to students / tutors. MyMedskool does not route payments through its business account due to high transaction costs charged by banks. As noted above, a student would receive instructions from a tutor on how to pay.

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 What happens during a lesson?

The possibilites during the lesson are endless. Usually the tutor and student would be interacting using our high end collaboration tool. If the student and the tutor use a camera, there is a good possibility of a face-to-face live meeting.


Note:
MyMedskool strongly discourages sharing personal contact information including personal email, instant messenger contacts etc during lessons. In the interest of the medical community, MyMedskool has priced its services at bare minimum to enable medical students across the globe benefit from its service.

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 Why should I use MyMedskool?

MyMedskool has lots of unique feature which help make studying or teaching online easy, fun interactive and least expensive.

Schedules You don't have to worry about keeping your schedule. MyMedskool will remind you of upcoming lessons. At any time you can check your calendar to see all future and past lessons. Another useful feature is that MyMedskool recognizes time zones, and calculates the schedules accordingly, so you can easily work with anyone in the world.

Quality All tutors have rankings which ensure that they can provide quality service. Students also have rankings, so their tutors will know they can trust them when it comes to payments.

Personal space All information about the subjects you study or teach, your tutors and students, past and forthcoming lessons, payments etc. is organized in your account for fast and easy access.

Payments MyMedskool's system for tracking payments, sending invoices and creating reports makes all your financial arrangements as trouble free as possible.

Other Features...Explore MyMedskool for yourself and find many more features designed to make your online studying experience easy and fun.

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 Do I need to install any special software?

MyMedskool helps tutors and students meet, schedule lessons and support communication for payments. MyMedskool is integrated with an online collaboration tool powered by DIMDIM which supports and makes E-learning a seamless exercise for participants. There is no need to install any additional software to be installed for using basic features of MyMedskool.

The online collaboration tool may require the student and tutor to install some readily available applications to optimize and enhance your learning experience. These installations have been kept at bare minimum.

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 Can I export my schedule to applications like MS Outlook, Lotus Notes or Google Calendar?

Currently MyMedskool promotes use of its inhouse scheduler and calendar. MyMedskool definitely does propose to have the option of exporting schedules to applications such as MS Outlook. Any changes or updates made to the website would be personally communicated to the subscribers

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 Tutor Rating and Student Score

 What is the Tutor Score?

The Tutor Score is used to evaluate the tutor's reputation in MyMedskool. It is the most important information about the tutor. It tells the students how well others have rated the tutor in the past. The score is shown as a number and a star next to the tutor's name. You can click on them to see all feedback and detailed information about the score.

The points are awarded mostly for performance during lessons. Each time a lesson is finished, the student has the ability to leave feedback about the tutor's performance, which can increase or decrease the Tutor Score.

It can be positive, negative or neutral. Positive feedback increases the Tutor Score by one point and negative reduces it. Neutral feedback has no influence on the score.

Find out how the Tutor Score is calculated »

The Tutor Score is calculated for each tutor profile separately. Let's say Anne has 2 tutor profiles - Math (Tutor Score: 20) and Spanish (Tutor Score: 300). Anne is a very good Spanish tutor, has lots of students who leave positive feedback after each lesson. Her Tutor Score as a Spanish tutor is pretty high. Anne also started teaching Math recently, but she hasn't given many lessons yet and her Tutor Score is low - 20. The Tutor Score from Spanish profile has no influence on the Math profile.

The stars in Tutor Score are awarded for achieving points:

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 How is the Tutor Score calculated?

The Tutor Score is calculated basing primarily on the feedback from students. Each time a lesson is finished, the student has the ability to leave feedback about the tutor's performance. The Tutor Score is increased by +1 point for positive feedback, and decreased by -1 for negative. Neutral feedback has no influence on the score.

In some cases the points can be retracted. It can happen if the tutor continuously fails to respond to requests from students.

On the rating details page, you'll also see some other numbers

Positive feedback - the percentage of positive feedback left by students.

Lessons given - total number of lesson given by the tutor, including the lessons, for which the students did not leave feedback

Students who left positive/negative/neutral - the number of unique students who left their feedback. If the student left more than one positive feedback, it will only be counted once here (but it will be counted as 2 points in the Tutor Score).

Recent feedback ratings - the number of positive, negative and neutral feedback left by the students during the last 12 months.

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 What is the Student Feedback?

The Student feedback is purely used by tutors to provide positive comments and tips on areas of improvement for a student. MyMedskool discourages use of rating for students at current point in time.

If future, a logic based feedback mechanism would be introduced for students. This would be administered based on feedback of tutor on specific student parameters. Depending on the score, a student could be eligible for awards, rewards, gifts or freebies.

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 For students

 How do I start learning?

To start learning with MyMedskool, follow these simple steps:

If future, a logic based feedback mechanism would be introduced for students. This would be administered based on feedback of tutor on specific student parameters. Depending on the score, a student could be eligible for awards, rewards, gifts or freebies.

1. Pick your user name and create a FREE account with MyMedskool.

2. Find a tutor. You can do this by searching for a keyword e.g. "Orthopeadic" or browsing through categories.

3. Schedule a lesson. Check the schedule of the tutor you have selected and send him a "request for lesson" message. In it you will specify the date, time, price and conditions for the lesson. If the tutor offers it, you can schedule a short, free, test lesson.

4. Wait for the lesson. If the tutor accepts your request, the lesson will be scheduled. MyMedskool will remind you some time before it starts. When the time comes, the tutor will contact you on your communicator. You will then start your lesson. Enjoy! :)

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 How can I find my tutor?

You can do this by searching for a keyword e.g. "Orthopedic" or browsing through categories.

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 How do I schedule a lesson with a tutor?

To schedule a lesson with a tutor:

1. find their listing and go to their profile page.

2. check their calendar to see when they are available.

3. click on a day or on a "Schedule single lesson" link. If it is your first lesson with this tutor, you can schedule a short free lesson to get to know them better (Note that not all tutors will allow this option). To schedule a test lesson click a "Schedule test lesson" link.

4. on the next page specify the time, price, and lesson details and send the request to the tutor. If they accept it, the lesson will be scheduled.

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 How do I pay for a lesson?

Payments for lessons are carried out between the tutor and student, using the method of their choice (PayPal, Credit Card, Bank transfer etc.). MyMedskool helps to keep track of all payments by a system of invoicing.

To pay for the lesson, wait for your tutor to create an invoice for you. It will be sent to your e-mail along with payment instructions.

Note that tutors may have different payment policies. They can send invoices once a week, or immediately after the lesson. Some may even ask for payment before the lesson, after it is scheduled.

At any time you can see all your due and previous payments by clicking on "Earnings" tab from "Profile and Payments" menu.

Please note that MyMedskool currently does not support dispute resolution between Tutor and Student at current point in time.

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 Do I have to pay MyMedskool as well as my tutor?

MyMedskool charges a nominal fee for services renders. The fee structure for MyMedskool is available under your “Subscription Page”.

MyMedskool also offers a “7 day free trial” to provide you with firsthand experience of enjoying our services at NO COST for 7 full days.

Please note that MyMedskool does not collect details of your credit card for activating your 7 day free trial.

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 What if the tutor doesn't show up for the lesson?

If the lesson starts, and your tutor is not present within 5 minutes you will be able to cancel the lesson due to "tutor's absence". The tutor will not be able to claim payment for this lesson.

Even if the tutor, claims payment for “absence”, the student has the option not to pay for it and write to ceo@mymedskool.com for a direct reach.

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 For tutors

 How do I start teaching?

To start teaching at MyMedskool, follow these few simple steps:

1. Pick your user name and create a FREE account with MyMedskool.

2. Log-in and click on "Teach" from the top menu. Follow the instructions and create a tutor profile. Tell students about yourself, your experience, fees, if you want to offer free test lessons etc.

3. Continue to the next page and edit your payment preferences. Provide students with detailed instructions on how to pay you. You can also set your invoices policy here.

4. The last step is declaring availability on your calendar.

That's it! You are now a MyMedskool tutor, and can wait for students to contact you. Or even better, contact them yourself!

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 How can I tell my students when I'm available?

You can declare your availability on the "My Calendar" page from the "My MyMedskool" menu. Students will see the hours you set when they look through your profile. It is possible to set a one-off time period, such as "2006-08-13 from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm", or regular hours, such as "every Monday from 5:00 pm to 10:30 pm".

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 How do I get paid?

Invoices

You can declare your availability on the "My Calendar" page from the "My MyMedskool" menu. Students will see the hours you set when they look through your profile. It is possible to set a one-off time period, such as "2006-08-13 from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm", or regular hours, such as "every Monday from 5:00 pm to 10:30 pm".

When a tutor creates his first listing, 2 new options become available in his "Profile and Payments" menu: "Earnings" and "Payment settings". The first one links to a page, where tutors can track all their current and previous invoices. Also from there, they can check if they have any chargeable lessons and send invoices manually. The second one links to a page where they can specify which payments methods they accept and provide detailed instructions to their students. On that page they also set their invoice policies, for example "send invoices automatically for each lesson after it is finished" or "send invoices to my students once a week on Sunday, for all lessons from previous week".

Receiving payments

MyMedskool doesn't restrict the tutors to any one particular payment method. On the "Payments settings" page you can specify any method and any rules you like. For example, if you want to receive payments through PayPal, select this option and write detailed instructions to your students. These instructions will only be shown to students along with invoices, when you request payment.

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 What are MyMedskool's fees?

MyMedskool is totally free to register. MyMedskool also offers a 7 day free trial to its prospective subscribers to enjoy and test its services.

MyMedskool charges a nominal fee for its services. Fees are no more than $5 for one full month’s access to MyMedskool’s services (averages to less than 20 cents a day).

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 Can I use teaching materials during the lesson?

Yes, MyMedskool provides a tool for you to upload teaching materials which you can use during the lesson.

Lesson plans are documents created from blocks of texts, photos, pictures and even video and audio recordings. After you create the lesson plan, you may assign it to any upcoming lesson. When the lesson starts, you and your student will be able to open the lesson plan and use it as a textbook or a conversation material. For each element of the lesson plan you may also add "tutor's guide" - instructions or reminders for yourself of the activities to be taken at this point of the lesson. These reminders will not be visible to the student during the lesson.

Here's how you create a lesson plan and assign it to the lesson.

1. Start off by accessing your tutor profile page, you will see a new link to lesson plans. Click on the link, then click "Create new lesson plan"

2. In step one enter the name of the new lesson plan and click "Next"

3. In step two create the lesson plan by adding blocks of text, photos, audio and video recordings

4. Once you create the lesson plan and when a student schedules a lesson, you may assign the lesson plan to it on the lesson page.

When the lesson starts both you and the student will be able to open the lesson plan and use it as teaching aids.

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 How can I find students?

There are 3 keys to becoming a successful tutor in MyMedskool:

ALWAYS RECORD LESSONS within MyMedskool and BUILD YOUR TUTOR SCORE.

This one is the most important!

Just like in eBay, students look for tried and experienced tutors, with good feedback from other students. Tutor Score is the measure of your reputation and skills.

To make sure you receive feedback after each lesson, ALWAYS ask the student to schedule the lesson in MyMedskool. If the lesson is not recorded in the system, the student can't leave feedback for it.

Also, after each lesson is finished, leave your feedback for the student, they in turn will be more inclined to leave one for you!

Be active! Log in often, check your email and don't let students wait too long for your reply. If you don't reply before the requested time of the lesson, you will lose that student forever.

MyMedskool will send an email to you each time you receive a message from the student, but to make absolutely sure you never miss a new lesson, you can enter your phone number in your profile, and we will send you SMS each time you receive a new request for lesson. Best part - it's free :-)

Also, please keep in mind, that if you repeatedly fail to respond to requests before the scheduled time, and they are cancelled, you may lose points from your Tutor Score.

Create a compelling profile. Add your photo and detailed information about yourself and your experience. You can add a few points to your Tutor Score this way!

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 Content

 What is content?

Content is a file created by a tutor, a student or by MyMedskool.

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 Can I buy or sell content?

MyMedskool currently does not provide the option for tutors to sell their content to students. Progressively we would like to provide MyMedskool’s tutors to host and sell their content to other students. This option is currently unavailable with MyMedskool but would be made available in the future.

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