Cambly finally tells us how the tutor rating system is flawed!!

A lot of Cambly tutors have been wondering why their ratings have taken a tumble since about the middle of this year, now Cambly has given us this info: ‘When a lesson ends, subscribed students who have spent more than a minute in the classroom will be prompted to either rate the lesson or schedule another one.’

As tutors we now have an insight as to how our ratings work. Having read the latest news post from Cambly, they are saying that the tutors aren’t actiually rated, it’s the lesson that is rated. Let’s just take that in for a second. Students do not rate the tutor, THEY RATE THE LESSON!!!!!

But on the tutor info screen shown to students, they see this.

This gives the impression that this TUTOR  is rated at 95%, but actually their LESSON is rated at 95%.

There are many problems here and Cambly really needs to address this. Let’s say a student has a class using the Cambly material and doesn’t like it, but the tutor is great and works hard to give a good lesson. The student rates the lesson as being poor, BUT THE TUTOR GETS THE POOR RATING!.  The student connection isn’t great and drops a few times during the class, the student rates the lesson as poor, BUT THE TUTOR GETS THE POOR RATING! There are many reasons why a student may say they have had a bad lesson even if the tutor has been great.

Cambly, if you tell the student they are rating the lesson, maybe change the tutor info screen to say “95% LESSON RATING”.  As it stands,  the student assumes the rating is for the tutor.

The Cambly rating system is very similar to Uber’s, where drivers are rated. But Uber asks you to rate the driver, NOT the journey! This means you are evaluating their performance as a driver during the journey, not just the journey itself.  Cambly, please evaluate the tutor’s performance as a  tutor during the lesson, not just the lesson itself.  

I usually sign off with a quote from Alice in Wonderland. Cambly this one is especially for you, considering the last 12 months of changes and updates:

“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road can take you there.”

Until Next time, Alice.