Rethink SP Rewards
Jasmine G
Rewarding 50 SP for one certification seems like a lot, especially compared to other tutoring actions like hosting a session. There always seems to be a certification backlog, and making certifications worth so much SP can incentivize people to get certified in topics they'll never tutor. I think we should make gaining a certification around the same SP as hosting a session, by decreasing the amount of SP earned from each certification and increasing the SP for hosting a session. After all, hosting a session is directly benefiting learners, with I think has more value than getting certified in a bunch of different topics.
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Michael G
Sharing my two cents.
I don't think there are many people going through the certification process solely for SP (or at least, I can't imagine doing so given the time it has taken me). I probably averaged 8 hours a certification when I think of all the practice course challenges and note taking I did, and sometimes I had to do the course challenge multiple times to score highly enough. This was all just so I could tutor a subject. In contrast, some live help sessions I host last less than 20 minutes before resolving the learner issue. A full certification being roughly 10 times more SP than a session (most sessions I encounter are an hour or less) seems reasonable to me.
I do think the right balance of SP across all activities you can perform on the platform is tricky to get exactly right. I've found it to be mostly pretty reasonable, but I don't discount Jasmine's perspective here, just wanted to share my own.
Jasmine G
Michael G I think you make a good point! However, if it takes multiple tries to score highly enough on a course challenge, it might signal that the tutor doesn't have enough fluency with the topic to effectively tutor it. Just like how learning the topic doesn't count for session prep when logging volunteer hours, the same logic could be applied to certifications.
I think my suggestion, in other words, is to value contributions that directly impact learners. Under my proposed system, the SP you would have earned from the certification doesn't just disappear—you would earn it through tutoring, which is the reason why you would complete a certification anyways. So, the effort spent certifying still pays off, but through tutoring.
To address your point about a 20-minute live help session, maybe we can make SP proportional to the amount of time of a session. It's just an idea though, and I'm not sure how feasible it is...you're definitely making me rethink some of this. Thanks for your thoughts!