Happy Holidays eduFire

Posted on 22. Dec, 2010 by Ryan Busch.

Happy Holidays eduFire!

Happy Holidays eduFire!

Hello All,

It is holiday time here in the US and I thought I’d take a moment to send warm wishes to everyone (regardless of your country or religion). We had a lovely Christmas party this past Sunday (thanks to Marco, Mair, Enrique, Alan, and everyone else who attended).  We had a great presentation showing a variety of different Christmas traditions. Most memorable for me was talking with people from other countries  (Romania and Egypt come to mind) about the celebrations that many of us have during this time of year. It is just terrific to imagine a world like we have here on eduFire where we can share ideas and learn from each other–I can’t think of a better way for the world to become more united than through mutual learning!

Here’s a lovely screenshot of the party:

eduFire Christmas Party

I also wanted to thank everyone who has provided feedback to me on the process that we’ve been going through–your patience, support, and commitment are great!

Happy Holidays wherever you are and I look forward to a terrific new year with you all.

All my best,

Ryan Busch | President of eduFire

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Tis the Season to Teach

Posted on 15. Dec, 2010 by Ryan Busch.

Tis the Season to Teach

Hello eduFire!

On the heels of yesterday’s exciting news about eduFire’s return–we have another exciting announcement.Because you were so patient. Because we love you. Because we want to have a great end of the year…

Teachers will earn 100% of the fees that they charge for classes taught from December 15, 2010 to December 31, 2010.

That’s right–you keep it all–we are even going to pay for the transaction costs that Paypal charges us. This is our gift to you for being the best teachers in the world. There is only one exception–this only applies to classes, not 1:1 sessions. 1:1 session will continue to be done as normal.

What does this mean for you? Here are some thoughts:

• Schedule and teach as many courses as you can!
• Get out and tell as many people as you can to take your courses!
• Charge for courses–free courses are good for marketing, but charging for courses allows us all to keep eduFire working. Consider discounting (rather than free)—you’re getting a bigger percentage, so pass on the love and get more students.
• Promote, Promote, and Promote some more!

All of these things will help you to make more money, gain new students, bring more people to eduFire, and add to our community. All good things that will continue to build your opportunities to become world renowned teachers.

We are still working to get things back on track and we’d like to work closely with each of you as we work to get operations back to 100%, so all we ask is that you coordinate with Marco to ensure that we are only offering one class at a time during this period. This will allow us to better monitor the user experience.

I wish you all happy teaching–now get out there and tell everyone you know (get out your email lists, blogs, twitter accounts, facebook–whatever you have) to come take courses on eduFire before the end of the year. Classes taught on January 1, 2011 are back to normal–so go get ‘em!

Wishing you happy teaching,

Ryan Busch | President | eduFire

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We’re Back! Bug Fixed: Schedule New Classes Now!

Posted on 14. Dec, 2010 by Ryan Busch.

eduFire is working again!

Hello eduFirers!

I have some VERY exciting news to share–one of the major bugs that we’ve experienced in the last few months has been fixed! Teachers and students should now be able to enter classrooms as normal!

I don’t think that there are enough exclamation points available for me to express how excited I am to share this with you!!!

While we still have some other challenges to conquer–this was a MAJOR concern for everyone–but thanks to Scott and Jared (the programmers from eduFire’s original team), it seems that you can all return to using the eduFire platform for your classes. So no more skyping on the side ;)

Please let us know if you run into any issues– we just ran a paid test and everything went smoothly. But, if there are still any  “bumps in the road” showing up (an we apologize if that happens)–just make sure to point them out and we’ll look into them.

Again–thank you all for your patience and commitment to keeping eduFire alive during this all–now–get back to teaching!

All my best,

Ryan Busch | President | eduFire

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Getting Better Acquainted with Ryan

Posted on 08. Dec, 2010 by Ryan Busch.

Hi all,

I mentioned that I’d spend some time letting you know more about me–but someone beat me to the punch (at least a little bit)!

TutorTek.com posted a little write-up about me (btw–thanks for the mention). He mentions my work with University of Phoenix and StraighterLine. So let me tell you a little more about my passion in this industry.

I started in higher education with University of Phoenix. While I worked primarily in marketing disciplines (that’s the ultimate basis of my career–whether in or out of education); I have spent time counseling new college students for Axia College of University of Phoenix, developed new innovations with Apollo Group’s R&D technology division on new learning technologies, support academic affairs operations as a projects director. My work at Apollo Group ranged from local to international efforts (as far out as China)–all focused, in some way, on increasing access to education.

That’s the basis for my life’s work to date–increasing access to education. It is my belief that education should be as widely available as possible, that is should not be hidden behind walls, and that cost should not be a barrier.

This is the philosophy that drew me to StraighterLine. From 2007 to 2009 I co-created the concept of StraighterLine (at the time, part of SMARTHINKING). As the original team member–working with the CEO, I developed the current concept of StraighterLine: self-paced, self-directed college courses available for students through a monthly subscription. StraighterLine has been doing well…but for me, here’s the biggest success: one student earned 12 college credits (a semester of college) for $99!

If StraighterLine could offer a full degree it would cost a student less than a thousand bucks. That’s a powerful thing.

My hope in working with eduFire is to bring out new opportunities for people with that same sort of power.

So what about you? Tell me about who you are :)

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