Archive for 'Education'
March Promotion: Teacher Who Books the Most Revenue Keeps 100%!
Posted on 02. Mar, 2011 by Ryan Busch.
eduFire Teacher Who Books the Most Revenue Keeps 100% of Earnings!
MARCH PROMOTION TIME! The teacher who books the most revenue keeps 100% of it!
Welcome March eduFirers! Last month we wanted to see you teaching in the new eduFire t-shirts. March is here–now it is time to do some serious teaching on eduFire. We want to inspire you to teach, teach, teach, and teach some more–so, this month, the eduFire teacher who books the most revenue will keep 100% of his or her fees.
That’s right…not 75%, not 85%, but 100%! We’ll even pay your PayPal fees.
The rules are the simplest yet–here they are…
March 2011 Teacher Promotion Rules
- Teach paying students on eduFire
- Earn the most money from 1:1 or 1:M sessions–keep it all!
- Counting starts March 1 and ends March 31st (all times based upon Arizona Time)
- At the end of the month we’ll send out a payment representing the 15% in fees to the winning teacher
Let’s get inspired this March! Reach out to your current students, dig up the email addresses of your former students, go out and find new students–get them in to class and teach ‘em! Schedule as much as you can–the more classes and sessions you teach, the better your chances of keeping 100% of your earnings in March!
March 2011 on eduFire is your time to shine–you can take that to the bank!
Bank 100% on eduFire
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eduFire and The Fitness Angel Make History: Live, Video Fitness Classes Started Today
Posted on 10. Feb, 2011 by Ryan Busch.
The health & fitness industry is huge and home exercise videos have long been a hot item for people trying to get into shape. But just like books and static video classes only offer a little educational and instructional help–fitness videos have the same drawback. eduFire is changing that–the same way that it changed video into a social learning experience…
Meet Carroll Roberts (aka The Fitness Angel)
Carroll taught a historic class on eduFire today and I wanted to let everyone know about it. Carroll is going to be offering regular personal training, live on video, through eduFire. You can take these classes from anywhere with an internet connection and you actually engage Carroll, ask questions, and get specific fitness answers just as if you were in the same room with him.
Several members of our community attended and we all had a great time. So check this out–meet Carroll and learn more about this fun fitness class.
Way to go Carroll!
Try: Absoglutely with The Fitness Angel
Carroll Roberts teaching a live fitness class on eduFire
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Using eduFire to build information about Industries (ex. my class on Digital Marketing Franchise)
Posted on 20. Jan, 2011 by Ryan Busch.
How might eduFire serve the development of information for different industries?
Digital Marketing Franchise Class
The more time I spend in the tomes of the eduFire community, the more fascinated I become with the variety if educational concepts being employed on the site. This got me thinking–why not use eduFire to educate people about information related to specific industries?
Around the same time as this thought, someone mentioned the concept of a digital marketing franchise. I’ve run my own consulting business and I love digital marketing–but I hadn’t really heard of this concept. So rather than feel like an idiot about my own fields of expertise–I started searching for some basic information about the concept. I quickly found that the majority of the information out there was was all an attempt to sell me a franchise–but it didn’t tell me much about the concept, the risks, the costs, etc…
So…I thought I’d try to put these two ideas together as an example of how eduFire can serve people who want to strengthen the cannon of information about an idea. I’m a neutral third party (I’ve never owned a franchise, I don’t work for franchises)–but I am inquisitive, an educator, and I am passionate about digital marketing. So–here’s a stab at a survey of Digital Marketing Franchise. This class is free of course–the goal being to broaden objective information on an idea.
Of course–this is one example of an idea–but there are so many other people like me who want to know more about whatever they find interesting. Those people could be doing this. Companies could be doing this. For all of the flashy marketing and salesy information out there–there still exists a need to actually examine and evaluate things from a basic level. To ask questions and interact. To explore and review without a bunch of made-up lingo and fast talk. I think that for companies–the people who participate in this sort of engagement make better customers. I think that potential customers appreciate clear messages and and the ability to make decisions based upon concrete ideas.
Know anyone who’d like to try this? Tell them to look at eduFire as a concept for actually communicating with interested people.
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eduFire Offers Official eduFire Merchandise
Posted on 18. Jan, 2011 by Ryan Busch.
Visit the eduFire store on CafePress
It is official (the merchandise that is)! We’ve built a store at http://www.cafepress.com/edufire. We had a number of questions about eduFire t-shirts during the eduFire Christmas party, so it only made sense for use to get a store up. There’s a HUGE variety of things in the store–(how cool is an eduFire yoga mat?) so I hope you’ll enjoy the selection.
So get out there and fly your eduFire colors! Support your favorite learning community and get a cool t-shirt, coffee mug, dog bowl, or whatever!
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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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Progress stage 1
Posted on 07. Oct, 2010 by Marco.
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eduFire update
Posted on 18. Sep, 2010 by Marco.
Since our last blog post we wanted to give you an update.
Our users have experienced some technical difficulties with the site during the past few days. These amount to issues with sending messages through eduFire.com, students sending 1:1 session requests and difficulties posting on the community forum; all of which are giving a ‘bump in the road’ error.
On behalf of the team I’d like to apologize for all of this inconvenience. We know how important all of these things are and we are hard at work in resolving it for you. Right now planning some amazing enhancements to eduFire and this is all part of a process that will make eduFire even better.
In the short-term we are going to limit free course offerings to reduce the communications challenges–so please hold-off on creating free courses until further notice. All free classes currently listed will be deleted over the weekend so as to give teachers time to contact all your students.
Your loyalty to eduFire has been second to none and we deeply appreciate the messages of support from all our users and a big thanks to the Community Ambassadors for all that you do. We promise to deliver the best eduFire you’ve ever seen and you are central to that.
We’ll keep you all up to date as we progress so hang in there and stay tuned!
Marco C
on behalf of the eduFire team.
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eduFire is now a part of Camelback Education Group
Posted on 07. Jul, 2010 by jon.
I’m excited to announce that eduFire is now a part of Camelback Education Group, a higher education holding company based in Phoenix, Arizona. We first met the Camelback team in 2009 and were impressed with their vision for creating a next-generation online university. They were impressed with the amazing community that had assembled here at eduFire and interested in the technology platform we had built. The more we talked the more we both thought there could be a great fit between our two companies.
For the most part, eduFire as you know it will stay the same and you’ll still have the opportunity to take and teach one-on-one tutoring sessions and classes. You’ll likely notice some changes of course and, as always, we welcome your feedback on what you see. We’re excited about what Camelback has in the works and we’re happy that we have been able to find a partner who shares our belief that education is an industry in dire need of some revolution.
We’ll be sharing more information with you in the future but wanted you to hear the news from us first. We have so much to be thankful for over the last several years since we started eduFire. So many of you have poured your heart and soul into eduFire. It’s been an amazing experience to date and we are so appreciative of your passion and energy. We are looking forward to this new chapter in eduFire’s history and of course to continuing to play a role in “being the change” in what we feel is the most important industry on the planet.
Sincerely,
Jon (on behalf of the eduFire Team)
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Earn Your College Credit on eduFire (a.k.a. Time to change the game)
Posted on 23. Nov, 2009 by jon.
On Friday I blogged about what went down at Berkeley last week. And it’s not just Berkeley. All around the country (and the world for that matter) millions of students are fed up with their higher education options. They’re taking on way too much debt to earn degrees that often aren’t worth what the students thought they’d be. And with unemployment rates historically high they’re often not making the money they need to service that debt. And the price and debt are often only the start of the problems. There are growing concerns about a whole host of issues ranging from quality to overcrowding.
We’ve spent a lot of time at eduFire thinking and discussing how we can play a role (even if it’s only a small one at this juncture) in making things better. So it’s with a lot of pride that I’m excited to announce today for the first time that we’re launching a series of courses that will allow you to earn college credit at over 2,900 colleges and universities. The best part is that the total cost will be approximately 80-90% lower than what you’d pay at a traditional college or university (or an online university like Phoenix or Kaplan for that matter, they aren’t really any cheaper than most brick and mortar unis). Here’s how it works:
Step #1 – Take any one of our new CLEP Preparatory Courses on eduFire (complete list here and more details below). The CLEP exam is administered by The College Board and is a way for students to earn equivalency credit at colleges and universities that accept CLEP credit (here’s a complete list…it’s extensive). CLEP credits are a way for people to demonstrate their knowledge of a particular subject in lieu of sitting for the relevant course at their school. You can think of CLEP kind of like “AP for adults” or as a means of “testing out” of a subject.
Our CLEP Courses are taught by amazing instructors (bios below), some of whom you may have taken classes from previously on eduFire. In addition to live lectures (which of course are available on-demand) you’ll also have a whole host of supporting materials to learn from. For instance, for the Macroeconomics course that I’m teaching you’ll also be learning from some of the top economists in the country including podcasts and blogs from Ivy League professors and some of the top luminaries in the world of economics. We’ll also be having some fantastic guest lecturers in our live classes!
#2 – Once your course is complete on eduFire then simply sit the CLEP exam. The CLEP exam will run you $72. Let’s stop for a moment and consider the cost of taking a course on eduFire plus the CLEP exam versus another popular option. The Macroeconomics course will run you $20 per session and is five sessions for a total of $100. Add that to CLEP exam fee and you have a total cost of $172 for the three credits you’ll receive.
Now compare that to the cost of three credits of The University of Phoenix. U of P is typically between $400 and $500 per credit (depending on your location). So those same three credits at Phoenix will run you at least $1,200. You’ll save at least 86% by taking the course on eduFire and sitting the CLEP exam. That’s a lot of money and perhaps as importantly, a lot less debt to take on. Not bad…
Here are a few of the courses we’re starting with on eduFire.
CLEP College Mathematics – College Mathematics is taught by Mair Lloyd. Mair graduated from Oxford (yes, that Oxford!) and has been teaching on eduFire for over a year. She has a huge list of credentials including a post graduate teaching qualification. And you can even follow here on Twitter here.
CLEP Introductory Psychology – Marco has been on eduFire since the very beginning and is the heart and soul of our community. He also happens to be an expert in the field of psychology. He has a BSc. Honours Degree in Psychology from the Open University and is a Graduate Member of the British Psychological Society.
CLEP Spanish Language – There’s no better to teach the Spanish CLEP prep course than Ximena Rojas. Ximena has a Master of Arts from The University of Tennessee (Go Vols!) and a law degree from the Universidad Mayor de San Andres. She has been a professor at the Universidad del Valle in La Paz, Bolivia and has decades of teaching experience.
We have several other courses on the schedule already including English Composition (taught by Karen Weil), College Algebra (taught by Kamal Das) and Macroeconomics (taught by yours truly!). You can find the complete list here. More to following in the coming months as well!
I’d love to wrap this up by sharing a bit about why we’re doing this. Way back when eduFire was just an idea we blogged about making education more equal and accessible. The launch of our CLEP courses and the ability for people to save thousands of dollars by earning college credit through classes they are taking on eduFire is yet another step in that direction. We think it’s ludicrous that we as a society are asking young adults to take on crushing amounts of debt simply to get an education. We think it’s equally ridiculous that students all around the world shouldn’t have an opportunity to pull together the best educational resources and thread them together into something that gets them significantly closer to a degree.
So that’s what we’ve been done. We’ve been inspired by a lot of other amazing people that are shaking up higher education like the folks at University of the People, Straighterline, Tech University of America, Peer2Peer University, Academic Earth and more. And we’re incredibly excited to join these pioneering institutions and change the game for millions of students around the world. If you want to help in any way just drop us a line. We’d love to have you onboard.
(P.S. A HUGE debt of gratitude to Josh Kaufman at PersonalMBA.com for providing a huge amount of inspiration for this in the form of blog post “Hacking Higher Education, Part 1: How to Obtain an Accredited Undergraduate Degree in 1 Year for $4,000“. We owe you a round Josh!)
