italki removed instant tutoring feature

[Flickserve]

I have recently started back with italki.


One feature that attracted me to italki in the first place was the ability to do instant tutoring because I have quite an irregular work schedule and busy other times. I am a A2/B1 level and it was really a really good feature to get some casual conversation in.

BUT now the italki team have REMOVED it which totally, totally sucks. I think italki are not really in tune with their user base - teachers or students.

[rdearman]

I have recently started back with italki.


One feature that attracted me to italki in the first place was the ability to do instant tutoring because I have quite an irregular work schedule and busy other times. I am a A2/B1 level and it was really a really good feature to get some casual conversation in.

BUT now the italki team have REMOVED it which totally, totally sucks. I think italki are not really in tune with their user base - teachers or students.

That sucks, I just recently recommended them to someone for just that reason!

[languist]

Their new website is an absolute mess. :(((((

The teacher's calendar was NOT IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER! Some lessons were duplicated, others not there at all... and the student site has lost its calendar altogether.

They said they would also remove 45 and 90 minute lessons, but after being met with huge resistance, they announced that they wouldn't be removed. Unfortunately, they remain committed to removing instant tutoring - even though I haven't met a SINGLE student or teacher who had a problem with the system. Maybe someone else can shed light on their negative experience? My only thought is that instant tutoring wasn't being used "enough" for the company's liking, and they want to try to launch a new system which will generate them more profit.

They removed teacher statuses, limiting the ability for teachers to communicate with their students.

'Lesson requests' are now mixed in randomly with stupid notifications to leave feedback for completed lessons. I found a lesson request around 17th in my list of 57 notifications; the only reason I didn't miss it completely is because I also keep the classic site open.

Teachers can no longer access each other's profiles using their 'teacher site' (they must switch to the student site to manually search for the teacher), students can no longer access teacher's profiles from their student profile. Teachers can no longer see the classes they're taking as a student on their calendar.

They had also said that they would change lessons to 55 minutes instead of 60, so teachers could, yknow, pee? But this hasn't happened - instead they tried to remove 45 minute lessons, so teachers wouldn't have any sort of breaks at all. I'm sure this was also motivated by money, as it would force students to choose 30/60 minutes, which both generate more money for italki, rather than for the benefit of the students.

It's only been two days and already I've spoken to teachers who have mentioned students who exclusively took instant lessons now leaving the site, or teachers who primarily took instant lessons now looking for an alternative....

They ask for feedback all the time, and yet have made changes directly in conflict with the feedback they're receiving. On top of that, the site is functionally a mess - everything takes 5 minutes to load (or doesn't at all), doesn't work properly, or is limited or unclear.

[zenmonkey]

I just invited them to reach out and post here. I'd like to understand why this feature is going.

[languist]

I just invited them to reach out and post here. I'd like to understand why this feature is going.

I hope they respond! I contacted them twice directly to ask about this issue (when they first announced that it would be removed a week ago, and yesterday when the almost unusable site was launched), and they sent me back generic replies, of the "We are receiving a lot of feedback about the new site. Thanks, bye" ilk. Considering all the public feedback about it, I'm sure I'm not the only one asking... I agree with Flickserve that they don't seem to be in tune with their user base. I joined in 2015, and although overall I love the platform, it does seem like most changes have been negative before the community stepped in and dictated the correct way to do it...

[Arnaud]

They ask for feedback all the time, and yet have made changes directly in conflict with the feedback they're receiving. On top of that, the site is functionally a mess - everything takes 5 minutes to load (or doesn't at all), doesn't work properly, or is limited or unclear.

It's always been like that, they never took into account what the users say.
Preply has a faster and better thought interface, time to put Italki in the trashbin if that's what they want.

[lingua]

I just logged on and didn't notice any of these problems with the calendar or notifications. From what I can see most teachers price in such a way that less than an hour isn't cost effective.

I have never used the instant tutoring. Is that something many of you use?

[languist]

I just logged on and didn't notice any of these problems with the calendar or notifications. From what I can see most teachers price in such a way that less than an hour isn't cost effective.

I have never used the instant tutoring. Is that something many of you use?

The changes are only on the teach.italki and beta.italki sites, not the currently still running "classic" italki.com. (But actually - they have since corrected the teacher calendar to make it chronological, although I still have duplicate lessons listed, and there's still no student calendar.)

Personally, I have used instant tutoring as a teacher, but not very often, because I'm really tired after my normal classes. However, this is also when I use it as a student. I know I'm generally so tired before/after my classes so I don't like to book a lesson in advance in the early morning or late night, in case I don't end up having the energy to really enjoy it. So instead, if I find that I have the energy at the end of the day, I book instant lessons. Removing this feature will effectively cut my italki use (as a student) in half.