So you set up your account on Glotsalot, looked around a bit, and found some Teachers you are interested in taking lessons from. Now it’s time to schedule a lesson. The easiest way to schedule a lesson is to find the teacher you are interested in taking a lesson with, click on the round green button with the white plus sign in it at the bottom right of the teacher’s bubble photo, then when two green pill shaped buttons appear, click on the one that says “Book Session Now.” You will be presented with a page titled “Schedule a Lesson with (name of teacher).” On the Schedule a Lesson form, there are six data points needed to complete your lesson request:
- From the drop down menu, select the language you will be learning during your class.
- From the second drop down menu, just below the first, select the lesson type that is available (the standard options are Professional Lesson, Trial Class, or TutorNow). Keep in mind that you can only schedule one Trial Class with each teacher (if they offer one). In order to schedule TutorNow, the teacher has to have marked themselves currently available for this last minute option.
- From the third drop down menu just below that, select the lesson title from the list of lesson titles provided by the teacher.
- From the fourth drop down menu, select the lesson length in minutes from those offered by the teacher for that particular class. The lesson lengths vary depending on what the teacher wants to offer.
- Click on the small icon that looks like a calendar at the right of the Lesson Scheduled Time block, just below the word “minutes.”
- A full size calendar representing the teacher’s availability should appear. The calendar lists the current 7 day week, in a 24 hour format with 30 minute increments, each 30 minutes indicated by one rectangle shaped box. This is usually the easiest calendar format to work with, but if you want, you can change the format to a day, week, or list format, whichever is easiest for you. You may see several colors displayed on the calendar. The colors indicate times when the teacher is available, or when the teacher or you are already busy.
Here’s a quick breakdown of the colors you might encounter within the teacher’s availability calendar, and what they indicate:
White - These are times the teacher has indicated as not available. It could be because the time in question is outside of their preferred working hours, or they might just be otherwise obligated. You will not be able to schedule a lesson during any period shaded white.
Light Blue - indicates that the teacher is available to teach lessons during the blue shaded blocks of time. When picking your lesson time, either 1 or 2 blocks can be clicked on from the available blocks to choose the corresponding lesson time. As each block represents 30 minutes, you will need to click on two blocks right next to each other when scheduling a 45 or 60 minute lesson. Many teachers on Glotsalot publish several weeks or months worth of their availability in advance, so you can get a very good idea if your schedules are going to match in the long term.
Red - If you happen to see a Red color, this indicates that during the block of time indicated, the Teacher is busy taking a class themselves. The block will say “Teacher as Learner” Many teachers on Glotsalot also take classes in other languages.
Light Grey - A light grey box indicates that the teacher is already busy teaching a class to someone else. Inside the box you will see the block of time, like “9:00 - 9:30 along with the words “Another Student.”
Dark Grey - A dark grey box that says “Another Teacher” indicates that you, the learner, are unavailable because you are already scheduled with another teacher during the time indicated in the box.
So from the light blue available times, choose the time you want to take your class. if the class is going to be 30 minutes long, click on one thirty minute block. If the class is 45 minutes or an hour, click on 2 blocks at the same time. When you have successfully chosen the date and time for the class, that date and time will populate in the information block on the lesson scheduling form.
Once you have chosen the class date and time, you will be prompted to choose a video conference tool from those offered by the teacher. If Skype is the only option, then Skype is the only video platform utilized by the teacher. To take a class with them, you need an account with this video conferencing platform.
Once you have completed these six steps, you can click on the button titled “Checkout.” If all the fields have been completed properly, you will be forwarded to your Learner Lessons list. Here you can see the requested lesson detail and the status the lesson is currently in. That status is the first stage, known as “Class Scheduled.” The cloud behind the rocket ship will say “Class Scheduled. A link to the lesson request will be sent directly to the teacher in question, and your account will be debited by an amount equal to the total lesson cost.
What Happens When I Schedule a Lesson?
When you schedule a lesson, the teacher will get a message both on the Glotsalot Messaging Platform and on their private messaging systems (email and/or text) that you, the language learner have requested a lesson with them. When the teacher receives the lesson request, 99% of the time they will just accept the lesson. In certain instances the teacher might also turn down the lesson, or suggest a different time or date. Should this occur, you will be contacted with the alternative options and how to accept or turn them down. If the teacher simply does not respond within a certain amount of time, Glotsalot will automatically cancel the class, and inform the teacher that their failure to respond will have a negative impact on their permanent record.
When the teacher accepts the class, the class stage will change to “Class Accepted” and the second cloud behind the rocket ship will change color so you can figure out what stage the class in at a glance. Classes that have been accepted are now verified on both sides, and prepared to occur on the scheduled date and time. All that’s left to do is meet up with the teacher online at the scheduled time and have your class.
Next steps?