Hi,
I just wanted to extend for comment, the issue that I have about being forced by Italki to rate a teacher everytime I have a lesson.
Sure if it is my first time with a teacher the rating system helps, but every time I have to rate, before I can proceed with my payment to the teacher, that in my opinion is forcing me to do something I may not want to do and also will tend to skew the teachers ratings, where they become irrelevant.
Do I just give 3 stars every time, just because I completed a lesson, how would this affect the teacher and their position within the Italki community?
If I have a great lesson,(or a poor one) sure I want to rate, but I want the choice in the matter!
The current system does not give me a choice, and I am now forced to review my options, on how to overcome this unhappiness with the current situation on the Italki payment system.
Happy to hear from others on their views in whatever languge.
PS. This is not a discussion for learning any language, but this is the only forum I could find on Italki that would allow me to express my views publicly . Maybe Italki needs another more relavent forum created as well?
It is true that the rating system doesn't work very well. Pretty much everyone has 5 stars (4.5-5.0), and with such little difference, anyone can turn out to be overrated or slightly underrated. A mediocre teacher could have only taught people who are to shy to give anything except 5 stars, and a brilliant teacher may receive a bad rating once in a while.
It is important that the rating doesn't take the number of lessons into account. Someone may have taught just 1 lesson, rated 5, and they will then have 5.0. Another person is much more experienced and overall better, but they taught 200 lessons and their rating is 4.7 because there were a few 3s and 4s. When a person has taught 1000 sessions the rating is more or less objective, but still teaching is not a fast food chain. It's very personal, and that's why most people tend to overrate, which then massively blurs the picture.
It is indeed quite annoying that you are forced to rate your lessons every single time, but if this was cancelled this would increase the margin of error even further. The ratings will be inaccurate AND only based on the opinions of people who felt like rating at that particular moment.
I personally choose tutors/teachers based on their profile, video and other students' reviews. Students are not forced to write reviews, so when they do they really mean it.
