How much do you tip class instructors?

All a school can do is control what it teaches; it has no power over what people learn.



If that teacher worked at NCI, please contact me or NCI Education Director, Afon Shepherd in world.

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it think.

Your rez date does not necessarily reflect your skills. If an area is new to you, then you probably do need a beginners class. Cory (now-ex) Linden wrote LSL, but if he wanted to learn to make clothing, he would probably be best off taking a starting class. On the other hand, if the teacher is just hard to understand, or the class materials are unclear, please contact the person running the school (at NCI, that would be our Education Director, Afon Shepherd).



One other thing to keep in mind is that different people learn best in different ways. Some do best in a skills based class, some do best in a project-based class, while others do best just plunging in and reading notecards, or tutorials on the web. A class can't be all things to all people.

Do you apply some sort of testing and certification? Quite often I meet people who seem to think they know what they are doing because they have taken classes but are infact lacking in some basic areas. As you say, you cannot control what people learn, but you can test them, and if they fail you can tell them not to start ambitious modification of one of Porky's prefabs. If a person were tested in the basic key stages of building for example then those that failed would be under no false illusions and would know they require more tuition.

Maybe testing is common pratice in your institute and others, i've no idea but am curious.




The teacher doesnt work for NCI and if they did I wouldn't tell you. They are my customer.

Keep up the good work!

I can do some pretty nice things but some things in teaching or learning setting
with a lot of people around I do well with because their too much happening.
Most beginner classes though are teaching things I already know
I need something little bit more beyond how to rez cube and often I don't
see that level of classes personally.
I can build lot of very cool things easier if they are tinier then I can with big
prims but lot of just takes practice.
Sometimes the tools don't work like this one trick I learn in class about
copying prims. I can't explain it I know how to do it but often it doesn't work.

We aren't a RL university. We don't have the "sticks" they do; only "carrots". Aside from the difficulty of testing what was learned in a one hour class, how on earth do you think we could get people to sit around and be subjected to a test after each class? If they know the material, there is no point, and if they don't, the last thing they are going to want is to be graded on it.



Porky's Prefabs are not the people NCI is set up to serve, so that's not something our Education staff is going to consider. If you are having excessive problems with people breaking, consider offering your prefabs Copy/Mod/No Transfer, so people can screw up on them without fear of loss.



We don't charge tuition. All of NCI's classes are free and open to all.

I've done that a couple of times and then I IM the instructor and let them know why.

Truer words were never spoken. Teaching is a skill and art in and of itself.

I think ANY tip is better then none, from what I have seen all tips are appreciated.

I would imagine it takes more than a one hour class to learn the basics, I would imagine a series of one hour classes over many days or weeks, we could call this a 'course'. At the end of the course you set the students a voluntary test .i.e. give them a locked object for example and tell them the recreate it This seems like a simple enough concept to me. I'm suprised you don't employ a similar structure of learning and testing.



Of course I sell prefabs with Copy/Mod/No Transfer permissions. I may look like an idiot but I am not stupid .
I still help customers fix their bodged mods though because I am helpful like that.



Nice plug

QFT. Having said that, larger tips are appreciated a lot more.

I'm sooooo glad I haven't gotten THAT kind of IM yet... *happycrys* (T_T)

=^-^=

I tend to follow real tipping rules for me - 20% of what I have paid for the meal. When I tip in sl its between 150 and 250 especially if a service has been provided that has been valuable or pleasant.
In the real world service industry employees are often students or hard-pressed people and if I can spread teh gravy a little by that's fine by me. I once had a real fight with a group of relatively rich men who had given their server a dreadful time so that the poor girl was flustered and terrified of being fired. They tipped her a dime. Poor kid. I went to her afterwards and gave her 200 bucks. Really. I tipped her for keeping her temper and not getting spiteful with them. It's teh same here. Be decent with people who offer services; if you cant give them something make a note of their name and send them something when you can.

My base is normally 500L...up to a 1000L if they are really good. Some instructors go above and beyond expectations.

I never even considered tipping teachers. Just plan didn't enter my mind. Different cultures, I guess.

De[ends on how much I have on me, how well they teach or try, and sometimes how little others tip. But I start at $100, maybe up to $500 if I can afford it.