Teaching on EduPress

This page explains how a teacher shares study materials in the EduPress library: who can teach, how we check you, what EduPress keeps from a rental or a sale, how you're paid, and what can end it.

This is a working draft for EduPress and should be reviewed by a qualified legal adviser before formal adoption.

Who can teach

Teaching is for adults only. Every teacher is approved by an EduPress administrator, by hand. There are two ways to apply, both in the EduPress web app (not the mobile app):

• As school staff. If you're on a school's team on EduPress as an owner, admin or staff, choose that school when you apply. Your school has already confirmed who you are, so you don't send any ID. We check again that you're still on the team when we decide.
• As an independent teacher. Confirm both your email address and your phone number first. Then send a photo of your National ID, passport or driving licence, a selfie, a short teaching history, and one to three references (a name, how they know you, and a phone number or email). We may contact your references.

Each application also gives the levels you teach (up to three), your subjects (up to six) and a short bio for your public profile.

Our decision

We approve, or we say no and tell you why in a short written reason. If we say no, you can apply again. You'll get a notification either way.

Your ID photos

Only EduPress administrators can open your ID photo and selfie, and every time one of them does, it's recorded. We keep the photos on private storage and delete them 30 days after we decide. While your application is waiting, we keep them. If you close your EduPress account, we delete them at once.

Your references and teaching history are only for us. They never appear on your public profile, and neither do your phone number or email.

Your public profile

Once approved, you have a public page with your name, photo, the levels and subjects you teach, your bio, your school (while you're on its team) or "Independent teacher", the date we approved you, and your published materials.

Your materials

• You add notes, revision sheets, worksheets, guides, books, reference books, stories, and audio and video lessons from your teacher desk.
• You put each one on a shelf and under a subject. The library has shelves for every level of education (early years, primary, O-level, A-level, vocational and technical, and university and college), one for teachers, and one for everyday life. On the early years and school shelves you can also choose a class.
• Each one has a catalogue record: a title, a short summary, your name as the author, and its language (English unless you choose another). You can add the publisher, the year, the edition, an ISBN (we check its check digit) and a longer description of up to 3,000 characters.
• You can add a cover: a JPG, PNG or WebP picture up to 5 MB. We turn a photo taken on its side upright, make it at most 800 pixels across, and store it as WebP. Without a cover, the library shows a plain tile with the kind and the title.
• A paid material can have a free sample in the same format: a PDF up to 5 MB, or an audio or video clip up to 10 MB. Anyone can open it from the material's page. A free material has no sample, because all of it is free already.
• Each one is free, to rent, to buy, or to rent or buy. You set each price: renting costs UGX 500 to UGX 100,000 for 7, 30 or 120 days, and buying costs UGX 500 to UGX 200,000.
• The credit on every material is your name.
• EduPress reviews each material, with its cover and sample, before anyone can see it. Until we publish it, only you and EduPress's administrators see the cover. We publish it, or we ask you for changes with a note. You can edit a material while it's a draft or after we ask for changes; once it's with us or published, make a new one instead.
• Tick the box only if you wrote it or have written permission to share it. Not allowed: UNEB past papers or marking guides, textbook scans, or anything you can't show permission for.
• Rented materials can't be downloaded from EduPress, but anyone can save what plays in their browser. A material someone bought can be downloaded by them, for their own study. The Payments and rentals terms forbid copying and sharing rented and bought materials.

Keeping pupils safe

• You'll see how many people rented or bought each material and what you earned, never who they are.
• Adults can't connect with or message children on EduPress, and that includes teachers.
• A parent is told every time their child rents or buys something.

The fee and your earnings

EduPress keeps a platform fee from each rental and each sale, 20% unless we change it, and you get the rest. Your teacher desk shows the current fee before you set a price. The fee is fixed when a payment goes through, so a later change doesn't touch money already earned. Amounts are in whole shillings, with the fee rounded to the nearest shilling: a UGX 5,000 rental or sale at 20% earns you UGX 4,000.

Your desk shows what you've earned, the fee, what we've paid you and your balance, with each material's rentals, purchases and refunds.

Refunds

EduPress refunds a renter or a buyer only when we can't deliver what they paid for, for example a file that won't open, or a material we took offline. When someone is refunded, that payment's earning comes off your balance, and a refunded buyer can't download the material any more. If you'd already been paid, your balance can go below zero, and it comes off your next earnings.

Getting paid

• Set one payout account on your teacher desk: MTN or Airtel mobile money, or a bank account.
• After any change, the first save included, we wait 48 hours before paying into it, and we email you about the change. If you didn't make it, write to EduPress support straight away.
• An EduPress administrator sends your money by hand, up to your balance, and then records it with the payment's reference. You'll get a notification, and the payment shows on your desk.

Live classes

Once you're approved, you can run live classes from your teacher desk.

• Schedule a class with a title, level, subject, start time, a length of 30 to 180 minutes and 1 to 500 places. It's free, or a place costs UGX 500 to UGX 50,000.
• You stream from OBS or any encoder. Your desk shows each class's stream address and stream key, and you press Start and End there. Keep the stream key to yourself: anyone who holds it can broadcast as your class, and only your desk ever shows it.
• You can answer a question, in EduPress or on the stream, and hide a question that shouldn't be there.
• EduPress keeps the same platform fee from each paid place as from a rental, and you get the rest.
• You can withdraw a class only while nobody has enrolled and no payment is waiting. After that, only an EduPress administrator can cancel it, so that everyone enrolled is told.

These rules apply to every class:

• It's a one-way broadcast. Pupils see and hear you, and you never see or hear them. YouTube carries the stream, and we set every class so YouTube's own chat is off.
• Pupils type their questions in EduPress. Questions are text only, and can't include links, usernames, email addresses or phone numbers. You see the name of whoever asked a question in your class. Other pupils don't.
• You see how many people enrolled, never who.
• Enrolling doesn't connect you with a pupil, and you can't message one. Adults can't connect with or message children on EduPress.
• A parent or guardian is told every time their child enrols.
• The class opens 15 minutes before it starts, for the people who enrolled and for you. A class is recorded once you start it on EduPress, and the recording is open to everyone who enrolled for 30 days.
• Anyone signed in with a confirmed email or phone number can report your class to EduPress's moderators. People who enrolled can report one of its questions while they can open the class room.

EduPress can cancel a class. Everyone enrolled is told, and each paid place is sent back by mobile money. If we suspend you, or you close your account, your classes that haven't finished are cancelled, and everyone enrolled is told only that you can't take the class.

Suspension

We can suspend a teacher, with a written reason, for example for sharing material they had no right to share. Your materials go offline at once, and renters and buyers are refunded where that's fair. Your classes that haven't finished are cancelled. You can still see your earnings while suspended, but you can't add materials or apply again until an administrator approves you again. If you think a suspension is wrong, write to EduPress support.