Tutor Escalation Process

Grok staff provide escalation support for tutors for all our competitions (NCSS Challenge, Web.Comp and Expert Tutoring periods).

WHY do we do escalation?HOW should a tutor escalate to Grok staff?WHEN to escalate?WHAT should be escalated?What should NOT be escalated?

WHY do we do escalation?

To ensure that our volunteer and paid tutors are supported in their interactions with students.  There is a dedicated escalation channel for any difficult issues. We do not expect our tutors to deal with these type of matters themselves. 

Also, to ensure that we are compliant with required policies, and that we provide excellent support for students participating in the all our competitions. 

Please report ALL incidences, even if you personally don't mind or don't think it is a serious concern. 

HOW should a tutor escalate to Grok staff?

  1. Use the #alert-staff channel for NCSS Challenge and the #support-casual-tutors for Web.Comp and Expert Tutoring periods in the Tutors slack workspace.
  2. Post a brief summary of the issue AND a link to the chat thread. 
  3. Do not respond to the student after the message in question is received. The Grok staff on call will respond to the student. 

WHEN to escalate?

ASAP after a receiving a message that could be classified as inappropriate or raising child protection issues. 

If you do not receive a response in Slack from a Grok staff member in an appropriate amount of time (15 - 30 minutes), please escalate by phone.

WHAT should be escalated?

There are two categories of issues that should be escalated. 

1.  Child protection issues, where we believe a child is at risk. 

Any concerning behaviour from students that indicates that their safety may be at risk, including but not limited to the following examples:

  • threats of self harm or suicide 
  • statements of suicidal thoughts
  • accusations of abuse 

2.  Student behaviour issues, where a student has acted inappropriately. 

Any inappropriate behaviour from students, including but not limited to:

  • swearing of any kind
  • rudeness towards tutors or Grok staff
  • sexist comments
  • spam messages, including multiple messages (eg. multiple chat threads, replying to threads multiple times without waiting for a response from the tutor, etc)

If their behaviour is spammy but not offensive, then you can send them a warning message using the saved reply 'spam to staff - warning to student'. If you are not sure or they continue to send spammy messages, then follow the escalation process. 

WHAT should NOT be escalated?

You might think that technical issues affecting a user's account should be escalated to Grok staff. This is true, but they should not use this Tutor Escalation process. Any tutor or student that is having a technical issue with their account should contact Grok Support in the normal way, by emailing support@groklearning.com

If there is a major technical incident during our competitions, Grok staff will most likely already be aware. Please feel free to discuss this in the other competitions slack channels, but don't use the escalation process.