Xorro-Q's licensing has been designed to provide maximum flexibility and economy for various settings.  There are three models used for accessing Xorro-Q:

1. COMPLETELY FREE to both facilitator and participants but within usage limits (see Free Facilitators);
2. FACILITATOR PLANS provide Facilitators with unlimited questions per month but limit the maximum audience size to 30, 100, 300 1000 free participants (see Facilitator Plans);
3. PARTICIPANT ACCESS FEES can enable Xorro-Q use by Facilitators without any limits either to class size or to volume of use (see The Participant Funded model to unlimited use of Xorro-Q).

The arrangement accomodates combinations of these arrangements, for example:  Any paying participant is not included in the usage limits applied to the Free Facilitator and Facilitator Plans.

Free Facilitators: 

There is a generous Free Facilitator "plan" which permits Facilitators (educators, instructors, presenters etc) to enjoy Xorro-Q with free participants, but within constraints.  The Free Facilitator is limited to working with groups no larger than 33 non-paying participantas, and cannot ask more than 100 questions per month in total.

If the Facilitator wishes to work beyond these constraints, then either a Facilitator Plan must be purchased or a participant funding model must be used.

Participants are free - unless you choose otherwise:

In Xorro-Q, a “Participant” is a student or attendee in an activity. By default, Xorro-Q provides participants  free access to activities.  However, participants who voluntarily choose to subscribe to a Xorro "Plus" account (US$5 per annum), enjoy added value benefits not available to free participants (see "Plus Accounts").

Also, at the Facilitator's (or Institution Manager's) discretion, participants can be asked to pay to become members of a Group (and hence have access to activities for that Group).   In such a case, these participants automatically acquire a Plus account as well as the access to the Group (see Fee Policies).  One example where this is relatively common is where certain resources and activities by a publisher must be paid for by the participant; these resources are then accessed only by paid-up members of the FeeAccess group.

All paying participants (ie all Plus account holders)are not included in the total count limits applying to Free Facilitators and to all Facilitartor Plans.  Therefore, if a Facilitator Plan limits participation to 33 persons, this applies to 33 non-paying participants - the Plus account holders are not included.

Thus a "Free Facilitator" is constrained to groups of no more than 33 non-paying participants, but can can have unlimited paying participants (Plus account holders).

Some organisations prefer a fully participant-funded model.  In this case, Fee Policies are used to charge Participants for access to Groups.  Provided that these groups consist only of fee paying participants, there are no limits whatsoever applied to group size or to the number of questions which can be asked.

Facilitator Plans:

Free Facilitators have generous limits to what they can do in Xorro-Q.  However, if you are running a large group and need to use Xorro-Q intensively, you will want to choose a Facilitator Plan.  A Facilitator Plan permits a Facilitator to use Xorro-Q without any questions limit, with groups (audiences) of up to a maximum specified size.  

Facilitator Plans are purchased by the Institution, and can be reassigned at any time among the Facilitators to suit changing needs.  This function is performed by any Institution Manager (a free role in Xorro), and is generally done each semester.

An Institution typically purchases a combination of Plans to suit the courses being run for the next period.  Depending on the total number of plans being purchased, different price schedules will apply with steep discounting rewarding more plans being purchased.

Range of Facilitator Plans * Plan Pricing * Shorter or Longer Terms * Examples

Range of Facilitator Plans 

There are four paid Facilitator Plans for different maximum sizes of audience:

• Q-30 supports sessions of up to 30 participants;
• Q-100 supports sessions of up to 100 participants;
• Q-300 supports sessions of up to 300 participants;
• Q-1k supports sessions of up to 1000 participants.

A 10% tolerance applies to all of the above, such that on a Q300, the 331st participant will be denied access to the session.

A Facilitator who works with multiple groups (eg different courses), should be assigned a Plan commensurate with the largest of those groups.

To determine the subscription rate per facilitator, determine the total number of facilitator licenses required for the institution, and then determine the plan (and hence rate) for each. The institution chooses one plan for each Facilitator license, and distributes these Facilitator licenses between users to suit.

Compare Plans

Plan Dates and Terms

Plan start and end dates can be aligned to fit with semesters or other calendar divisions.  In some cases, commitment terms other than 12 months are required.  In such a case, the following adjustments to the annual rates apply:

• 6 month plans are at the 12 month (monthly) rate plus 50% ie (12m rate) *6/12 * 1.5 * 6
• 18 month plans are at the 12 month (monthly) rate less 20% ie (12m rate) *6/12 * 0.8 * 18
• A casual, pay-as-you-go arrangement is available at the 12 month monthly rate, times 3 ie (12m rate) *1/12 * 3 

Pricing Example

ABC Academy has 45 teaching staff who have an active interest in using Xorro-Q at some stage.

All 45 staff are set up as Facilitators.  All can create activities, share activities with each other, and view their own Results data from past activities, without need for any Plan (ie at no cost).  Furthermore, all can be Free Facilitators ie run live group sessions, within the contraints of the Free Facilitator plan.

The Faculty determines that their initial need is for five "paid" plans: 2 x Q300, and 3 x Q30.  The annual pricing applying to five plans is:

• 3 x (Q30 plans at US$76) + 2 x (Q300 plans at US$474) = US$1176 per annum. 

These plans can be assigned to whichever Facilitators need them, whenever needed.  Buying five instead of our or even three, makes the package much more attractive price-wise.  It often is the case that it is cheaper to buy more licenses and enjoy the discounts applying.....

Now - let's say that in the next semester, ABC Academy has a need for say 15 courses to use Xorro-Q. These 15 courses are run by 8 lecturers (some doing 2 or 3 courses). ABC Academy needs to lift its subscription for Xorro-Q, from 5 to 8 Facilitators. Note that it does not matter which users are to be made Facilitators; Facilitator licensing can be reassigned at any time between users.

Assuming that of these 8 facilitators, 6 will be using Xorro-Q in classes of say 80 to 150 people while the other two are using it in much smaller groups such as tutorials (with less than 33 attending).  There's a choice - buy just eight plans, or buy an extra two Q30 plans and enjoy the price discounting of ten:

• Based on 8 – volume rate: (6 x $474) + (2 x $76) = $2996 per annum.
• Based on 10 – volume rate: (6 x $379) + (4 x $61) = $2518 per annum.

This is an example of a case in which it is more cost effective for the institution to buy the extra 2 Q30 licenses and purchase at the ten-off rate!

See also:  Compare Plans   Free Facilitator     Participant Funded    

Categories: Xorro-Q, Admin / IT, Facilitators.