The development of internet technology has moved the world of private lessons online. Remote work and studying, using an internet platform, are the new norm. You can now live wherever you wish and still have hours of rewarding professional activity. There is a website for every need. Through video communication online, students and teachers can easily interact from the comfort of their respective homes. Teachers are turning to online private lessons to earn additional income or make it their full-time career, while students from around the world are eager to apply and find the perfect online tutor to help them in their education. Companies specialising in that sector are keen to recruit. Platforms teaching languages and TEFL / ESL English are quite numerous and lead the way, especially on the Asian market. Set some free time aside, and follow this simple guide.
Becoming one of these sought-after online tutors, and starting your new freelance business, is fairly simple. Signing up to one or several of the many online teaching websites is a first step. Just create your profile, and in no time, you will be tutoring students in the subjects you have selected. No need to open a company and lose yourself in endless administrative tasks.
There are numerous teaching platforms just for what you are looking for, the most famous ones being Preply, Skooli, and MyPrivateTutor. If you are more oriented toward language teaching, a native speaker of an in-demand language (the most sought after being English TEFL and ESL courses), you can turn to specific language e-learning companies like Cambly or Italki. Read up on their different requirements and send an application to as many as you can, and start to schedule your first lesson. Live and teach from wherever you want, give as many classes as you wish, for as many hours as you need, an online platform will pay you in a consistent way.
There are millions of teacher profiles out there, all dedicated educators working through simple video calls. From math teachers, history tutors, physics tutors, or economy professors, to native speakers of English (ESL, TEFL), Spanish, German and many other less-spoken languages, the choice of lessons is vast. But how do I really do it, you will ask? I'm new, how to make it in that competitive market? And how much will my pay be?
Getting started as an online teacher for high school or college students is not a complicated procedure and does not require a lot of administrative leg work.
First, you need to find a website to register your profile on. There is no shortage of e-learning companies and platforms offering students and teachers the possibility of giving private lessons by the hour. Browse and choose one or several that would suit you. For example, Preply tutors teach more than 800,000 students globally. Preply is very supportive of their tutor community and even have a smart calendar you can use to plan your classes. They teach courses in 100 subjects, among them languages and TEFL / ESL English. They cater to high school and university students. Some choose to specialise: the platform Cambly offers exclusively English language courses, one-on-one video chat lessons with native English speakers.
Once you have made your selection, register your profile, and upload the information and documents the company requires. Most of the time, it will be some personal info about yourself, your skills, and your experience. Attach a CV and choose the subject(s) you want to teach and at what level. This should not take more than an hour to do. More ambitiously, many teachers even decide on making a short video about themselves. You can tutor in many areas, from music to phonetics, and if you have special language competences (yes, you native speakers out there!), you can teach English TEFL or ESL courses, or teach Spanish, Italian or some rare language course by joining companies like Cambly or Italki among others. Be careful to really make your profile shine with professionalism and seriousness. An e-learning online platform is always ready to help if you have doubts about the application process, feel free to ask questions.
Once all this is done, you will be ready to start your activity and teach your first hour of tutoring on video call!
Prepare and give quality classes that matter:
Being registered as a teacher on a tutoring website is not enough to attract students.
Remember, competition is fierce in this type of business. To stand out, you need good organisation skills. First, work tirelessly on the online learning content you are about to deliver to your future students. Indeed, the format and the methods you use for your lesson will be of paramount importance in your effectiveness as a tutor and your attractiveness to potential students. Be sure to develop a curriculum and materials that can advance student learning as quickly as possible. To do this, you must adopt a clear approach with a succession of steps. Modulate your courses and your approach according to different student profiles. Do not hesitate to be an innovative tutor in your interaction with students in message boards, virtual classes, or chat rooms. Provide downloadable materials, and post hour-long or shorter recorded additional lectures for your students to consult.
Your student will then be able to learn faster, will take more pleasure in following your courses, which will improve your relationship with them. A good teacher will always be able to adapt to the level and profile of his student. Be flexible and attentive, and answer your student’s questions as fast as possible. Put in the hours needed to succeed. Apply all your knowledge to the task. Companies can help you here too. Many have free training webinars once you join. Before you go live with a student or class, be sure to check them out.
Teaching quality courses is essential, as it is the reviews that your first students will give you that will determine your credibility, and therefore your ability to attract new ones. Having a good reputation as a tutor in the best e-learning companies, like MyPrivateTutor, Preply, TutorMe, Cambly or Italki, will be extremely profitable for you.
Having a particular diploma or certificate is not mandatory, of course, but it depends mainly on the company you choose to collaborate with. Unless you come across an online platform whose integration policy asks for a teaching certificate, no certification is usually required for home tutoring. That said, the trust placed in you by the students is strongly linked to your experience in a teaching job. If you do not have a university degree, you can still do some qualifying training that will increase your credibility. You can get a skill certificate in many subject areas.
For example, the language e-learning platform Italki has two application processes, depending on the qualifications you have. You can either register as a professional teacher (in that case you will have to upload your teacher certificate and degree in the language you want to teach), or a community tutor (where no certificate or diploma are required). Cambly, a company that offers English language conversations by native speakers from the US, UK, or Australia, does not require any certificate, degree, or diploma. TutorMe, an online tutoring platform offering 300 subjects is more demanding academically. You will need a university degree with 2+ years of teaching experience.
If a diploma and a degree are not strictly speaking an obligation, they are nevertheless a criterion of choice if you want to find students more rapidly. Tutors know this and they always free some schedule for a professional development course. Learn more, apply to a university, read for a degree that you are passionate about: your students, their parents, and your pay slip will thank you.
Don’t be too greedy!
Your ability to attract students will depend on many factors, and one is also the rates you will set for your lessons. As a new online tutor, it is important not to ask for exorbitant rates, as for example those of a certified senior teacher with a solid reputation and work experience on a national or international level. Set your rates realistically, according to your own skills and subject areas. As you have now probably guessed, money should not be your first priority as a beginner on a learning website.
Your seniority and experience within the website you are tutoring for are also to be considered later on. The more online classes you give, the more your rates can be raised, earning you more money. Note that the grades or reviews of students who have benefited from your support lessons are also decisive. A highly appreciated teacher can afford to charge certain fees.
Rates can also be adjusted according to the student’s or teacher’s location (city or smaller towns, remote regions). Subject areas (math, language, science, or music) are not priced the same either. Each course has its own difficulty as well: material used, number of students, time for lesson planning, etc.
Every online platform has its own system to pay tutors and teachers. Cambly will pay you weekly (no minimum hours required), for example, while at Italki teacher pay is processed twice a month. At Preply you can withdraw money whenever you like. Remember most take a commission.
The quality of your work and of the relationship you have with your students will therefore be decisive.
Depending on your country of residence, you will have to inform yourself about legal and tax requirements for such an activity. Also, take note that some websites only work with their nationals, or with tutors from neighbouring countries. This is the case for Tutor.com for example. If you want to apply to one of the oldest online teaching websites and give classes, you need to have a work permit for the US or Canada. Most companies have no such location requirements. Be sure to read the fine print.
A company is never easy to set up, and the hours of administrative work involved are not very appealing. So most teachers choose a simple freelancing status that gives them flexibility in their schedule, especially if they have a full-time job as an educator (which already gives them the experience they need to work for an online platform) or in another branch.
Start giving your online lesson tomorrow: read up on your professional status requirements, join an online teaching platform, fill the application form, choose your subjects and how many hours you want to teach, take free time whenever you need, schedule your online week in whichever way you want. Live the life you've always dreamed of by helping students learn. Teaching is the greatest gift.