There are some jobs that never go out of fashion, and there’s always a demand for – like teaching. Offering great flexibility, sociable hours, and a decent pay packet, it’s easy to see why many train to become tutors. Whether it’s as your full-time occupation, for extra pocket money, or as a part-time weekend job, online tutoring offers the opportunity to become your own boss.
In tech-savvy times, even teaching has gone digital, and, if you have the right skills, online tutoring is a smart way to put your skills to use. If you’re toying with the idea of online tutoring, here’s everything you need to know…
- What can I teach online?
- Getting started
- Planning your hours
- Getting your name out there
- Going professional
- How to use Google Hangouts
- Tailoring lessons
- Declaring to HMRC
1. What can I teach online?
Well, the quick answer is almost anything! The internet has opened up a world of possibilities, so, whether you’re a maths tutor, have studied IT, or speak a second language fluently, there’s significant demand for your skills online!
With growing classroom sizes, and the trend to ‘upskill’, there’s been a rising demand for private tutoring in all forms.
Online tutoring can be big business. In the UK alone, the market is worth over a reported £6.5bn, with 2.8 million pupils being tutored at home at any given time.
Getting started
If you decide to join the world of online tutoring, there are a few things to consider. First and perhaps most obvious of all is deciding what you want to teach. As you are offering a personal service, you will want to be confident in your abilities and your knowledge.
Some students may want to see your CV, others may want qualifications or will expect a reference of some kind. Keep in mind that the level of your qualifications and experience will reflect your earning potential. If you have qualifications or previous experience in teaching or online tutoring, this may help boost your rate.
Not all lines of work demand qualifications, although it does help. For instance, if you work as a full-time graphic designer, you may be well equipped to help budding amateurs or if you’re lucky enough to be bilingual, you’re already well equipped to teach language students.
Planning your hours
Online tutoring is a great way to supplement your income during your free time. However, a typical class can be an hour-long, so you need to think about how much spare time you’re able to dedicate each week.
The profession tends to lend itself to part-time work. Think about the hours you’re able to give up in the week and at weekends too, so that won’t interfere with your main job. While it might be a smart way to make money from home, you will also need to have a laptop (with built-in microphone and camera) and good WiFi access. Having a dedicated email address is a good professional touch, and having your own website will give confidence to prospective clients.
The average online tutor earns £18 an hour. Although less than the industry average (£22.31), it’s still a sizeable amount when you consider that you will make money from home with no travel expenses to incur. Just four hours of private tutoring a week, will give you an extra £288 a month.
Getting your name out there
You will need to find a trusted and reputable online tutoring platform where you can advertise your services. Yoopies, for example, takes no commission or booking fees and gives you access to a huge pool of potential pupils – thus making it one of the best ways to make money fast. All that you’ll need to provide is a professional photo, your experience and of course references, together with any necessary qualifications or certificates. Have a look at our How To Become A Tutor page for ways to get your name out there.
Think about your career highlights and qualifications and include these in a summary about yourself. Showing passion and interest in being a private tutor will help set you apart from the many others searching for online tutoring jobs. If you hold a DBS certificate, this will be especially useful when teaching children.
Going professional
By large, online tutoring tends to be one-on-one. As such, building a rapport with your student(s) and earning trust is critical to this role. There are many forms that online tutoring can take. These include:
- Hosting webinars, which are seminar masterclasses, usually for groups. This is a good option for those who are specialists in their field, and might just be looking for occasional weekend work. You can charge a premium for clients to enroll, and these can be one-off or ongoing classes. There are plenty of professional online seminar companies you can join or, alternatively, if you already have an audience or following, you can market your event independently and host your own live webinar, as long as you have screen sharing facilities and the option for two-way feedback.
- Creating pre-recorded videos are a great method to explain an area of study in-depth.
- Using Skype or Google Hangouts to host your lessons is a great option to create a lesson environment from the comfort of your own home.
- Using virtual whiteboards is useful to visually map out your subject area. Maths equations, chemistry formulas, and language grammar can be enhanced by the use of a virtual whiteboard.
- Having correspondence by WhatsApp or email with your students is an efficient way in which to quickly send helpful resources and solve smaller difficulties your students may have.
How to use Google hangouts:
From setting up online lessons, timetabling on your Google Calander, and how to best engage your tutee online- using Google is one of the easiest ways to tutor online.
Step 1: Create a google account
To use Google Hangouts for your online lesson, you’ll need a Google account. Click here to make your account.
Step 2: Create your meeting
Once your account is set up, head over to Google’s Meet page and login. Click on ‘Join or Start Meeting’ and title your meeting. Select ‘Continue.’
Step 3: Join the meeting
To start the meeting click on the button ‘Join Meeting.’
Step 4: Add your participants
To invite a participant to your lesson, choose one of the following methods:
a) Click ‘Copy joining info’, and then share the link to your invitee by email or social media.
b) Click ‘Add People’, and enter an email or phone number
Step 5: Start the lesson
Once you’ve invited your participant(s) they will be able to join your online lesson!
Regular lessons
For those of us that want to organise regular lessons, Google is a handy tool that allows you to schedule your Google Hangouts Meeting on your Google Calendar. By adding your lesson and tutee’s email details to your calendar, your meeting will appear in both yours and your tutee’s calendar.
- Simply head over to your Calendar and select a date and time slot for your lesson.
- Add your tutee by clicking on ‘Add Guests.’
- Under ‘Event Details‘, click on ‘Add Conferencing’ to add a Google Hangouts link.
- When you’re happy with your lesson, click on ‘Save.’
- Google will ask whether you want to send an invite to your guests via email. Select ‘Yes’ to notify your participants. Your email invite will have the link to your Google Hangout Meet.
Tailoring lessons
If you are new to online tutoring, think through your teaching plan, and how you’ll help your students achieve success. If you already teach, you will probably have a strategy for this in place. Think about how you will communicate outside of classes, the framework you will deliver your course in, whether you’ll provide homework, and how you wish your students to reach you.
For students enrolled at school, you may wish to link your teaching to their school curriculum, or learning schedule.
It can be challenging to keep your tutee engaged when tutoring online. We, therefore, recommend using your webcam to ensure your lesson is visually interesting. Try to keep your lesson varied through a mix of speaking, written, and listening exercises. It can also be useful to show your tutee what it is your trying to explain. This is particularly handy when explaining grammar points or a maths equation. Luckily, to make our lives easier, Google Hangouts easily allows you to share your screen. Simply click on ‘Present your screen’ when delivering your online lesson.
Declaring to HMRC
Even if it’s just occasional part-time work, you will need to keep a record of your earnings to declare for tax reasons. You will need to register with HRMC to complete your self-assessment form. This can be done even if you are in full-time employment. On that note, while you may not be obliged to tell your employer, you may wish to do so – check your contract first, to ensure there’s no conflict of interest.
Ready to teach online?
Hopefully, these tips will have inspired you to pursue online tutoring, so what are you waiting for? Make your tutoring profile and get started now!