Introduction
Teaching online is a huge growth industry especially as online courses allow people to complete qualifications in the comfort of their own home and at their own pace. There are now thousands of colleges and home learning academies that offer distance learning courses via the internet. These organisations are continuously looking for qualified tutors to deliver teaching online on a range of subjects and your skills could be just what they are looking for. Popular skills that home learning colleges often look for include; Accountancy, Book Keeping, Law, Maths, English, Proofreading & Copywriting, Computing & Business Studies
The Benefits Of Teaching Online
Teaching online offers excellent opportunities to develop your career in a direction that you want rather than being funneled into a less attractive career path. It also allows you to develop creative methods of delivering subjects through multimedia presentation and online one to one tuition.
There are a range of other benefits that teaching online offers including;
The ability to work from home - Turn on your personal computer and start teaching when and where it suits you. You can organise teaching sessions around your homelife committments. You can also benefit from reduced child care costs through being able to work from home.
Reduced travel time and transport costs - Maximise your teaching time and spend less time in traffic by teaching from home. In the process you will save money on petrol and/or transport costs to and from work.
Flexible working hours - Teaching online is the ideal solution for those with important family commitments who need their profession to revolve around their family life and not the other way around.
Excellent rates of pay - Many parents now recognise the importance of a personal tutor and the fact that you are likely to offer one to one teaching sessions, means that you can charge a premium for your services.
Motivated students who are eager to learn - Unlike traditional education online teaching is highly rewarding as you are likely to be presented with motivated and eager students who are keen to learn and make the most of their teaching session.
Essential Teaching Tips
It is essential that you have a form of teaching qualification, whether this be a Bachelor of Education Degree, a Post Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE), a Teaching English as a foreign language qualification (TEFL) or another form of distance learning teachning qualification. Having a recognised qualification will enable you to understand the teaching process and teach effectively, as well as putting a potential student at ease in the knowledge that you are a professional teacher. Organisations like i-to-i offer an excellent distance learning TEFL course with a recognised qualification as well as work opportunities you can find out more here.
You will need access to a computer with an internet connection. It is important that you opt for the most powerful broadband connection that you can afford. This is because it will increase the speed at which you can interact with your students, meaning a better experience for them and enabling you to fit in more teaching slots each day. This will have the added benefit of maximising your earning potential and will ensure that students continue to access your online teaching service.
You will need a web cam and a set of headphones. These are essential to ensure that you can clearly hear your students and to enable them to see you and build a rapport.
Learn how to structure your lessons. It is critical that you have some form of formal structure to each lesson and that these are part of a module of work, so that the student understands the objectives that they need to work towards.
When you teach an online course simply keep a record of your hours and submit a timesheet of the work you have completed.
Take time to think about the skills you can offer to a home learning college or alternatively why not create your own online course based upon your skills, knowledge and experience and promote this via your own website? This way you have full control over what you teach and how you teach it and you get the full benefit of any fees that you charge.
To quickly locate organisations for whom you could potentially work as an online tutor for, search the internet for the phrase “Distance Learning Organisations.” Send an email to each of the organisations identified from your search with a copy of your Curriculum Vitae. Follow up each email after 7 working days with a phone call to ensure they received your Curriculum Vitae and request some feedback.
Set aside an area of your home as a study area or office from which to work, so that your business does not infringe on other areas of your personal or family life.
Join a site like WIZIQ who are ongoing organisation that offer you your own teaching online business and will actively promote your business through their website.
