To teach online is much more flexible than teaching in-person – and safer, in the context of a pandemic.
I manage to make a few hundred bucks most months with a few different online teaching/tutoring options. I want to tell you about them, and my experiences.
www.VIPKid.com – Teach English
I start with VIPKid because they are so well known, especially in the world of Teaching English Online. They provide their own curriculum, and find students for you to teach one-on-one, online.
I interviewed with them, and made it pretty far – before I realized there were two deal-breakers.
I really struggled to find decent orange shirts.
And I really, really struggle to be awake, consistently, early mornings.
Their students are in China, so with the time change, they require a commitment to early-morning hours.
So they aren’t for me, but if you are a morning person with ESOL experience – check them out!
www.Wyzant.com – Tutor Almost Whatever You Want
If you click on that, I get a kick-back – and once you tutor for them and recruit students and tutors, you’ll get a kick-back, too!
Wyzant is a tutor broker service – it’s like Uber. It matches people with a resource to people who need that resource, but instead of cars, it’s knowledge. That is, it matches tutors to students, either for online or in-person sessions.
It’s everything a tutor business needs: it has resources to message students (or parents, depending on who is looking for the tutor), schedule sessions, and – my favorite – process payments. Learners pay through Wyzant, and I get a bank deposit twice a month. I never touch checks or credit cards.
As awesome as Wyzant is, you have to either pass a test or submit qualifications to be considered competent in a subject, but they also promise students access to competent tutors, so it’s fair. I just got certified-via-test in LSAT tutoring, so it’s not terribly hard to pass a test (or else I just test well). You choose 5 top subjects, which for me include Biology, Ecology, and Algebra, and Study Skills. That said, I’ve never gotten a study skills job, but that doesn’t stop me from trying.
I mostly tutor Algebra, but they have subject listings for everything from graduate entrance exams, to elementary homeschool, even musical instruments. Yes, people could pay you to be a guitar tutor.
You set your rates, you schedule your appointments, and the money magically appears in your bank account (once you set up direct deposit, of course). If sharing bank data with a website is a deal-breaker for you, making money online might be tough… but the next option pays via PayPal, so don’t give up hope, yet!
www.Outschool.com – Teach Whatever You Want
Click that link above if you’re a teacher! Click this link if you’re a student or parent – Outschool serves kiddos ages 3-18. By the way, parents get a free $20 if they sign up using that link, and I get a kick-back, too.
Forbes Magazine has written up Outschool, and they’ve been described as the “Netflix of Education.” Basically, teachers design online classes: one-time, on-going, asynchronous, whatever. Then, you choose the schedule, curriculum, and fee. Outschool collects payment, manages the Zoom account by which classes meet, and even hosts online classrooms that learners and educators can access.
Outschool is a bit more… well, they have the highest standards, in my opinion, for educators. I had to submit an application listing my creditials and experience, and make a video showing off my teaching space. It’s nothing compared to applying with a school district, but it’s the closest, of all these. You have to take online lessons in how they run their stuff!
It’s a commitment, but it’s never overly complicated. And, once you design a hypothetical class for the application, you can tweak that to be a real class once you’ve been accepted. (And background-checked, which they take care of.)
Cat Science has already met 3 times, with a total of 11 learners so far – and counting! That particular class is for 10-12 year-olds. That said, I think there’s potential for a lot of courses that appeal to pre-vet learners. (After all, basically everyone wants to be a small animal vet when they grow up, in my experience.)
www.TeacherDooley.com
Forewarned is forearmed: this website is a hot mess. It is very, very much a work in progress, and I definitely do not sell hoodies.
I plan to sell hours of my time, via Zoom or FaceTime or Google, for tutoring in Algebra, Biology, Fish Tanks, or Whatever The People Demand.
The most direct way to make money teaching through the internet is to set up your own business, website or social media or all of the above, and sell your services directly. There’re plenty of resources online for making websites, making courses, or other options. I am considering doing telephone consultations for parents who thought a fish tank for their child would be simple.
Go Forth And Teach!
You best believe I will blog about how these efforts go. Thanks for reading!