Are you new to teaching online? Preply's detailed guide contains everything you need to know to be successful as an online teacher connect. Good luck. You probably typed “how to become a teacher” into your search engine and landed here! You want to follow your passion, earn extra income, or invest time in developing new skills. There's just one small problem... you don't know exactly how to become an online teacher and get started in this field. Don't worry, you've come to the right place!
This step-by-step guide gives you all the information you need to become an online teacher and attract learners to your classes.
The foundations for your success
Find your niche
If you ask the question “How to become a teacher?” you want to answer, it's not just about the lessons themselves, but also about marketing. As a teacher, you are the face of your service. You are the marketing department, management, and staff all in one.
First, ask yourself what your strengths are and what your potential “niche” could be. Do you want to prepare students for their university exams, or would you rather teach children? Do you prefer to work with learners without prior knowledge or with advanced learners who want to improve their speaking skills? Before you get started, you should know where you stand.
Then it's time for a little research. Find out who the most successful teachers are and what they do to ensure their success. To find this information, you can look at online teaching platforms: What do top teachers say on their profiles? How do they market themselves? What are their hourly rates? Learn from their approach.
The next step is market research. Simply put, you need to collect information about:
- the market you want to enter (e.g. teaching English online )
- People/brands you will compete with
- the target group you want to teach
By understanding how the market works and what your competition is doing, you can optimize your teaching offerings. Through research, you'll be able to identify a gap in the market and see where you can best utilize your skills.
An example: When you research online teaching platforms, you will notice that there are only a few teachers who focus on preparing for the Goethe Certificate or the TestDaF. This is an opportunity you can take advantage of!
Define your target group
Once you have identified your opportunity and found your “niche,” you need to get to know your students.
Who do you want to teach? Are young people preparing for school exams? Learners who already have basic knowledge of Spanish and now want to take it to the next level?
When defining your target audience, you should take the time to learn more about them. What are your challenges? What are their interests? Invest as much time as possible to find out as many details as possible: What are they reading? What series do you watch? How do you spend your free time? If you want to become an online teacher, you will be interested in our recent article about the learning activities of Preply users.
For example, Generation Z likes interactive media and enjoys short video content (think TikTok). So if you aim to successfully teach Generation Z, you need to take this into account in both your marketing efforts and when preparing your lessons. Write down these thoughts.
Knowing your target audience will help you build a better connection with learners. This will also make your teaching better because you will understand what your students want to learn and how you can motivate them. The result: The learners are satisfied and take lessons long-term, and you increase your teaching experience and your income.
Optimize your value proposition
Through market research, you should now have a good understanding of the “pain points” of your target group. This means you should understand what problems they have and why they are looking for a teacher.
Think about how you can solve these problems using your unique skills and experiences. This is how you define your value proposition. In business terms, a value proposition is a marketing statement. It summarizes the reason why customers should buy your product or service instead of another provider.
Think about what past experiences make you stand out as a teacher connect. Maybe you're great at calming children. Your travel experience and cultural awareness will help you better interact with learners from other countries.
Pro tip: Summarize your value proposition in 2 to 3 sentences and ask other people (e.g. friends and family) for feedback.
Define your hourly rate and set some ground rules
It is important that you as a teacher set some rules to protect yourself and your time. Communicate these rules transparently to your students. For example, you could choose not to accept same-day cancellations. In this case, you need to set a rule and inform your learners that cancellations are only possible X hours in advance. Most online platforms have firm rules regarding class cancellations. For example, on Preply, learners can cancel their lesson just 4 hours before it is scheduled to start; otherwise, the entire amount will be charged for the lesson.
Then you have to set your hourly rate. At this point, you may be wondering: How much does an online teacher make?
Compensation for online teachers varies based on experience, level of training, and area of expertise. Therefore, we cannot tell you specifically how much you should charge if you want to teach online. Are you having a hard time setting your hourly rate? Then search for teachers on Preply who work in a similar niche to yours and see what they offer and what hourly rate they charge.
Attract students to your lessons
There are two main ways online teachers typically attract learners to their classes:
- Independent
- With the help of an online teaching platform
The first steps as an independent teacher
Working as an independent teacher requires more effort than working with an established platform. If you decide to teach on your own, you will need to invest in acquiring new students (marketing costs) and develop your workflow. In concrete terms, this means that you have to think of a system for answering learners' inquiries, entering appointments in your calendar, and writing invoices.
You can teach your online lessons using a video conferencing tool like Skype or Zoom. Zoom is the most popular option at the moment and is great if you want to teach large groups. However, with a free Zoom account, video calls are limited to 40 minutes, which can be annoying if you want to hold 1-hour classes. With Skype, however, there is no time limit.
To find clients as an independent online teacher, you can sign up on online marketplaces like Upwork, Fiverr, and Craigslist. Consider creating a website or a simple landing page where potential students can learn more about your classes. Design several eye-catching graphics for social media and consider investing in paid posts to increase your visibility.
The first steps in an established online teaching platform
To save time and energy, you can join a network that does a lot of the work for you. An online platform gives you access to a pool of learners and offers you a high-tech booking solution and easy payment methods.
To start teaching, an online teaching platform simply requires you to fill out a profile page (which is then verified). This is by far the most efficient and easiest way to become an online teacher. The process is also stress-free and ensures a pleasant experience for the learners.
You can find many providers on the Internet - from simple video platforms with whiteboard options to services that take care of everything from booking to payment processing. It makes sense to choose a tool that allows you to share your screen and videos.
If you want to create online courses, Udemy, Skillshare, and Edx are some of the most popular platforms.
If you prefer to give online lessons rather than create courses (e.g. private lessons for speaking practice, homework help, test preparation, etc.), the following platforms are probably better options for you:
- Brainfuse offers many teaching jobs geared toward college students and their specific needs. This platform is also a good choice if you're camera shy, as lessons can be delivered via a virtual whiteboard.
- Preply is the best choice for online language lessons. On Preply you can set your hourly rate and you don't need any previous teaching experience or formal certifications.
- Studypool is good if you want to try out working as an online teacher by offering one-off help. In addition to individual lessons or “lessons”, teachers can work with students on individual questions or tasks.
- TutorWorld creates a personal work plan for each learner, records all lessons, and has regular discussions with parents. The platform is great for offering a more structured curriculum and teaching school children.
- Revolution Prep is a good choice if you want to work full-time as a teacher. All employees are full-time employees who can take part in regular training courses.
- SpecialEdTutoring.com is the place to go if you have a degree in special education and want to work with students who have special needs.
- Skooli allows you to be booked both in advance and the moment you are online.
Create an interesting curriculum
There are an incredible number of resources available on the topic “How to Become a Teacher.” It quickly happens that what is important fades into the background.
So when you're designing your curriculum or lessons, remember that it's not about creating something that you follow exactly. Instead, it's about meeting the needs of learners in a way that ensures they understand the content, stay motivated, and can apply their knowledge outside of your classroom.
Many online teaching platforms offer their teachers materials to use in their lessons. Preply has e.g. E.g. curricula that cover popular English topics, including self-study exercises (vocabulary and fill-in-the-blanks), lesson plans with a specific focus (e.g. weekend activities or interview preparation), etc. This saves you a lot of time that you could spend on contact can use with the learners. If you want to create your curriculum, check out these tips:
Define goals and outcomes
When defining the learning objectives for your lessons or courses, you need to focus on these important questions: What do your learners want to know? What do you need to know? What can they do with this knowledge?
If you give private lessons, you should take some time beforehand to get to know your students and find out their learning goals. Then you can adjust your learning flow and teaching pace accordingly.
When developing an entire course, you should pay particular attention to what learners will gain from taking the course.
Determine the schedule and resources
This applies to both the preparation time and the actual duration of the lesson (whether 60 minutes or 6 months). Create separate outlines or timelines that highlight important milestones.
When you log in to a teaching platform, your entire workflow is stored on the platform so you can access it at any time. On Preply, for example, all of your appointments are visible and can be synchronized with your calendars. You can easily enter your non-working time, mark your availability, and organize your lessons by tag.how to become a tutor for primary school UK
If you want to teach independently, consider using a tool like Asana or Trello to manage your learners, courses, and assignments.
Use practical tools for content creation
If you want to become a successful online teacher, you should use engaging materials.
You don't have to be a Photoshop expert to create interactive and interesting visual materials. There are many free (or cheap) and convenient content-creation tools.
For example, you can use Canva for simple graphic design, Quizlet.com to create online flashcards, and Powtoon for professional and customized videos.
Promote your online lessons
If you register as a teacher on an online platform, learners will find you using the platform's search function. This means your teacher profile will be your most important advertisement. Therefore, it is important to write an engaging and convincing teacher profile. (Course can be taken in German.)
If you teach on your own, you will need to develop your marketing strategy. Consider what your target audience would be interested in (go back to step 1) and choose different activities to capture their attention. Maybe it's an Instagram ad or a flyer in the health food store around the corner. You could also start a YouTube channel or a blog.
When you start teaching, especially online, you'll be competing against a large number of other people for teaching jobs, so you may need to start at a lower hourly rate to be competitive.
Pro tip: You can find detailed tips in our article: How to market yourself as an online teacher.
Are you ready to get started with online teaching?
Working as an online teacher has many advantages: you can teach what you want when you want and for as long as you want. If you follow these 4 essential steps, nothing will stand in the way of your success.
- Find your niche. Build a solid foundation by finding your niche, understanding your audience, creating your unique value proposition, and clarifying your boundaries.
- Define your target group. Attract learners to your classes by either signing up for an online teaching platform, creating your online teaching service, or giving lessons via a video conferencing tool.
- Create an engaging curriculum. Set clear learning goals and a schedule for students and use engaging content/resources.
- Promote your online lessons. Inform your target group about your work!
In 2020 and 2021, we spent more time online than ever before. From virtual meetings to online parties, our online activities have skyrocketed, and online classes and remote working are now part of our everyday lives. If you're wondering, "How do I become an online teacher?", now is a great time to answer that question for yourself.