There are many teaching and tutoring jobs available online.
Whether you’re a teacher or someone looking to earn a little extra money, then online home tutoring or teaching jobs could be the answer.
More and more people are using the internet to learn languages, to find help for their kids who might be struggling at school or even attending online schools.
But that’s not all! Besides the school or college subjects, there are many other topics you can teach or tutor online such as preparation for entrance exams, how to play musical instruments, cooking, crafts or computer courses…
You can use your experience, skill, or passion for a subject to earn some money and enjoy the benefits of working from home. Just imagine you’ll be helping others and also earning money teaching something you probably enjoy.
Do you want to know more? Let’s dig a little deeper.
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Table of Contents
Table of contents
Difference Between Online Teachers and Tutors
Before we go any further, let’s look at the difference between teaching and tutoring. Although similar, there are some big differences in the qualifications you may need.
Teachers
A teacher is a trained professional and is required to have certain qualifications – at least a bachelor’s degree and a teaching license or state certification. These are the same qualifications as if you were teaching in a brick-and-mortar school or college.
With technological advances, it’s possible to teach online from K-12, and college options are increasing. You will be responsible for preparing the lessons, teaching, and marking the work.
Tutors
Tutors don’t need any specialized training, although many online platforms may require some form of qualification. You must have a good knowledge of the subject you’re teaching and be able to convey your knowledge in a straightforward way.
This could be suitable for someone who knows a foreign language or a student who wants to earn some extra cash. Even the platforms that don’t require any qualifications, you will have a test to pass before you can tutor.
If you create your own online course, you don’t need any qualifications. You must be able to share your knowledge in a clear and dynamic way.
The Different Types of Teaching Jobs
There are many different types of teaching jobs, each with its own constraints, advantages, and requirements.
Here are some of the online teaching jobs:
- College/university level all disciplines and levels (more than 6 million students taking higher education distance courses)
- Teach English to foreign students
- Teach from home for an online school
- Tutor K-12 or college students with your own schedule
- Teach adults
- Create your own course which you can market yourself or through a third party
- Start your own tutoring business
- Start a blog around one of your passions with how to articles and solve problems
The Pros and Cons of Teaching Online
Pros
- You can do it from your own home or anywhere in the world as long as you have a good internet connection
- Possible to choose your schedule
- No time or stress spent commuting.
- Saves money spent on clothes, car maintenance, gas, and child care
- You will often be teaching only one student although it could be more, but still small numbers
- You can connect with students from different parts of the country or the world
- Can work part-time to earn some extra cash every month
- A larger job market – you are not limited by your location or mobility
- A growing market – global growth of more than 10% per year
Cons
- Technology! You may have internet connection problems, a computer that doesn’t work and causes you to miss a lesson or can ruin your lesson and give you extra work
- Working from home and looking after the kids can be tough
- No daily interactions with your fellow teachers or workers but there are forums if you want advice or support from fellow teachers
- No physical contact with students might make you feel disconnected from your students
- You will probably earn less as an online teacher than if you were teaching in a public school
- You may need more time and effort to prepare your courses – pre-recorded videos, powerpoint presentations
What Equipment Do You Need?
The equipment you need is quite basic, a good internet connection, a computer with a webcam and a headset with a microphone.
Online courses are usually delivered through a virtual classroom or Learning Management System (LMS).
An LMS can deliver different content formats, videos, audio, documents, interactive tests, slideshows and can be used for live sessions.
A good LMS will make things easier for the teacher to share and safely store media and for the student for contributing their work, tests, and taking part in discussions. Many platforms have their own LMS or live learning software.
Without an LMS, you can use Skype for free video or audio conversations with your students. Another free alternative is Zoom. You can have 40-minute 1 on 1 sessions for free. Zoom offers features like screen sharing, chat, a whiteboard, share your screen, and screen annotation great features for online teaching.
How Much Can You Earn?
Your earnings will depend on many factors: your qualifications, what you teach, and the platform you work with. Elementary subjects will pay less than college-level subjects. Typically you will earn from $10 – $24 per hour.
What Will Be Your Status?
The type of employment you have will determine your status. If you’re working for an online virtual school, you will probably be an employee with benefits.
Whereas with most tutoring positions, you will be an independent contractor. As such, you will be responsible for bookkeeping, social security, and taxes.
Where to Find Online Teaching Jobs?
Colleges and school districts may offer online teaching jobs; this is becoming more and more common.
There are quite a few platforms that offer remote teaching jobs. Here is a small selection, but in addition, you can also use a job search engine like Indeed.
A platform that provides virtual public schools from grades K-12. You will need a bachelor’s degree and a teaching certificate. Salaries are calculated from a base rate with increases for years of experience, qualifications, and there is a performance-based bonus plan.
Offers full-time and part-time jobs. You will require certification and experience in the subject you are teaching.
A private online school for grades K – 12. Job openings for online teachers for different grades and subjects.
Flexjobs
An online job board for remote, freelance, flexible jobs. Unlike many other job boards, the jobs advertised have been hand-screened, so you know they are real. You have to pay a monthly subscription (currently $14.95 for 1 month) to see full job subscriptions and to apply.
Where to Find Online Tutoring Jobs?
Here is a small selection of platforms offering tutoring work; a quick Google search will give you many more.
This list will give you an idea of the qualifications you need and the rates of pay. Before committing to work for any platform, always search for reviews and complaints.
Online Tutoring Jobs Requiring a Degree
Employs tutors as independent contractors. When you apply to become a tutor, you need to provide two forms of school verification; you could submit a diploma or student identification card. This is to verify that you are presently enrolled or have been enrolled in a university. You may also be asked to complete some tests in the subject you intend to tutor. The pay is $20 per hour and is applied to the exact number of minutes in a given week with a minimum lesson time of 5 minutes.
Offers jobs teaching English to adults and children. You must hold either a US or UK passport, have a Bachelor’s degree in any subject, and a TEFL certificate. You are provided with all coursework, materials, and training needed for your lessons which last 20, 40, or 45 minutes. It’s possible to select your own schedule, and the pay varies from $12 – $19 per hour depending on experience and qualifications.
An ESL (English as a second language) platform for teaching Chinese children. You need at least a bachelor’s degree and will have to take an interview and teach a demo lesson before you are accepted as a tutor. Your qualifications and your interview/demo result will determine your pay, which is $14 -$25 per hour. Each class lasts 25 minutes. As you will be tutoring children in China, the time difference might be a problem depending on where you are in the world.
Tutoring covers all grades from kindergarten to undergraduate level. You must be post-graduate in your subject and are expected to work from 4 – 9 hours per day.
This platform requires you to have previous tutoring or teaching experience and either be enrolled in or graduated from an accredited university. You are paid $18 per hour for the exact number of minutes you have worked in any given week. You have to connect with a student for a minimum of 5 minutes to be paid. Tutors are paid weekly via PayPal.
Studypool
This platform is a little different. You bid on questions that interest you. Then you propose a price and delivery time. If the student chooses you, they pay Studypool. They then hold the money until the student is satisfied. Studypool has a commission rate of 20 – 30%. To become a tutor with Studypool, you must have a university degree or be enrolled in college or university.
Teaches subject levels K-12 and SAT/ACT prep tutoring. To qualify, you must at least be a current college student with a GPA of 3.0+ or a recent graduate with some prior tutoring experience. To be an SAT tutor, you must have a 700+ score per section and ACT tutors 30+ per section. You select the schedule that’s right for you and are paid a competitive hourly rate depending on your experience.
Tutoring covers all grades from K-12 and college students in any academic subject. To become a tutor, you must have either a bachelor’s degree + teaching certificate, master’s degree, or be a specialized instructor (ESL certification). The pay is $25 per hour and is paid, by PayPal, whenever your earnings reach $100. You are free to commit as much time as you like to tutoring.
Is an ESL teaching program where you teach English to kids in China. One of the big problems with this platform is that the hours are tough because of the time difference with China. You may be tutoring at 4.30 am or 12.00 pm. To qualify, you must have at least a bachelor’s degree, and there is a 6-month minimum commitment. Additionally, there is also an interview and a demo lesson to test your teaching quality. The pay is $14 – $22 per hour based on your credentials and your demo lesson.
Online Tutoring Jobs No Degree
Offers English tutoring. You don’t need any qualifications to join, just be a native English speaker. As there are no qualifications required, the pay is less ($10.20 per hour). You set your own schedule.
Teach students English in your spare time. The only requirements are you must be fluent in English, have good communication skills, be creative and enthusiastic. It is recommended that you have some experience teaching English and a TEFL certificate. You set your schedule and rate of pay. The average pay rate for one-to-one classes is $10 to $18 per hour.
To apply to SkimaTalk, you must be a native English speaker; prior English teaching experience is not required. You have to record an introduction and take the SkimaTalk test. You set your own schedule and rate of pay. SkimaTalk takes a 20% commission from your hourly rate, so make sure you allow for this.
Other Options
Create Your Own Course
If you have expertise in a subject such as playing the piano, making cakes, blacksmithing, SEO, graphic design, fitness, and weight loss, Spanish… you could create and sell your own course. There are many platforms the can make it possible. Here are three of the better known.
A platform that hosts and markets your course. Before Udemy publishes your course, they will evaluate it against their course quality checklist. Once reviewed, they will send you their feedback, and you may have to make some improvements before resubmitting for a new review.
When published, you can promote to your email list, on your blog, or on social media. You will want to get some enrollments and reviews quickly to give your course credibility.
There is an advantage to using Udemy. They have over 30 million students and have a lot of traffic coming to their site. This means you will probably make some sales from this traffic. Udemy is a course marketplace, and people may find your course when browsing their digital catalog.
You can price your course between $20 – $200. It’s possible to offer discounts, and Udemy will market your course in their promotions. You can create your course for free, but after that, they split the revenue with their instructors.
The current revenue share is:
- 50% to the instructor for organic Udemy sales
- 97% to the instructor if a student buys through an instructor’s coupon code
- 25% to the instructor if the sale is made through – an affiliate (third party) or Udemy’s ad program
Relying on Udemy to promote your course, you will only receive 25% – 50% of the sales price.
A platform where you create and sell your course. With Teachable, you are responsible for marketing to get new students. You can use social media, your blog, or email marketing.
They have different payment plans from free where they take a commission ($1 +10%) for every course you sell. The next plan starts at $39 per month ($29 per month if paid annually), and you pay a reduced commission (5%), plus you have extra features. With Teachable, you have complete control of your course, the pricing, and the students are yours.
Similar to Teachable, you create your course or a website on the platform and then sell the course under your own brand. Thinkific provides a payment processor, and you are responsible for attracting students to your course. Thinkific offers a free option and paid options from $49 per month ($39 per month if paid annually)
This is a platform that gives you several different ways to make money. You can monetize webinars, sell training videos or live video classes. Yondo integrates with Stripe or PayPal to process payments. Possible to integrate your Yondo store into your website. Prices start at $27 per month, paid annually with a free trial.
Start Your Own Online Tutoring Business
Using the platforms mentioned above isn’t the only way to teach or tutor online. You can set up your own business. If you go down this route, you will be responsible for everything – marketing, accepting payments, having software to communicate with your students, online whiteboards…
You can either start using free tools; this article has some good information about the different solutions. If you’re ready to pay a monthly fee, many platforms offer virtual classroom software.
Although it will take more work to set up, and you will have to market your business to get students, you will be able to charge more. The teaching or tutoring platforms mentioned above charge commissions of between 20% and 60%.
Online tutors working for themselves charge between $30- $80 depending on qualifications and experience. Be prepared to start at the lower end of the range.
You can market your business through your own website, use ads on job boards, create a social media presence, create a profile/advertise on lrngo.com (a learning marketplace), create an affiliate program, and of course, the best way to find students is by word of mouth.
Before starting, you need to be clear about what you will teach, what age groups and how many hours you are going to work, and when. A contract will also be necessary to protect you and your students. Then you will need to produce your courses, always keep in mind the goals and expectations of the student.
Start a Blog
Another way of teaching online is with a blog. Although not often considered as a way to teach online, you can educate people interested in your field of expertise. This could be a hobby or anything you are passionate about.
Some advantages are you don’t need any qualifications, you can work from anywhere and when you like. But on the other hand, it will be a lot of work and sometime before you start to make money. If you need to earn some extra money fast, this isn’t for you!
As your blog develops with resources to help and teach your readers, you will have the chance to monetize your blog in different ways. You can create your own digital products, use affiliate marketing, display ads or sell a service.
To get started, you will need a website, then learn how to build it out and get traffic. I was in this position a few years ago. After trying different methods, I signed up for a step-by-step training platform. You learn how to set up your website and then add content, get traffic and monetize.
If you’re thinking of starting a blog, this would be my recommendation, and you can take a look for free (you don’t need your credit card to sign up).
Conclusion
The virtual teaching business is thriving and growing quickly. There are many opportunities either to teach, if you have the qualifications, tutor with and without qualifications, create your own online course, or to create a blog that educates people on a subject you are passionate about.
If you want to earn some extra money or even a full-time salary helping students better understand a topic you are an expert in, then online teaching is an opportunity you should look into.
What do you think? Have you tried teaching online? Did it work for you?
Let me know in the comments below.
