Being an online tutor is a great job. Not only do you get to help students achieve their goals, but you also get to enjoy the flexibility to work when you want to. Although it sounds like the perfect vocation, online tutoring isn’t for everyone. It requires a level of dedication, preparedness, and professionalism that isn’t easy for some people to achieve. If you think you’d like to tutor students online, here are our top tips to help you be successful:
1. Take a Class Yourself
Before tutoring online, you should take an online class yourself to get a feel for what your students experience when they learn from you. Be sure to choose a class you aren’t already knowledgeable in as it’ll give you a true sense of learning from a tutor online. Take notes of what you liked about the experience and what you didn’t like as this will help you decide what to do with your own students.
2. Always Be Professional
Though you’ll be teaching your students from the comfort of your own home, you should still portray an air of professionalism anytime you’re tutoring. Wear the same type of clothing you’d wear if you were visiting their homes and use the same area of your house each time to give the impression of an office setting rather than a leisure hour. Be sure to check your attitude at the proverbial door as well.
3. Make it Interesting
Your students will likely bring their own textbooks, worksheets, and other learning materials, but having extras on hand will not only help fill the time slot they booked, but it will also engage them and make the study session more interesting. Think about what originally drew you to the topic and bring materials to the session to make it fun. Your students will enjoy learning from you and will retain more information if you make it fun.
4. Be Expressive and Engaged
Because you’re tutoring online, it’s easy to become bored or appear uninterested. If you allow this to happen, however, your student will also lose interest. To keep your student engaged, you need to use expressive body language. Sit up straight and stay focused on the student and their surroundings. Try to be as animated as possible, and smile! In this day of mask-wearing, we don’t see nearly enough smiling.
5. Be Available When They Are
Though flexibility is one of the biggest benefits of tutoring online, you must make yourself available when your students need you. This might mean evening or nighttime hours when they typically study and do homework, or on weekends when their schedules are more relaxed.
While your time is valuable, being available when a student needs you fosters a strong relationship, gives you a reputation as a good tutor, and often results in referrals.
6. Start Small
Although online tutoring might seem like an easy way to make fast money, it’s how you prepare and the attention you give your students that makes or breaks you. In the beginning, it might take you more time to prepare for a class or to tend to each students’ requests. As you do it more, you’ll get faster at it and be able to tutor more students.
Remember, word of mouth spreads fast, so concentrate on being the best tutor you can be for a few students before taking on more students to build your online tutoring career.
If you take these simple tips to heart, tutoring online can become a great resource for you to make money working from home.