The online tutoring career field is expanding rapidly. This makes sense due to so much of the U.S. workforce converting to remote and virtual work settings. Teachers have been especially impacted by COVID-19-related school closings and the contentious political atmosphere interfering with the safety and fluidity required to teach students properly on-site.
Thankfully, online tutoring jobs are available. This is excellent news for teachers who have recently become unemployed for whatever reason. This is also excellent news for teachers who seek to work from home in a healthy environment, while still providing students the knowledge required to grow and pursue a higher education. Continue reading vital information about the best online tutoring jobs available for you today.
Tutoring Jobs 101 - Learn the Basics Here
What is online tutoring? If you are completely new to online tutoring or tutoring jobs overall, you need to first understand the basics of this vocation. If you are already an in-class teacher or a private tutor, you likely already know what an online tutor job entail. Still, many new platforms, services and options are available in modern times. This is especially true since this career field started rapidly expanding in recent years.
Online tutoring jobs are available for tutors who teach a massive variety of different subjects. These subjects are taught using multiple different teaching/learning styles, which are further facilitated by a large variety of online mediums. Professional online tutors match their teaching strengths and the subjects they teach with the students most in need of both aspects. Online tutors who work for a larger agency or service are typically matched with students based on agency protocols instead.
If you work for an online tutoring agency, you will first be vetted for experience, training, education and more. You will also be required to fill out a profile, which will include the subjects and areas of expertise you are capable of teaching at a high professional level. Your areas of specialization must also be included. Potentially, you might be permitted to set your own rates. Many online tutor agencies enforce their own rate policies, however. Some dictate the minimum and maximum rates you are allowed to charge. Others allow you to choose your own rates but deduct agency fees off the top of those prices. Be certain to discuss all fee structures upfront prior to signing any agreements and accepting a position through an online tutoring agency.
Access and Opportunities
Obtaining a position as an online tutor in modern times gives you access to students from all over the world. Video conferencing technology has advanced significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic began in the U.S. during early 2020. Wi-Fi-reliant mediums and platforms have increased in reliability and efficacy since then as well. This means you might end up teaching a young student in India how to speak better English. You might also tutor U.S. students how to speak the native language of a country where they will be attending school or traveling to on vacation. Very few limits are imposed upon professionally vetted tutors pursuant to global student accessibility. The most important aspect of all this is to properly match your training and skills with the students who will benefit from them the most.
Why More Online Tutoring Jobs Are Available Today
Students and/or students’ parents are spending upwards of hundreds of billions of dollars on online tutoring sessions every year. This number has been increasing annually and has increased more rapidly than normal since the late-winter months of 2020. At the time of this writing many schools are now fully open. Some are not, however. Many teachers have either lost their jobs over politically charged mask mandates or disagreements over COVID-19 vaccination protocols and perspectives. Others felt at-risk in their own schools due to increasingly heated environments. These risks were associated with getting sick, receiving threats or of general violence over pandemic-based differences of opinion. Therefore, many in-class teachers quit their jobs and turned to online tutoring sessions to earn their living.
On a more positive note, technology has also advanced significantly. Video sessions are more stable and present fewer interruptions due to dropped audio, video, and Wi-Fi-based issues. Students, teachers, and the general population overall have mostly acclimated to the concept of working and learning from home as well. This means people of almost any age are now familiar with virtual platforms for situations where in-person services were previously required. Many students now prefer online training to in-class options due to this familiarity but also due to the sheer convenience it provides.
The Best Subjects to Teach as an Online Tutor Today
Online tutoring session subjects range from general education topics through intense areas of specialized study. If you are searching for the most common or popular subjects taught online to help increase your student base and income, however, you might want to pursue teaching:
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English.
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Math.
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Science.
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Chemistry.
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French.
Granted, not every student needs tutoring in these subjects. Learning a foreign language is highly popular (and sometimes necessary) in today’s world overall as well. Students might be struggling with foreign language course requirements in high school or college. Some U.S. residents might be traveling to a foreign country for vacation or as exchange students. Conversely, students or other residents of foreign countries might be traveling to the U.S. for any number of purposes and in need of English tutoring prior to their arrivals.
Other Areas of Specialization
One particularly popular aspect of online tutoring involves training students to improve their SAT and American College Testing (ACT) examination scores. Many collages also offer placement examinations. A placement examination allows students to pass out of a class without having to take the class over the course of multiple semesters. Tutoring students for college placement examinations helps them achieve these goals with much higher rates of success. This also helps them potentially graduate college and enter the workforce faster.
How and How Much Online Tutor Jobs Pay
You could set your own rates as an independent private tutor working for yourself. If you work for a tutoring service or agency you might have to adhere to company pricing policies. Essentially, tutoring rates fall anywhere between $20 and $100+ per hour. Flat rate pricing is sometimes also used. Flat rate pricing is more common when students purchase bulk sessions or repeated consecutive sessions up front, however. Discounts are also sometimes applied for long-term multiple sessions booked by students in advance.
Find Online Tutoring Jobs Now
Various tutoring agencies help connect online tutors to students who best match the skill sets and experience level of an available tutor. These services typically charge a fee in addition to that which you earn per student. Some services take their fees off the top of your rates as well.
UniversityTutor.com is one of the most reliable online tutoring services available to help you connect to students around the world. Chegg is another excellent option for finding work as a tutor online. Additional resources for finding online tutoring jobs today include:
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ETutorWorld (Learning by Design).