This is a comment provided by China_Mike which I think is too important “to just be a comment”. Therefore I made a blog post out of it.
Kirsten
In the future language tutors will need some guidelines about when and how to pursue on-line instruction. The decision to teach on-line isn’t an easy one. The decision to teach on-line probably means added work for the teacher in the short term and possibly added risks in hanging onto local students in the long term. However, as students move on-line, teachers who don’t follow this growing herd may miss out on some opportunities. Keep in mind that at present the on-line market is probably millions of times smaller than the off-line market.
While I would encourage teachers to slowly “follow the herd on-line” I would also encourage teachers to protect whatever local advantage they possibly can. Think of yourself as a pizza restaurant (in America) serving both walk-in customers (local) and take-out customers (distant and on-line). You want to encourage each separately but not at the expense of your single most profitable and secure market. If you are new to on-line training currently your most profitable market is probably the local one. Over time this might change. My best recommend is to find a good balance between the two.
Without further explanation here is a list of questions to ask yourself before you start teaching a language on-line. Let’s call these Mike’s Ten Questions in honor of all you Mikes out there.
- Will a free on-line teaching platform fit your instructional needs?
- Do you need the psychological support of a brand-name 3rd party platform?
- Do you need a company that can facilitate payments between you and your distant customers?
- Do you need proprietary teaching materials or can you use your own? Figure it this way, unless it is your book you probably can’t use it on-line.
- Are you looking for professional teaching guidance and support?
- Are you looking for collegial support as in a virtual teacher’s chat room supported by the platform?
- Are you looking for marketing support to help you find students?
- Do you want to work with a company that sets teaching rates (and a floor price) or do you want to work in a place where teachers set their own prices?
- After you join a company how are new students assigned or distributed? If it is a competitive environment how will you set yourself apart from teachers with existing reputations for excellence?
- What guarantees does the platform provide? Pay attention to how students are treated. The more guarantees that are in place, the better the chances that some event won’t cause students to turn on the platform and defect in mass. Reputations are won slowly on the web but can be lost almost overnight.
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