Online teaching positions are normally flexible short-term opportunities with around 15-20 hours of teaching a week. Teaching online means you have the flexibility to teach wherever you are in the world – from the comfort of home or in an exotic faraway land! It’s also a lot easier to set your own schedule and fit your teaching hours around your lifestyle. Online teaching roles are aimed mainly at teaching young learners via an online interactive learning platform. But there are opportunities to tutor adults, too.
Teaching Platforms that You can Teach English Online on
Working from anywhere you want in the world is not such a farfetched dream. By taking on the TEFL course and becoming a qualified teacher, you can teach English online and work remotely from the comfort of your own home or from abroad. You can become a TEFL teacher working online whether you’re a native English speaker or a non-native English speaker.
There are several teaching platforms that you can teach English to students online with and here’s a list of them for you to choose the best one for you.
PREPLY
By signing up to PREPLY, you will be one of a group of online English teachers being connected to a pool of students of various ages working to a flexible schedule. This is one of the teaching platforms that gives you the freedom to prepare your own lessons to fit the students. You can set your own rates and teacher’s profile with PREPLY and students will get to review your information and decide whether or not to book a lesson with you.
- Pay Rate per Hour:$0-$40 (max.)
- Degree Required:None
- Certification:No but preferred
- Min Hours Week:No minimum
English First
If you have a degree and a TEFL certificate, then you should apply to English First. This large company hires native English teachers who can provide engaging lessons for to students from universitates or business professionals. Each lesson can last up to 45-minutes and the teachers are rated by the students after every session.
- Pay Rate per Hour:
- Minimum: $10
- Maximum: $17
- Degree Required:At least a Bachelor’s degree or above
- Certification:No but preferred
- Min Hours Week:5
31abc
If you have a TEFL certificate but don’t have a degree, 31abc are a strong English teaching platform who will consider your application if you have online teaching experience. Their classes are flexible and you’ll generally be teaching the same group of students so you can develop a rapport. They offer a payment scheme that is performance based.
- Pay Rate per Hour:
- Minimum: $18
- Maximum: $26
- Degree Required:At least a Bachelor’s degree or above
- Certification: Preferred
- Required Years of Experience:0
- Min Hours Week:2
Whales English
There are over 50,000 registered students on Whales English eager to learn English and you can teach them if you hold a 120-hour TEFL certificate. Teachers are offered a flexible schedule to teach 50-minute group classes online in their own time and a performance-based salary with bonuses.
- Pay Rate per Hour:
- Minimum: $18
- Maximum: $26
- Degree Required:At least a Bachelor’s degree or above
- Certification:Yes
- Required Years of Experience:1
- Min Hours Week:8
SayABC
You don’t necessarily need a Bachelor’s degree to teach English online at SayABC if you have some sort of qualification and can speak fluent English. Teachers teach 40-minute lessons to groups of four students for a period of three months. After that time has elapsed, your performance will be reviewed by the company and the students and if successful, your contract will be renewed.
- Pay Rate per Hour:
- Minimum: $15
- Maximum: $28
- Degree Required:At least a Bachelor’s degree or above
- Certification:Preferred
- Required Years of Experience:Not stated
- Min Hours Week:No minimum
Palfish
Palfish is one of the easiest teaching platforms to teach English online with as you teach the lessons using their interactive mobile app. They take on both native and non-native English speakers. Native English speakers can teach on both of their course programmes, Official Kids Course and Freetalk, while non-native English speakers are limited to Freetalk, which is a conversational English course. Anyone qualified with a TEFL certification and wants the freedom of speaking English remotely without needing a laptop is highly advised to apply for a job at Palfish.
- Pay Rate per Hour:
- Minimum: $10
- Maximum: $30
- Degree Required:At least a Bachelor’s degree or above
- Certification:Yes
- Required Years of Experience: Not stated
- Min Hours Week: 4
Landi
If you’re a TEFL teacher looking to teach English online with set minimum hours, then consider applying to Landi. It is an online English teaching platform that uses an immersive teaching system based on ‘CLIL’, Content and Language Integrated Learning. You’ll teach 1-2 students per class and the age category can vary from kindergarten to high school. You have to commit at least 12-hours per week.
- Pay Rate per Hour:
- Minimum: $16
- Maximum: $23
- Degree Required: At least a Bachelor’s degree or above
- Certification:Preferred
- Required Years of Experience:Not stated
- Min Hours Week:10
DaDa
If you’re a Native English speaker then DaDa is open to hiring applications from any country in the world. Teachers have their hourly rate with the company determined on their performance in the interview, so preparation is important. You will also get paid half the rate if your student does not show for their required slot. Students are assigned to you based on the schedule that you provide which has to have a minimum of two hours, two days a week. The students you’ll be teaching English as a foreign language to online are Chinese with their ages ranging between kindergarten and grade 9.
- Pay Rate per Hour:
- Minimum: $15
- Maximum: $25
- Degree Required: At least a Bachelor’s degree or above
- Certification:Preferred
- Required Years of Experience:Not stated
- Min Hours Week:4 hours
iTutorGroup
ItutorGroup hires native-English speaking teachers with a bachelor’s degree and a TEFL certification to teach English to Taiwanese children and adults. The teachers must teach at least 10-hours per week and at least four of those need to be during the weekend. All the sessions taught on this teaching platform are rated by the students. Payment is by the hour and teachers have a chance of earning performance related bonuses based on the ratings awarded by the students.
- Pay Rate per Hour:
- Minimum: $18
- Maximum: $24
- Degree Required: At least a Bachelor’s degree or above
- Certification:Required
- Required Years of Experience:Not stated
- Min Hours Week:10 hours
Most online TEFL companies will ask for a minimum of 120 hours of TEFL training and teaching practice. Some online companies may ask their teachers to also have a bachelor’s degree. This is particularly true for Chinese companies, as it’s a government regulation (no matter where you are living).
You will more than likely need high-speed internet, a computer with an HD webcam and a headset if you want to teach online. If you have the choice of a video calling platform for your online lessons, Zoom is a good choice. It gives you a clear view of your students. You can also share your screen and create separate rooms for group work in lessons.
If you have no experience in teaching online, a good idea is to get some teaching practice in as employers may ask for “experience” hours, which are unpaid. You can alternatively complete our 10 Hour Virtual TEFL Course, which has a section focused on teaching English online.
You can add our 30 Hour Teaching English Online Course to any primary course to boost your knowledge and skills. The teaching English online course is a huge benefit because it prepares you to enter the online tutoring world – and looks great on a CV, too!
Then there’s our Professional Online Expert Course. This is a specialised online teacher qualification that gives you the skillset and the confidence to hit the ground running. This package includes the 120 Hour Advanced TEFL Course, 30 Hour Teaching English Online and the 30 Hour Teaching Young Learners to give you an edge in a competitive market.