Nikki K.
How do I get more students on italki to book lessons with me? Thoughts?

How do I get more students on italki to book lessons with me? Thoughts? It's a little iffy, but I try to post as much as I can. I wrote an article on italki, but I'm still waiting for it to be publishe. Hopefully that helps. Anyway, just wanna share my article on The Epoch Times: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/author/nicole-kenneally/

Jul 30, 2014 3:27 PM
Comments · 8
1

I know what you mean in regards to audio vs. video lessons. My internet becomes radically slower during video classes especially when my student's connection is extremely slow, but I normally would let the stduent know that I will turn off my video to take care of it. I mentioned earlier that I use two other platforms, and aside from these platforms, I teach in an actual online school. In my experience with the platforms and the online school, offering video lessons are far more popular  (and it's a requirement for the online school) than audio classes as my students would like to see the way I open my mouth when I'm teaching them. 

 

Students also prefer if you send them a copy of the skype classes via callnote and dropox. I will start offering that in italki as well. I'm not really worried about making money on here as I get paid higher in other platforms and I already have a student base. The online school gives you students all the time too, but it would be nice to have a student base on italki as well. I realized though that italki is so much more competitive -- considering there are about 2k+ tutors offering English lessons. The chance of getting picked is so slim. :-( In any event, I really really appreciate your feedback and inputs. I'm just waiting for my new OOPT score to be updated. Lol. Thanks so much Thaddeus. You are so helpful.

July 30, 2014
1

I noticed the updates to your profile and I hope that you will have greater success finding students.  Availability is another good point.  I also struggle with this as I do not open hours during the weekends.  I am actually working on finding a way to communicate to potential students that I will consider times outside of my usual availability on a case-by-case basis.  Unfortunately, I think this is too complicated to clearly communicate...

 

As I have only recently started to teach through italki as well, it would be helpful to hear from more seasoned italki teachers.  Unfortunately, many of them do not seem very active on other areas of the community.

 

Also, you had asked about audio vs. video lessons.  I also teach outside of italki and I have used Adobe Connect, Blackboard Collaborate, and Facetime.  On all platforms, technical problems and connection quality concerns are much more likely to occur when using video.  While I use a wired cable connection, I have no control over my students' connections.  Actually, I have found that many students like to have lessons through Skype on their mobile devices, meaning that WIFI latency and interference is inevitable.  So, it is mainly for practical reasons why I do not use video in my lessons.

 

However, I have also found that when I cannot see the student, I am more focused on what I hear and am much more likely to catch a mistake and provide a correction.  Also, students may be much less likely to be distracted by whatever they see (I am a teacher, not a model).

 

I hope that some experienced teachers will chime in eventually ;)

July 30, 2014
1

Hi Thaddeus, yeah I thought about adding that -- but that was years ago when I was still in college. I guess I'll just add it in. Anyway, you were right about that badge -- that glitch screwed me over. I actually took the test again (just now) because I obviously don't want students to think that I am not a credible English teacher. It went well this time and I received a C2 -- advanced. I'll wait for it to be activated on my profile.

 

In terms of pricing, I lowered it (but not drastically). I will not low-ball myself but at the same time (you are absolutely right), students deserve fair pricing. Also, I think another factor that I am struggling with is my schedule. I can only offer a few hours a day since I work full time. On top of that, I also teach in two other different platforms, so my available times are so limited. Any thoughts? Thanks for your help. I really appreciate that.

July 30, 2014

Any product or service is only worth as much as people will pay.  Of course you can charge however much you want, but if you are looking for more students and the problem is clearly not demand (given that many students are booking lessons with other teachers every day), I think that price is the only thing left to consider.  By the way, this is one of the things that italki recommends to new teachers.  You can see their suggestions at:

http://teachers.italki.com/getting-started-teaching-on-italki/how-do-i-attract-and-find-new-students/

 

If there was a glitch in your placement test, I suggest removing the badge from your profile.  Since your profile includes English as your native language, the badge seems inconsistent.

 

Again, as far as teaching experience is concerned, all that I (or any potential) student knows is what is listed in the 'Work Experience' area of your profile.  Now, the only work experience relevant to teaching English is the first item, which reads, "Online English Teacher / Tutoring Platforms / 2014-present".  If you have more experience as an English teacher, be sure to include it in your profile.

 

 

July 30, 2014

way* more

July 30, 2014
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