We are expanding!
In September 2020 I started up as an online tutor. Since then, the business has grown to the extent that I no longer have enough availability to meet the needs of prospective clients.
I am looking to take on a small team of tutors to provide additional availability.
If you're a teacher/tutor with sufficient A Level teaching experience, perhaps you'd like to earn some extra income as an online tutor?
- We do the advertising and marketing on our website.
- We handle the initial consultations.
- We onboard new students (how to use the systems).
- We manage payment and invoicing.
- We cover the costs of subscriptions to the required software.
Why work with us?
Working with us is different from signing up for one of these big tuition websites (e.g. TutorHunt).
Without the right systems, providing tuition can be time consuming and not necessarily worth the pay.
We put systems in place to minimise the time spent planning, preparing and marking outside tutorials. If you're a teacher, you might even find they save you time with your classes.
What does this mean?
It means that you essentially get to just turn up and teach (I won't lie, there is a small amount of marking/planning involved, but MUCH less than you'll experience as a teacher.
How does it work?
The Tutorials
- Students book a regular weekly slot with their tutor.
- Student and tutor connect through Zoom for video and audio.
- The maths mostly takes place on an online whiteboard called Miro.
- Screensharing can be used for using things like Desmos or calculator emulators.
Independent Study
Students have a 'Classroom Page' in Miro with 1 slide for each tutorial. Each slide contains resources for the tutorial and instructions for any independent study tasks.
The types of task depend on the individual student, but generally involve:
- DrFrostMaths key skills.
- Exam papers.
- Topic specific exam questions.
- Boards used in the tutorials often contain enough resources to just ask students to either 'carry on where you got to' or 'see what you can do on this board before we work on it next week'.
How does the pay
compare to teaching?
The average teacher works 47 hours per week (this excludes work done during holidays). This works out at around £22.50 per hour for a teacher at the very top of the pay scale. If you work in the holidays, it's probably less.
Our minimum starting rate is £28 per hour session*. However, this depends on how you wish to price your services and you could earn more if you're willing to charge more.
Given a small amount of prep work, this works out at approximately the same pay per hour.
So the top of the teaching pay scale is equivalent to the bottom of ours.
Over the next few years we plan to raise rates significantly above inflation (and hence well above the rise of teacher pay). We intent to pass on a proportional increase to tutors.
Not only that, we will pay more to experienced tutors who have a record of client satisfaction.
As the business grows, we will also be looking to expand into the group tutoring market. Experienced teachers here will be able to earn in the region of £65 per session.
*Although you could probably charge more than this working for yourself, unless you have all of your teaching resources adapted for online tuition, it's likely that the extra prep time required means you'd end up being paid less by the hour.
How does Miro work?
Miro is our online collaborative whiteboard software. To use it properly you'll need a way of writing on the screen. If you decide to tutor for us, we can loan you a basic graphics tablet to enable you to write on the screen if required.
Collaboration on a Miro whiteboard happens in real time. As you draw on the screen, your students will instantly be able to see what you write. You can learn the basics using our getting started board that current students get access to when signing up.
However, some of the features need to be demonstrated live (such as 'follow me' and 'video chat').
If you decide to tutor with us, we'll provide training on all the basics before your first tutorial. As you gain confidence, we will also provide ongoing training as we continue to improve our systems.
During tutorials, you will most likely find that the lesson boards are sufficient for what you need with minimal editing. However, if you are interested in learning how to edit boards in more detail, then training can be provided.
Roadmap
To ensure the business continues to grow and improve, I am working on the following:
Student Revision Resources
The intial priority is to generate traffic to the site in order to have a larger pool of students to draw from. This requires improvements to positioning in search engine results.
To achieve this, content is key. I am developing a student resources portal which contains as much quality content possible to enable students to revise for exams (e.g. tutorial videos, exam papers, topic based questions, notes)
New Tutorial Interface
Currently, students connect through Zoom and open Miro to write on the whiteboard. This works ok. However, it relies on students being confident with:
- Opening the required links.
- Switching between Zoom and Miro when necessary (e.g. screenshares).
The new portal will allow the tutor to manage these things. When a new board is opened on a different topic it will open for the student automatically.
Currently, students connect through Zoom and open Miro to write on the whiteboard. This works ok. However, it relies on students being confident with:
- When a screenshare is started, the students screen will automatically adjust.
- When the tutor loads a different board, it will automatically adjust for the student.
Although these issues are only minor with 1-1 tuition, the plan is that such a system will make controlling group tutorials more manageable.
Group Tuition / Revision Classes
As traffic to the site increases, I am to expand into the group tuition market. Rates are limited for 1-1 tuition, but with small groups (e.g. 4 students), the tutor can make a much larger return on time invested.
However, to make group tuition effective, we need to have the systems in place for students to use between tutorials. The aim is to develop a sequence of self-checking 'flipped learning' activities that student can complete between tutorials. The tutorials will then focus on the more advanced aspects, such as problem solving activities.
Get in touch...
- 01623 471763
- andy@thealevelmathstutor.co.uk
- Live chat (bottom right corner).