With the rise in demand for online tuition especially during this pandemic, it’s all the more a better reason for many college students (whom we call undergraduates) to explore the tutor in them and conduct online tuition for students in need.
College students often are on the lookout for a part-time job to make a decent salary to support their student loans and their pocket money so it’s no harm for them to start tutoring.
In fact, students these days prefer young undergraduate tutors as well as it’s easier to build a rapport with them due to a lesser age gap and the sentiments of students are more easily understood by the tutor; hence it’s easier to come with practical solutions that students face in their academic journey.
Undergraduates however need to find the right ways to advertise themselves and it takes some amount of effort and persistence to be known as a tutor and to get a few tuition assignments.
So, here are some things that college students should be aware of and follow to become an online tutor!
IT’LL BE A ROUGH START
Having a heads-up before diving in will be helpful as you will keep your expectations within limitations and you’re less likely to give up on your effort half way.
Knowing that getting the first few tuition assignments will be a mission and a half will be a useful mindset to have as that will be your driving force to think of new strategies to promote yourself or wait a little longer before pulling out of it all.
Knowing the downs of this career does not make you a pessimistic person; it only makes you a more cautious individual as the decisions you make when met with challenges are what determines your success or failure.
Be sure to embrace the difficulties in this but also remind yourself of the reason why you began the journey of trying to become an online tutor while juggling your university education; the “why’s” should keep you going no matter how hard it gets.
DESIGN YOUR SCHEDULE
Your college curriculum might be taxing enough and on top of that you need to divide your attention for your students and give them your 100% during online tuition sessions. This will overwhelm you after a point if you don’t have a clear schedule churned out.
You need to craft you on schedule and strategically conduct your online tuition session in such a way that your quality of teaching and your concentration levels during your college time is not compromised.
Prioritising is an essential skill that needs to be picked up in order to handle both college assignments and studies as well as your job as a part-time online tutor.
KNOWLEDGE
A tutor should always continuously educate himself and be up-to-date with information. Apart from studying for your college curriculum, you need to also be diligent enough to revise and learn (with more depth) the topics that you teach your students.
Your knowledge has to be vast, to the extent where you should be able to clarify any doubts that your students ask you and on top of that,
- You should provide them with fun facts related to topics being taught
- You need to bring to their awareness about the real-life application of the theories they learn
- You need to also provoke their thoughts by engaging in meaningful discussions as well.
Even if you are unable to answer a question raised by your student at that moment, you should never hesitate to say that you do not know the answer and that you will get back to him or her soon.
A good tutor is also one who is never afraid to admit when he doesn’t know something. This also encourages students to never become over-confident and to always be humble.
BECOMING KNOWN
Being recognised as an online tutor and getting more and more online tuition assignments depends on your skills as a tutor. If you are a good tutor, if you are one who can produce results, through word of mouth you will soon be recommended to take up many tuition assignments.
It may sound all hunky dory but it all takes time and you need to also know your limitations as you only have 24 hours in a day and you need to also manage your college curriculum.
It certainly requires lots of time and effort; but the struggles will be worth it at the end!