Do you think you will gain more students if you lower your prices for online tutoring? Wrong. Instead, add additional value to increase interest. Although it seems obvious that you have to provide something extra to your sessions, you will be surprised how many online tutors think that they are offering just the right amount of knowledge. Well, it’s just not enough to present your materials anymore. Due to the amount of information and resources that are available, you have to offer your online students something more than a presenter would.
Where to start
Starting from scratch is not always easy. However, you have the chance to build a practice that is here to stay and one that students will be able to complete. Before deciding where to offer additional value to your students, get to know them better. Additionally, revise your online tutoring practice ideas and try to find the weak points. Here are some questions to start with:
- What are the hard parts of your online tutoring practice? If your session is more tech-oriented or involves specific knowledge, you can think about providing extra resources or pre-practice consultations, for example.
- What kind of online tutor-student interaction will suit best the goal of your practice? This will determine the structure and approach of your practice. Additionally, it will make you create useful rules to easily manage your future sessions.
- Which media formats and types of content are suitable for your practice and students? Different people have different learning styles. Therefore, try to involve different approaches to suit different students. Knowing your subjects and online students will help you create relevant content. You can choose from slides, e-books, infographics, recorded audio of the material, etc.
Ways to add additional value for your students
Providing added value to your students actually means a lot more than the online practice itself. The extra attention and benefits will result in a loyal audience. Providing value will encourage and stimulate your online students to stay on track longer. Moreover, it will increase their success and you will gain more recognition as an online tutor. However, adding value should not be an end in itself. Pay attention to your audience and find out what is suitable for them. Here are some ideas:
Content and technology:
- Introduce advanced technology: Whether it is interactive polls, live Q&A sessions, 360-degree walks in time, or AR or VR, get the most out of technology and implement it in your online sessions. Thus, your training will stay both engaging and useful.
- Continuously upgrade your content: Don’t settle for just good course content when you can always make it better. Additionally, keep your students informed about any upgrades. Furthermore, invest in improving your production quality; for example, you can brand your course.
- Create a flexible course structure: Make sure your online students have the chance to select modules that are more interesting to them. This will give them the chance to dig deeper into a thrilling subject. Include material from a more advanced course, conference session recording, or webinar. However, make these selections totally optional.
- Focus on something specific: If you have a rare skill or can provide specific and unpopular knowledge, do it. Despite the common assumption that you won’t reach a wider audience by focusing on a narrow subject, the truth is that you will. Moreover, you will reach the right audience. Additionally, the chance of having a lot of competitors is really small.
- Provide plenty of useful and free-to-use resources: Make sure that you provide your online students with the materials needed to complete the training. Furthermore, provide different additional resources that dive deeper into the topics from your sessions.
Interaction:
- Provide recommendations and useful feedback when possible: One of the game-changers for online students is the feedback they can get. The more useful and advice-like it is, the more it can be turned into action. Being an online tutor means that you know your students. Therefore, be helpful whenever a recommendation is required for a student of yours.
- Listen to your students and be available when they need you: Your students won’t need you forever. Therefore, make sure you give them what they expect at the right time. As an online tutor, you are also their motivator and advisor. Devote your time to every person that needs learning support.
- Offer free consulting: Free consulting is something that you can offer before or after the course. If a potential student is not sure whether to take the course or not, consider meeting with them face to face, via mail, or Skype. Also, be available to consult any of your former students after they finish your course.
- Be an active and attractive online tutor: Energy is contagious. Make sure you provide a learning spark to your online students. Moreover, keep your spirits high and your thinking out of the box. The more attractive your tutoring approach is, the clearer the learning outcomes will be.
Social benefits:
- Create community: The student community is a virtual place for sharing ideas, experiences, discussions, or other professional interactions. You can create a closed Facebook group or join another platform. An online community will enormously help learners to practice and remember what they have learned. Additionally, they will feel exclusive and like esteemed members of a group who share common values, which is priceless.
- Organize post-training meetings between students: Along with the creation of a community, make sure that the closed group is alive. Although it is a time-consuming activity, the results are really satisfactory. Such meetings between online students can be really useful.
- Think about course certification: Even if you are not an officially certified online tutor, you can still think of personalized certificates for completion. They will boost your students’ confidence and will deepen the connection between you and them. Make your students proud that they have passed the test, finished the course, and completed the special challenge.
- Convert the course objectives into real-life success stories: People often doubt whether they have made the best decision. Don’t wait until they ask themselves the same regarding your training. Along with clear explanations, make sure you provide examples of real-time use cases that have led to success. State how your students can benefit from the online practice and be available for the questions that may follow.
- Contribute with motivators, influencers, and people from the practice: To add another perspective on your subject, think about inviting an admired professional, popular motivator, or an expert in the field. Think about authors, industry influencers, innovators, etc. who will add a fresh breath of air to your online training. Additionally, when an authority is featured in your course, online students are more likely to promote it.
- Arrange career meetings: Part of being available for your online students is to connect the training with a future career perspective. You can organize a webinar with a panel for questions, for example, or you can select certain hours for consultations. Additionally, you can introduce your online students to university representatives or programs, and even head-hunt the best ones.
To sum it up
Whatever your goal is, don’t settle once you achieve success. Continue to develop your online tutoring techniques, as well as the content and approach. Ever-evolving pieces of training will gain an ever-evolving fan base.
