The proces of writing my online course📚💻

To create a business that prioritizes personal fulfillment, meaningful work, and a positive impact on the lives of our customers, our team members, and our audience. -Ali Abdaal

Online teaching

I have been teaching online, on and off, for years. During the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, I had to do internships. Since the schools were closed, the classes were all conducted online. This was my first taste of online teaching. I liked it a lot.

GoStudent

During my exchange in Norway, I taught a few online classes with the platform GoStudent. I didn't prioritize it looking back at it, I was too busy working for school, exploring Norway, having fun with the people I met there, and enjoying this limited time.

It took a while to get back to it because I worked in Belgium and volunteered at a school in Cambodia, both in a teaching position. When my partner Kiki and I decided to move to Vietnam, the idea of online teaching resurfaced.

In Vietnam, schools typically prefer to hire native English speakers as teachers, with or without a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certificate. The TEFL certificate is obtained by completing a course, which can be taken online or in a traditional classroom setting and typically takes around 120 hours to complete. The focus of this course is not solely on English language proficiency but on teaching methods, classroom management, and other related skills.

Even though I have a Bachelor's degree in Education specializing in secondary education, it is unfortunate that schools in Vietnam prioritize native English speakers with a TEFL certificate. I had hoped that my education degree would be considered equivalent or even superior to a certificate, but it seems that is not the case.

In my search for an alternative source of income in Vietnam, given that I am not a native English speaker and did not possess a TEFL certificate at the time, I remembered the online teaching platform that I had previously subscribed to as a teacher. However, I soon realized that the platform had changed since I last used it a year ago.

There were numerous technical difficulties, obtaining students became more challenging, and the payment for tutors decreased. Instead of providing relief from stress, it added to my existing worries. Nevertheless, I persisted with online teaching while eagerly awaiting another opportunity to come my way.

GoStudent is an ed-tech company that offers a platform for online education. The company's platform connects students with qualified teachers in a virtual learning environment.

GoStudent provides one-to-one, video-based tuition for primary, secondary, and college-aged students in various subjects. They offer paid tutoring sessions using a membership model.

Despite being primarily focused on Western Europe, and particularly targeting students from Flanders or the Netherlands, GoStudent's online platform allows for global connectivity between students and teachers.

Unfortunately, the platform did not consider my preferences. Instead of matching me with suitable students, I was assigned students who requested tutoring in subjects I had no prior knowledge of. This placed a significant burden on me, as I had to invest additional time and effort to learn these subjects before being able to teach them effectively.

My experience with GoStudent was filled with challenges and frustrations that made it difficult to find satisfaction in teaching through this platform. After a while I started the search for other platforms, with better working conditions, more autonomy, and if possible a better wage.

Preply

Whilst applying for jobs in Vietnam, searching for a way to get my ESL certificate and teaching online, I was also searching for other online platforms.

The week we decided to leave Vietnam and go to Cambodia to get our TEFL certificate in a familiar environment, I stumbled upon Preply. I applied and immediately got some students. The site worked better, everything went smoother, and I could set my own rates. It is a better experience altogether. It didn't take long to fully make the jump from GoStudent to Preply.

Preply is an online language learning marketplace that connects tutors to learners in 180 countries worldwide. The platform offers over 50 languages taught by more than 35,000 tutors. Preply's mission is to unlock human potential through language learning and its vision is to make personalized education accessible to anyone.

The platform allows learners to find, book, and connect with professional private tutors online, helping them achieve their language learning goals.

Preply let me set my own hours, and those hours are respected by the students. On the platform, students can see my timetable and make appointments during my available slots. I also have the flexibility to set my own rate, with Preply taking a commission from each lesson.

As a new teacher, it can be a bit challenging at first because students may be hesitant to choose you without any reviews or an established reputation. However, I found that patience pays off as students gradually start choosing you as they discover your qualifications and teaching style.

Preply helped me rediscover my passion for teaching online. I genuinely enjoy getting to know my students and preparing for the classes. I look forward to working and teaching with enthusiasm. Instead of teaching English, I am teaching Dutch as a second Language.

There’s a great book called  UlraLearning by Scott Young, where he talks about his journey of learning different languages in three months. His takeaway from this experience was that language learning is about immersion. If you can immerse yourself in a language as much as possible, it won’t be long before you’re fluent. The general principle here is that we learn best when we're in an environment where we actually going to use this skill. If you want to learn a language, you should go to a place where they speak this language. This is of course not always possible. The next best thing is to speak with native speakers, or people who are fluent in this language. This is where Preply comes in handy. If you follow this link, you'll get 30% off your first lesson.

In the meantime, I also got a part-time job as an English teacher at SGIS. An International school in Siem Reap.

The idea

While teaching Dutch as a second language online, particularly to beginners without prior knowledge, I quickly noticed a common path followed by every student, as well as the similar questions that arise. This led me to search for relevant information, create worksheets, and gather resources that could be used for multiple students, streamlining the teaching process using a 'plug-in format'.

Soon, I noticed a significant demand for learning Dutch, particularly Flemish Dutch. This presented a potential market opportunity, especially considering that there are many people from the Netherlands teaching Dutch online. Interestingly, I found that the Flemish variation of the language is a niche within Dutch language courses.

This sprouted the idea to disconnect my time from the outcome of my students, by making an online course. The course would be available for my students who want to learn on their terms, in their own time. This provides more flexibility for my students and more time for me.