Online learning platforms and some general-purpose freelance websites have become even more important in recent years. The need to acquire new knowledge and skills forced individuals who could not access in-person learning to a virtual environment. It enables people from all over the world to interact in pursue to gain new knowledge.
Interactive learning platforms vs. online courses
Basically, there are two ways how to learn online. You can watch some of the many high-quality courses for free or for some small fee, or you can engage in the interactive learning process by hiring an online teacher or coach.
Online courses have the advantage that you can be completely free on when and for how long each time you will engage in the process. On the other hand, they are one-sided, and the student is just a passive listener.
Interactive learning platforms
Interactive learning is more demanding, both for the teacher and the student. It requires regular and dedicated time and dedication from both. A student can ask questions and steer the learning process to suit his needs the best in this interaction. The teacher can get to know the student’s ability to acquire new knowledge and skills and adapt the teaching process for the best results.
As in every learning process, motivation and persistence is the key to success. You must be dedicated and consistent. Continuity is a vital part of this process.
Teaching skills
Of course, the teaching skills and understanding students’ needs are the second crucial part. On the global market, you will encounter teachers with all kinds of teaching skills and styles. It is up to students to decide which is the best for them to mitigate the danger of losing time with incompetent teachers. On the other side, to prevent the teacher from being paid for the work done is usually to use some of many teaching platforms.
Are learning platforms safe?
Learning platforms like Preply or Classgap, maximally protect both sides. The other good side of those platforms is that they are marketplaces where supply and demand meet. All of them also provide many tools and guidance to help the effort. The downside is that they often take a considerable part of teacher earnings, making the service more expensive.
Also, most of them will not pay the teacher at all for the first class with each new student, even though they will charge the student for it. It is not a problem if you have a long-term relationship with this student. It is suitable for learning the language. For some other topics tailored to convey a particular skill like teaching WordPress or SEO, the number of classes is in most cases limited to 5 to 10 and in this case, this first lesson is a significant part of your work.
On freelance platforms like Fiverr, this is not the case. You earn money for every hour you make. But, you don’t have as many tools as you would have on dedicated teaching platforms. It is more or less the same for the students, but teachers must carefully review those pros and cons and choose the platform they would be most comfortable with.
In the following posts, I will go deeper into each issue and discuss why and how to overcome potential problems and downsides of each chosen method.
If you want to know more
For more details about using learning platforms, you can contact me here or request a custom offer on Upwork and Fiverr. It is also possible to have a direct relationship using Payoneer or PayPal. If you have some other preferred options for collaboration, please use this contact form for suggestions.
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