Outschool is an educational marketplace offering live online classes for students ages 3-18. Founded in 2015, Outschool is a home learning company for small groups of children and independent teachers. For students, Outschool provides thousands of engaging and unique classes, courses, and camps.
Outschool is unique from other teaching online platforms because it does not revolve around teaching English as a foreign language. On Outschool, you're given the freedom to create your own course within thebig umbrella categories they highlight on their website: Art, English, Life Skills, Music, Social Studies, Coding & Tech, Health & Wellness, Math, Science & Nature and World Languages. They even have a category titled, "Learner Favorites," which hosts courses under the tags "Harry Potter," "Unicorns" and "Pokémon," to name a few.
If you are more interested in Teaching English online, check out our list of 11 legitimate online teaching platforms!
It really seems that there is a space for any kind of course you can imagine, so long as the target audience is under the age of 18.
For teachers, Outschool acts as a hosting platform for your class offerings. Whether you are a certified teacher or not, it doesn’t matter. If you are an adult, above the age of 18, with a passion or particular interest, you can create a class listing on Outschool.
All Outschool classes are online. We use Zoom video chat for most classes so getting started is easy!
Teacher Requirements for Working on Outschool
- Be at least 18 years of age
- Passion and expertise in their chosen topics
- Engaging teaching style
- Strong computer skills
- Broadband internet connection
- Resident in, or a citizen of: the United States of America, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand
- *U.K. is coming soon!
**EDIT, SEPT 2020: Outschool requires new teachers to be located in USA, Canada, Australia or New Zealand to be able to complete the background check.**
I was referred to Outschool by a teacher friend of mine at the start of the Coronavirus lockdown. When schools started shutting down, Outschool became more popular. As a result, they brought 5,000 new teachers to the platform. That’s when I got started!
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Getting Started as a Teacher on Outschool
The application process:
The application process is pretty straight forward. Though, because you will be working with kids, you will have to get a background check. This comes at no cost to you.
Here’s how the process works:
- Use this link to apply
- Submit an online profile highlighting your experience and training.
- Create a short video that showcases your personality.
- Submit the profile, video, and your background check through the online portal.
- Outschool usually takes 3-5 days to approve your profile and background check.
- Once you’re approved, you can start creating class listings!
*I'm happy to mentor anyone who uses my link to apply and will walk you through the process, provide support while getting your first classes up and help with any concerns you might have. Find all of my contact information on the Girls page.
Once you're hired:
There is very little training involved in getting started with Outschool. Once you’re accepted onto the platform, you are considered an independent contractor, so you get a lot of freedom to choose how you want to run your classes.
There is a code of conduct and a fairly helpful FAQ page, but other than that you won’t see much support from the platform. There are several Facebook groups for Outschool teachers that have been the most helpful for me getting started. I recommend starting with this one.
Life as an Outschool Teacher
As a teacher, I get to set my price, hours, and number of students allowed in the class. Outschool will keep 30% of the profit, so it is important to remember that when pricing your class.
Outschool has requirements that must be met in order to get the class listing approved. If you submit it without meeting one of the requirements, they will deny the listing and tell you the reason why in an email.
You can re-submit your proposal as many times as necessary. I have 15+ classes listed on Outschool within my first month and I have only had to re-submit a proposal once. Just follow the guidelines on the proposal form and provide as much detail as you can. Your class will be approved in a day or two.
Once the classes are listed, you can start getting booked! There is no guarantee that your classes will get booked, so you want to make sure the class is enticing to parents and students in your niche.
In my experience, parent requests have been the most helpful resource for developing in-demand classes. If parents do not see a listing of what they are looking for on the Outschool website, they can submit ideas! Every week, those ideas are sent directly to the teachers, so it’s pretty easy to see exactly what the parents (and learners) are looking for.
For example, I created my first listing based off a parent request. I had two sections of it fill up within two weeks! I made $120 by teaching two fifty-minute Frozen-themed Kids Yoga classes. That rate is unheard of in face-to-face studio classes.
Not sure teaching online is for you? Check out all these unique remote jobs you can start today!
In Hindsight:
Honestly, I just wish I would’ve known about Outschool sooner. I teach English as a second language online too, but there is an upper limit to how much I can make per hour. With Outschool, I can make exponentially more money on Outschool than I can with other home learning companies.
With that, it is important to remember that higher pay comes with more work. I knew when taking a position with Outschool, that there would be more work than other online English teaching jobs. But, when you’re passionate about what you’re creating, it doesn’t feel like work!
Ready to apply?
Please use my referral link when signing up!
Teachers get a referral bonus when new teachers earn their first $100 on Outschool. I am happy to mentor you through your application process, offer support through getting your first classes listed, and help with any other concerns you have about starting with Outschool.
Also, be sure to check out these resources from the Outschool website.
A Guide to Becoming a Teacher on Outschool
Best of luck!
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