Imagine this…

It’s 6 o’clock in the morning, your alarm goes off and you experience an immediate feeling of dread. You slowly drag yourself out of bed to get ready for a job where you’re overworked, underpaid, and not appreciated. You feel overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and burnt out from the monotonous routine of life. Day after day, these feelings continue to build. You begin to lose your interest, drive, and passion. You question why you pursued a career in your field in the first place.

If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone! I was living this life, experiencing those feelings, and truly having an existential crisis. That was until I discovered the world of online education through Outschool.

Now I’ve always been somewhat of a contrarian so the thought of teaching online sparked my interest right away. I researched for hours and hours about who is actually doing this and how it’s even possible. Inspired by the determination and success of other teachers who turned their online teaching gigs into full-blown careers, I decided to quit my job. I took a gigantic leap to pursue my own online endeavors as an independent educator and haven’t looked back since! Since discovering Outschool and becoming a teacher on the platform, I’m living a life I could have only dreamed of. I get to wake up every day and be my own boss, and you can too!

What is Outschool?

Outschool is an education platform that offers online classes for kids ages 3-18. Unlike traditional classes, Outschool classes let kids explore their interests with live Zoom classes taught by experienced, independent educators. It’s as simple as that! Outschool is a platform where children across the world sign up and take classes spanning a variety of different topics. These topics include math, engineering, photography, reading, fitness, and even video game clubs!

Outschool is similar to after-school clubs or tutoring centers but from the comfort of your own home! Outschool is all digital, meaning you have unlimited access to thousands of classes, even on the go. With over 900,000 students and growing, the demand for teachers is through the roof.

From the moment I applied to Outschool, I knew I was going to fall back in love with teaching. I’m so thankful that I found Outschool to help me transition from a brick-and-mortar job to an online educator! So let me tell you why you should become your own boss with Outschool. I like to break down being your own boss with Outschool into three main categories. The Three Fs: Freedom, Fun, and Flexibility!

FREEDOM: You Teach What You Want!

I quite literally mean you can teach almost anything that you want. As long as it’s within some very minuscule and reasonable guidelines set forth by Outschool. Outschool doesn’t require any sort of teaching credentials or certifications to become an educator on the platform, which I love! This opens so many possibilities for the types of classes and courses that can be taught. What Outschool really looks for is experts within a specific niche or field. All those years spent collecting buttons, playing the flute, or journaling are finally going to pay off!

Now, I mentioned earlier that there are class content policies that do need to be followed when creating a course. Out school has a detailed class content policy. When planning and writing your classes, take the time to review that guide to know what can and can’t be taught in your classes. The Outschool team will also take the time to review and approve your class before it goes public for student enrollment. To briefly summarize what Outschool is looking for, all classes should be:

• Secular
• Objective
• Accurate
• Inclusive
• Age appropriate
• Based on your expertise
• NOT provide any medical training or therapeutic services

For example, growing up I was a competitive cheerleader and dancer. I started at the age of 10 and continued with the sport through my early 20s. I even had the opportunity to coach for a couple of years at a local gym. Unfortunately, I had to say goodbye to coaching when I moved to a new city for college. Or so I thought. After discovering Outschool, I knew right away that I wanted to teach classes on topics regarding fitness. With years of experience as an athlete myself, the few years of coaching I had under my belt, and a detailed course outline, I was approved for my first course!

I now have two-course topics listed. Athletic Conditioning and Stretch & Flexibility that I further broke down by student age, type of class, and experience level. With just those two topics alone, I was able to build six classes and list them on my Outschool profile. It makes me incredibly happy that I get to wake up every day and teach something I’m passionate about. I also love not being restricted to teaching only academic-based subjects.

FUN: You’re making a difference!

If you’re currently an educator you already know that your work is beyond rewarding. Teaching within itself is a huge challenge. At the end of the day, the feeling of accomplishment after having a great day with your students never gets old! Everyone has their specific drive for teaching. I think that we can all concur that we as educators want to help students grow, learn, and thrive.

Outschool is such a unique platform because they are global! That means that students from all around the world look to Outschool for courses. As an online educator, you’re not siloed into teaching within your own community, you’re not restricted by the number of students you can reach, and you don’t have to make the commitment to relocate just to teach more students. You can teach students from all over the world and make a deeper global impact in different communities.

As an online teacher, you’re not just making an impact on your students. You’re also making a difference within the EdTech industry. EdTech stands for Educational Technology. According to BuiltIn.com, Edtech is the practice of introducing IT tools into the classroom to create a more engaging, inclusive, and individualized learning experience. This is exactly what e-learning and Outschool do.

Incorporating supplemental resources in the class like YouTube videos, audio clips, and non-synchronous class discussions, creates a rich and immersive experience for learners. Outschool really grew during 2020 when the initial pandemic lockdowns were occurring. Many questioned if its growth was sustainable or not. Well, surprise! It’s 2022, and the platform is still as popular as ever.

Online school and enrichment experiences are not only here to stay but are going to grow in popularity. Even in a world slowly recovering from a pandemic. I’m a strong believer in quality e-learning platforms and supporting a hybrid approach to education for future generations to come. It’s great to get that experience on a platform like Outschool. Outschool supports and believes in educational equity and developing a passion for lifelong learning in students. That’s why Outschool has established Outschool.org, to provide Outschool classes to families and communities facing financial hardships!

FLEXIBILITY: You set your own prices and hours!

Yup. That’s right, you set your own prices and hours. This is an absolute dream for someone who is not a morning person (me). It’s also great for those who need to work “odd hours” like a stay-at-home parent or a college student. I knew that making the decision to pursue a master’s degree in speech-language pathology was going to be challenging. It’s very unlikely that I will be able to work a full-time job that has set, strict hours while I’m in school. Especially once my clinical practicum placements start. Outschool is the perfect alternative! I can schedule my classes whenever I am available, even if that means just for a few hours during the week for some extra coffee cash.

By the way, if you are interested in helping me make my way through graduate school by fueling my caffeine addiction, you can donate to my Ko-Fi coffee fund HERE.

Now there are some things to keep in mind when setting your own prices. Know your worth! A lot of things can be taken into consideration when setting your own prices:

• Your knowledge of the topic
• Previous educational background
• Demand for the types of courses you’re interested in teaching
• Demand for you specifically as a teacher
• How long your classes are
• The type of class you choose to teach
• What the students are going to take away from your class

This can sound totally overwhelming at first, but honestly setting my own prices is one of the best things about Outschool! What really helped me when I was setting my prices for my classes was to go onto the platform directly and check out what other teachers were listing for similar classes to mine. I took into consideration how long their classes were, how many students they allowed in each class section and the demand for their classes.

What is important to understand is that Outschool is a marketplace, meaning you as an independent contractor are selling your services to parents and students at your own rate. No one is telling you a specific price to list your classes at. Outschool does recommend a price of $10-$15 per hour spent in class, but this does not take into consideration all the factors I mentioned above.

After my own research, evaluating my worth and experience, and what students were taking away from my course, I landed on a price of $10 per student for my one-time, 35-minute Stretch & Flexibility course. On the flip side, I recently just listed my course “How To Become a Successful College Student” at $125 per student. This 6-week, flexible course type is a lecture-based class but includes homework, class discussions, personalized student success coaching, and more. I really took into consideration my experience in the world of higher education and my experiences as a college student. Compared to my one-time stretch class, the amount of work before, during, and after the course is a substantial amount, and my price reflects that.

Another thing you need to consider when setting your own prices is that Outschool does take 30% of your listed price. Here is an example: A class is listed for $10, one student is enrolled, 30% is deducted off the listed price, so the take-home pay would be $7. What Outschool uses that 30% for is marketing your classes and unlimited access to almost a million students on the platform. Unless you already have a large following of parents or students in your everyday life, it’s going to be pretty tough to gain immediate access to that number of students as a freelancer.

Not only do you have access to those students seeking classes, but Outschool also does the marketing for you! Outschool sends out newsletters, utilizes Instagram and Instagram stories, creates targeted Facebook ads, and promotes the best and most popular courses at the top of the search results on their website. Doing these types of marketing and student recruitment plans would take months of building clientele and lots of money spent out of your own pocket, with no guaranteed enrollments.

It’s also really important to keep in mind that, you are not an employer, you’re an independent contractor, so if you’re in the United States, Outschool suggests saving at least 20-30% of your takeaway pay for taxes. I am not an accountant and numbers scare me, to be honest, so if you are in the United States, I would highly recommend checking out this article here that talks a little bit more in detail about taxes or just consult with an accountant.

I feel like I could go on and on for hours about how awesome Outschool is! Outschool has literally changed my quality of life. It’s opened up a world of opportunities and shifted my perspective on employment in general. I love working as an independent contractor and being my own boss every day! If you liked this article or found it helpful in any way, you can check out my other blogs related to online teaching here.

Interested in doing what I do?