Virtual Training & Online Courses are highly on-demand nowadays. One of the most amazing things and reasons to enter this industry is the time & financial freedom opportunities you will gain.
This article is the perfect place to start if you want to have your business and be your own boss!
So, if you are ready, let’s start!
The following article covers:
Virtual instructor and regular instructor
Perks of being a virtual instructor
Virtual instructor and regular instructor
First, let’s understand the difference between virtual and regular instructors.
The difference is pretty simple. Virtual instructor hosts training sessions online; meanwhile, regular instructor hosts training offline. Simply put, they differ in terms of the environment.
In order to understand which one will work best for you, it is vital to analyze each of those in various aspects.
Perks of being a virtual instructor
Many of you have yet to learn how many benefits you will be able to gain if you decide to become a virtual instructor.
Well, it is time to find out! Let’s dive into it.
Flexibility
Flexibility is one of the major benefits you will gain as a virtual instructor. And it is not just about location flexibility; it is also about time.
You can construct schedules that work best for you as a virtual instructor. Also, you can work from anywhere you want, starting from home and ending in the Bahamas.
If you decide to publish off-the-shelf courses instead of hosting live sessions, you can create a few courses and resell them until the content is relevant. Thus, making good streams of passive income.
Cost-Efficiency
Another benefit of becoming a Virtual Instructor is cost efficiency.
All the tools and materials used for virtual training are a lot cheaper than those for offline training programs. For instance, a real whiteboard costs X amount of money. While online, you can find entirely free whiteboard software.
Plus, you won’t need a projector to showcase presentations. You can simply show them through screen share functionality.
Above all, you will avoid the major cost of renting a space that would significantly reduce your income. Nowadays, it is an unnecessary expense and limits you and your students to location and timing.
Some tools that will help you are:
- Canva - Mighty design software. You can utilize Canva for Education in your training, creating striking visual & user experiences for students.
- Whiteboard.fi is another fantastic tool that is entirely free. As the name suggests, it is a whiteboard that can be utilized in your training.
- Uteach- a platform where you can start and further expand your virtual training business.
Engagement Opportunities
Engagement in online training sessions became a lot easier.
Since the pandemic, people have come up with practical solutions to maintain and increase engagement levels throughout online classes and sessions.
First of all, you can create lots of quizzes & tests that will help asses students’ knowledge. The results will be shown in the analytics of the tool you choose, which will help you track participants’ progress.
7 tips to become a virtual instructor
Now, it is time to dive into the practical part of this article.
So, what are the top 7 tips to become a successful virtual instructor?
Be authentic with your students
First and foremost, you must be authentic.
Students can sense from miles if they are not true to themselves and their beliefs. So, in order to build long-term relationships with students, be authentic.
This will also help you improve trust and create a healthy learning environment. You can sometimes joke as icebreakers or share a personal, funny story.
Understand what makes “you” “you” and be that person embracing the good qualities.
Create engageable VLE
The creation of an engaging Virtual Learning Environment is not any less vital. If you want engaged students, pay close attention to it.
First of all, consider people’s attention spans in the 21st century. We all get easily distracted and bored. Therefore to make the best out of the learning process, instructors must implement various tools.
For instance:
- Create Quizzes to test participants knowledge on a regular basis & motivate them to keep learning
- Make sure to establish a friendly learning environment where everyone feels safe to open up and speaks up
- Ensure that participants respect one another’s opinions and engage in polite debates
- Raise discussions, debates and let participants communicate more
Here are a few tips for creating engaging VLE:
- Incorporate group activities
- Encourage a collaborative learning experience
- Host Q&A sessions
- Listen to participants
Create a friendly atmosphere that encourages discussions.
Master the platform
Another vital tip is related to mastering the platform of your choice.
You will build, host and publish many courses & training programs. So, you should be sure of how everything works to avoid unpleasant surprises.
As an instructor, you must know every aspect of your platform of choice in order quick-fix any possible issue.
Luckily in the 21st century, this is not an issue. Almost every platform for online course creators and online educators comes in handy with an intuitive interface & free tutorials on usage.
One of the best ones we can recommend are Uteach, Thinkific, Kajabi, and Mighty Networks.
Be the guiding light
Students who take VILT courses expect youtube to act as a guide. They will indeed have many questions no matter how well-taught the material is. So, be their guide and help them throughout their learning journey.
Give and get feedback
Take advantage of this tip. Giving feedback is as important as being open to receiving one.
Constructive criticism is always good. Giving feedback to your students shows them that you are interested and engaged in their learning process. Plus, you will enhance their experience even further, as feedback from the instructor is a vital part of any learning process.
By receiving feedback from your students, you will improve your virtual training further training.
Don’t be afraid of challenges
Never be afraid of challenges. As an online instructor, especially new ones in the industry, you will face many of them. But remember that every successful instructor has started somewhere and would be nowhere today without consistency and powerful motivation.
So, just put some trust in yourself and stay committed to what you do. If you genuinely love the idea of VILT and monetizing your knowledge, then you need patience.
Put some time & effort into learning basic marketing. Then engage & get to know your audience. Also, collect & display previous clients’ reviews on your website to increase trust. Finally, move forward with constant testing & experiments to improve.
Discover new resources and get creative
The E-learning industry is one of the most dynamic industries nowadays. But the fantastic part about it is that you can get creative.
So, do not be afraid to experiment and implement new creative solutions. Keep investing time in yourself to learn new techniques for training facilitations and tools for better learning experience creation.
Turn on your creativity and innovation.
How to land a job?
Even when you follow all the tips and do everything else, the day’s question is how to lend a job to monetize your expertise.
Indeed the industry is competitive. Well, if you want to make real money, and we are talking about 6-7-figures, then you should be your own boss.
The best way to get paid in the online education industry is to start an online education business. You will be able to keep 100% of the income.
Secondly, you can build a whole website for your business that will also serve as a powerful portfolio to get hired from time to time by major corporations.
So, starting your own business as a virtual instructor is a great idea, both in terms of making passive or active income and building up an audience and name for yourself.
Become an entrepreneur with Uteach
If you want to become your own boss and be in charge of your life, then it is time to choose a platform to get started with.
Uteach is one of the best platforms to go with. It offers:
- User-friendly interface. This will save lots of time on the learning curve.
- Automation that will save your time on routine tasks
- Website Builder feature that will allow you to build & fully customize a unique website for your brand.
- Course Builder comes in handy with intuitive building features & SEO-optimization boxes.
- Pre-made templates & Themes to save your time on website creation
- Lots of customization features
- Many more
If you want to take advantage of all these features and build a potent business, then Uteach is your best option. With this tool, you will be able to easily kick off the start and keep the further expansion of your online VILT business.
Enjoy all the features and take control over every aspect of your business from one single dashboard.