Upskill

How to Teach English Online

Everything you need to start and grow an online ESL teaching career. Platform setup, lesson planning, student retention, and building a full schedule from scratch.

23 lessons4h 48m3 free previews

What you'll learn

Online Teaching vs. Classroom Teaching: What's Different
Choosing Your Platform: Freelance vs. Company
Setting Up Your Teaching Space (Camera, Mic, Lighting)
Your First Lesson: A Step-by-Step Walkthrough
Planning a 25-Minute Lesson That Flows
Planning a 50-Minute Lesson With Variety
Using Props, Slides & Screen Sharing Effectively
Emergency Lesson Plans: When You Have 5 Minutes to Prepare

How each lesson works

Every lesson mixes short teaching cards with 8-plus kinds of interactive exercises. No passive reading. You practice as you go.

Teaching cards

Short, no-fluff explanations

Multiple choice

Pick the natural option

Fill in the blank

Type the right word

Word reorder

Build sentences from tiles

Match pairs

Connect phrase to meaning

Dialogues

Read + pick the best reply

True / false

Test what you know

Error correction

Fix the sentence

Listening

Play, then answer

Curriculum

23 lessons · 4h 48m total

Online Teaching vs. Classroom Teaching: What's Different

10 min

Choosing Your Platform: Freelance vs. Company

14 min

Setting Up Your Teaching Space (Camera, Mic, Lighting)

12 min

Your First Lesson: A Step-by-Step Walkthrough

16 min

Planning a 25-Minute Lesson That Flows

14 min

Planning a 50-Minute Lesson With Variety

15 min

Using Props, Slides & Screen Sharing Effectively

12 min

Emergency Lesson Plans: When You Have 5 Minutes to Prepare

10 min

Adapting Materials for Different Levels on the Fly

13 min

Error Correction That Helps (Not Discourages)

14 min

Eliciting Answers Instead of Giving Them

11 min

Maximizing Student Talking Time

12 min

Teaching Grammar Without Being Boring

15 min

Teaching Pronunciation Remotely

13 min

Building Rapport Through a Screen

11 min

Managing No-Shows and Late Cancellations

9 min

Keeping Students Motivated Long-Term

13 min

Handling Difficult or Unmotivated Students

12 min

Setting Your Rates (And When to Raise Them)

11 min

Getting Reviews and Referrals

10 min

Building a Full Schedule: From 5 to 30 Hours a Week

14 min

Creating a Professional Teacher Profile

12 min

Taxes and Invoicing for Freelance Teachers

15 min
$69one-time

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Lifetime access
23 interactive lessons
3 free previews to try first
Field guide with templates and scripts
Progress tracking
Downloadable for offline use
Field guide

Notes from a teacher who has done this for a decade

Camera, mic, lighting, platform choice, and the first booking. What experienced online teachers wish they had known before their first 100 lessons.

Online teaching looks easy from the outside. New teachers think it is sitting in a room with a webcam. The difference between a teacher who fills their schedule in three months and one who quits at month four is almost never their teaching skill. It is the boring stuff: lighting, sound, follow-through, response time, and a clean profile. Get those right and the teaching takes care of itself.

Spend money on the right two things

A decent microphone and good light beat any other equipment investment. Students will tolerate a mediocre webcam. They will not tolerate echoey audio or a dark background. A $50 USB condenser microphone and a $30 ring light put you ahead of 80 percent of new online teachers. Skip the green screen, the fancy keyboard, the second monitor. They are vanity, not yield.

Platform choice

If you are starting today: platform-employed first (italki, Cambly, Preply) until you have a track record. Direct freelance is more profitable but only after you have reviews and a referral base. Year one is for reputation. Year two is when you start charging your own rate. Plan for that arc.

Locked

4 more sections, plus 3 ready-to-use artifacts

The field guide is included with the course. Unlock the rest, plus all lessons and the offline download.

$69one-time
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Instant access to all 23 lessons. Try 3 free previews first.