Moving Your Teaching Business Online
Covid 19 has shown us that we need to think outside of the box to survive. Our businesses all currently face more tough times and it's time we learnt to adapt.
Many of us have built our business on the traditional face-to-face teaching approach but current circumstances mean that we are unable to guarentee to our students, and to ourselves, that this is the way we will operate for the time being.
Moving to online lessons has never been easier and it's now possible to deliver high quality lessons without being in the same room. Speak to your current students and see how they feel about this. Some may not like the idea, but some may love it. It allows them to continue their learning in a safe way.
All you need to get set up for online teaching are a few things:
- A Video Calling Platform - Both Skype and Zoom are perfect for this. They're both free and allow addtional features like screensharing and call recording capaibilities. You could also check out Facetime or Facebook video calls, however Skype and Zoom are definitely more of a professional way to conduct these calls.
- A Good Webcam - Most phones, tablets and laptops already come with HD webcams. If you are buying a webcam be sure to pick one up with a minimum resolution of 1080p. This will give y our students the clearest picture of you teaching.
- An Audio Interface - An audio interface is a USB device that connects to your computer and converts the analoge signal of your gutiar and microphone into a digital signal which is then transmitted over your video calling software. This is essential to ensure you get great sound quality. Most webcams have built in microphones but they aren't as good quality.
- A Stable Internet Connection - This is also essential to ensure that you have a strong connection to your student. You should aim for a minimum of 20mb if possible. It's best to be on a cabled connection, but WiFi is fine as long as the signal is strong enough. If you struggle with WiFi signal, consider getting a WiFi booster.
It's time for us music teachers to take our busiensses and keep pushing. We can beat this. If you're a singing teacher or guitar teacher or even a drum teacher, you can keep delivering high quality lessons to your students online.