Overcoming The Top 9 Challenges of Online Teacher Management

According to Statista, online education users is expected to reach 1.1 billion, with a projected market volume of USD $279.30 billion, by 2029. 

To claim their market share, businesses need to stand out from the competition: 

• Establish your unique selling proposition - what sets you apart from every other online learning platform?
• Offer innovative and high-quality, engaging content that exceed learner expectations. 
• Create a favorable work environment for teachers (especially virtually).
• Plan an effective marketing strategy that targets both teacher recruitment and student acquisition.

Our TMaaS (Teacher Management and Development as a Service) offers a unique and supportive environment for teachers, apart from managing scheduling and performance, which frees up online education executives to focus on real business growth.

Running an online education business demands significant capital investment, recruitment and management costs. 

While a stable technical infrastructure powering a smooth online learning platform is a no-brainer, the real cogs in the online teaching machine (which need the most dedicated resources, expertise and investment) are teachers. 

Quality teacher recruitment, onboarding, training, management, scheduling and retention on a daily basis is no small task. The costs of hiring the management teams to effectively run these different disciplines is significant.  

Not to mention investing in other areas such as content development, customer service, marketing, and student and teacher acquisition that all require considerable funds.

Many successful online education businesses have come to realise that utilising the services of TMaaS is a much more efficient way to develop and grow their businesses. They can focus on their student acquisition, servicing and content, whilst allowing an expert teacher management company to take care of everything else.

Paying teachers across the world can be a logistical nightmare.

The complexity of foreign currencies, global banks, and tax laws can make it tricky for businesses to pay their teachers accurately, and on time, and this can have a severe impact on retention. According to Statista, 24% of employees quit their jobs due to payroll issues - attrition that is entirely preventable. 

It's crucial to have dedicated processes, platforms, and partners in place to consistently pay teachers when due. TMaaS allows clients the ease of convenience of simply paying us one, set pay-per-lesson taught invoice every month, and we take care of teacher payroll.

Great teachers are the backbone of any online education business, but finding, attracting, recruiting and retaining quality educators that deliver exceptional lessons every day is not easy. 

It's important to provide teachers with a growth-mindset environment that encourages professional development and promotes career path enhancement. Creating ongoing learning opportunities such as workshops, training sessions, and conferences help improve teaching skills and enhance lesson quality.

Going one step further, businesses that truly care about their teachers' wellbeing, make an effort to provide personal development support as well. Offering initiatives such as social groups to make them feel more connected and engaged, life coaching opportunities that speak into their overall wellbeing and personal growth, and health and fitness guidance and challenges to keep them physically well. 

Another important aspect to consider is the philanthropic compassion that sits at the heart of all teachers. Do you provide a platform where teachers can volunteer into causes that make the world a better place?

Lastly, businesses must also invest in the right people, tools, platforms, and resources to help their teachers succeed. According to a report by Gallup, 70% of employee engagement depends on the manager they have. Businesses must focus on teacher management to retain their best teachers.

Scaling your teacher teams up or down is an essential part of any growing business, but it can be particularly challenging for online education businesses. This is due to the complexity of the industry, seasonality, labor legislation, and the costs associated with it.

TMaaS is designed to recruit new teachers at scale, quickly, with the agility of downscaling by placing teachers on other accounts. This increases teacher satisfaction and reduces reputational damage to companies. 

Another consideration is a platform that can handle an influx of increased traffic and teaching activity without interruption. 

In many instances online students hail from various different regions around the world, and businesses must be strategic in recruiting qualified teachers from different regions, too.

This requires businesses to understand the cultural and linguistic differences, the various pay rates, recruiting channels and related requirements that must be met for each region. It can be particularly challenging due to the constantly changing student criteria, and businesses must have the expertise to navigate these nuances.

Online teacher management requires a specific skillset that businesses may not have in-house, particularly if they haven recently converted from an in-person learning centre. 

The HR and performance management of remote teams and teachers (and understanding the laws and nuances around contracting and managing people) is very specialized. As such, businesses may require an external service provider that can assist and provide the necessary expertise. 

Many businesses focus heavily on resourcing their sales, customer support, and tech teams, but don’t put the same energy into their teacher management. Hiring specialized online teacher managers can help improve service delivery, and frees you up to focus on core functions of your business while having complete confidence that all aspects of your teacher management is being cared for by professionals.

Ensuring consistent quality across all classes is vital for an online education business.

Maintaining quality requires not only hiring the best teachers and using robust systems and processes, but also creating a framework that helps teachers teach at their best. Monitor some of their classes and performance, and suggest relevant training and upskilling interventions.

This can be a challenge when managing large teaching teams as they may have different teaching styles and methods, but implementing standard quality control measures and performance evaluation criteria, while time-consuming and complex, is necessary to maintain the quality of courses offered.

The technology used in online education is constantly evolving, and businesses need to keep up with the latest advancements to remain competitive. 

This can be a challenge as it requires ongoing investments in technology, research and development, and training. Additionally, not all teachers may be comfortable with using new technology, so online education businesses need to provide training and support to ensure that teachers can use the latest tools effectively.

These are some of the most significant challenges that online education businesses face today. However, partnering with a Teacher Management as a Service provider can help alleviate these challenges and ensure that businesses have the right teachers to provide quality education to students.

• Global Recruitment & Scalability - Our recruitment team has the capacity to recruit teachers from anywhere in the world, at any volume. We work closely with clients to understand their unique needs and those of their students. Together, we develop a best practice framework and teacher profile for class and curriculum goals.
• Teacher Scheduling & Class Management - Our teaching and management teams are located across the globe, which enables us to schedule and manage classes 24/7 across all time zones.
• Teacher Performance Management - This is ongoing, applicable to all teachers, begins the moment a new teacher joins us, and is aligned to each client’s unique performance metrics. Any issues are dealt with immediately by skilled managers.
• Training & Mentorship - We have a professional development platform, the  Inspire Academy, which consistently develops new courses for all teachers every week. Inspire exists to upskill, improve performance, and inspire all team members. New teachers are also assigned a team leader to be their direct line of support, who connects with them daily to ensure their success.
• Personal Development – Happy, connected teachers = happy, connected students. We encourage all our teams to get involved in our Evolve program, where we focus on aspects of the human experience outside of career specific performance and duties.
• Impact – We recognize that doing good is also a fundamental part of the human experience and all team members are encouraged to volunteer their time and be involved in relevant socio-economic and environmental causes. Impact is the vehicle that we use to deliver on these commitments outside of our classrooms.
• IT, Tech Support & Business Intelligence - Our tech systems, business intelligence, and operating processes empower us to deliver efficient services in any global location. A dedicated support team ensures class connectivity and uptime is at its maximum performance, 24/7.

The online education industry has experienced a significant surge in growth, but it comes with its own set of challenges.

However, with the right partner, businesses can easily overcome them and continue to provide quality education to students. By partnering with an online teacher management service provider, businesses can focus on their core competencies and leave the teacher management function to experts in the field.

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