How to become a Cambly tutor, requirements, how to register, the application process, how to get Cambly approval fast, how long does Cambly take to approve? How much does Cambly pay? Payment method
There are a number of English teaching and learning platforms available online but only a few are as flexible and easy to join as Cambly. Cambly offers you an avenue to make a side income without a need for certain certifications or experience.
What is Cambly?
Cambly is an online English teaching and learning platform co-founded by two ex-google employees – Kevin Law and Sameer Shariff, in 2012. The company allows tutors to teach the English language to students through video chats. Cambly provides on-demand English tutoring by native English speakers. This they do through their own in-app video platform. Students get to log in and learn English anywhere, anytime, and any day. Cambly acts as a platform that grants students access to native English speakers all over the world, in order to get involved in a real conversation in English, obtain structured English lessons, and other things like exam preparation (IELTS, TOEFL), job interview preparation, business English, etc.
Job Description
Your job as a Cambly tutor is to teach the English language online through a video. It does not involve correcting homework for students unless you just choose to do so of your own free will. Unlike some other English learning platforms, Cambly does not focus on teaching only Chinese or Asian students, students around the globe sign up to learn English through Cambly. You will be involved in short conversations or chats with students, and what you do depends on what the student needs help on. Since you will be teaching through a video, you are required to have a webcam, a fast internet connection, and a computer.
As a tutor, when you log into your account, you will get a ring on your dashboard whenever you have a student waiting to talk to you. You have the choice of accepting to take the session or rejecting it. Cambly students chat with you through their mobile phones (Android or iPhone), the company has a mobile app for the two platforms. Teaching sessions can vary in length depending on the package purchased by the student, some can stay online for a couple of minutes while some would spend an hour.
With regards to class schedule, you can work 24 hours a day since there is always student all over the world that is online and willing to learn. However, you will find the teaching hours to be most concentrated in the afternoon and evening time. This is because, by that time, students might have been back from school or work. Hence, there is no class schedule on Cambly, you can teach any time, any day, and anywhere as long as you have a student. Cambly does not require a minimum number of hours from tutors, you can work however long you deem okay by you. As a tutor, you also don’t have to plan or prepare for lessons.
In addition to Cambly which is where you will be dealing with adult students, there is a program called Cambly kids, which is where you will be dealing with kids or minors. Cambly kids pay $12 per hour.
Cambly Requirements
To teach with Cambly, there are certain teacher qualifications and technical requirements that you must meet.
Teacher qualification: to be accepted to teach English on Cambly, you must be a native English speaker. You are not required to have a teaching certificate, bachelor’s degree or teaching experience to get accepted for the job, you just need to know how to speak English very well. However, having a certificate or teaching experience will help you more but it is not a requirement, it is purely optional.
Technical requirements: since you will be teaching English through video, Cambly requires you to have a computer or laptop with a webcam and good audio capabilities, you cannot use a mobile phone to tutor. Most laptops come with webcams but if you will be using a desktop computer, you will have to get an external webcam. You are also required to have a microphone and headphone, preferably a headphone with noise cancellation capability.
Your lighting must be good and the environment conducive enough for learning. Your internet connection must also be fast enough in order to create a good user experience and prevent lesson disruption or slow transmission. Cambly will check all these technical requirements before you can be approved for the job. The low number of requirements is one reason why a lot of tutors prefer Cambly to other platforms.
How to Register
Cambly is quite easy to register with. The company has made the application process as straightforward as it could be. To join, all you need do is go over to their “become a tutor” page and then create an account by filling out a form. You have options when it comes to account creation. You are allowed to create an account using your Facebook account, google account, or apple account. You can also sign up by using your email address and creating a password.
Application Process
After creating an account by filling out a signup form, you will be asked to select a display name for your Cambly account. Your display name can be either your first and last name, or a combination of your first name and the initial of your last name. You will also be asked to provide other basic information like date of birth, phone number, email address and then asked to select a password.
After supplying all requested information and subsequent form submission, Cambly will begin the screening process with a connection test. Here, they will test the video streaming capacity of your computer by accessing your webcam and microphone and then initiating a speed test to ascertain the speed of your video and audio as well as packet loss.
Packet loss refers to the inability of some data transmitted from your computer to reach its destination. It can severely affect your streaming quality as well as the quality of the lesson dished out to your student. Cambly requires your streaming quality to be good before they accept you to teach on the platform.
After the connection test, you will be taken to a page where you can record a 2-minute intro video of yourself for Cambly to review. The company wants you to show your personality, interests, and also talk about any teaching experience you may have had (if any), in the video. You have the option of recording the video over again in case you are not okay with the one you’ve recorded already. Submit the recorded video and then await their approval.
How Long Does Cambly Take To Approve?
There is no definite timeframe set for the approval of applications sent to Cambly. However, there have been reports of people getting a reply from Cambly following the application, within 48 hours to up to about 6 months after application.
How Much Does Cambly Pay?
Cambly pays $0.17 USD per minute and $10.20 USD per hour. As you chat with students, Cambly automatically tracks your time. You should know that you will only be paid for the actual time spent in video chats with students. However, Cambly still compensates tutors for no-shows. If you got booked by a student and then, the student fails to show up, you will be paid for a portion of the time which could range from 10 to 15 minutes.
For Cambly kids, you get paid $12 per hour or $0.20 per minute with no deductions. If kids are a no-show, you will get a 10-minute compensation which will amount to $2.00.
Payment Method
Payment is made through PayPal and is delivered every Monday, you will need to accumulate up to $20 before you can withdraw.