[jakda]

It is very popular now and it's how I make my living. It's very different teaching online than face to face and there are some advantages. If you both use headphones then the sound quality is fantastic and the student can understand you a lot better. You can also pick up on pronunciation mistakes a lot easier.

The chat feature in Skype means that your students can write throughout the lesson and you can give them instant feedback. For a number of reasons students end up talking a lot more in Skype lessons than face to face. This is good practice for them and really helps their spoken English.

The main problem (which I'm starting to overcome) is trying to piece together an entire course. Using a virtual whiteboard helps and thanks to Sue I have found virtual English courses for my students.

The biggest thing I think is that all my students really like learning this way. I have a lot of online students who are all improving. My newest student wanted to learn online because she has a young child and needs to stay home. She wouldn't be taking lessons otherwise and this is generally the case.

One downside is that students think that because the lessons are flexibile that they take two weeks off here, three weeks off there (like most private lessons). But on the whole I really enjoy it and love teaching from home.