The online education industry has exploded over the past 8 years or so, and a huge part of that has been due to the explosion of the online English industry in China. However, due to the recent harsh comedown on education companies in China, hundreds of thousands of teachers have been reeling. Many have given up their online teaching posts in search of new jobs, but some, like myself, have pivoted into freelance teaching Chinese students.

I’ve been freelancing for a few weeks now, and I’ve got to say…I love it! After I got my shareable profile page and WeChat payment system set-up through TeachOn , I started experimenting with a few different video platforms. I’ve hosted classes on various different platforms in that time, and thought I’d make a post to share with everyone what I’ve learned. So, here’s a comparison of 4 free (or semi-free) video platforms I’ve used while freelance teaching Chinese students:

Zoom

When millennials hear the word ‘Zoom’, they don’t think about something moving faster than the speed of light, they think of an online video-meeting platform. There’s definitely a reason ‘Zoom’ has become synonymous with a video platform. I know there have been some access issues in the past with people in China and Zoom, but at the time of writing this most of my students in China are still able to download Zoom from the Zoom.cn website and attend my classes. Here are a few pros and cons of hosting classes on Zoom:

Pros:

• Free for one-on-one meetings up to 1,000 minutes
• Excellent video/audio quality
• Adequate classroom features, easy annotation, drawing, shapes
• Can screen share material very easily
• Schedule syncs with google calendar
• Can record class if parents want a playback

Cons:

• For group classes there’s a 40-minute time-limit
• A few of my Chinese students have had trouble accessing my class

VooV

As I mentioned above, a few of my students have found it difficult to access the classroom via Zoom. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to troubleshoot this with the parents yet, so I’m not exactly sure what the issue is. However, in those situations, I use VooV. VooV is basically the Chinese version of Zoom. The interface, branding, colors, and characteristics are modeled to look exactly like Zoom’s platform. It’s just…not as good. Here are a few of the pros and cons of VooV.

Pros:

• Has all of the features that Zoom has
• Easier for students to access than Zoom (in my experience)
• A lot students/parents might already have it downloaded
• Can record classes if parents want a playback

Cons:

• Haven’t figured out how to sync with Google calendar 
• Resizing windows and video boxes can be choppy and/or lag
• Video lags when using virtual background

Classin

Classin is a Chinese, dedicated online learning platform with a lot of powerful classroom features.  Classin advertises itself as not the easiest platform to manage in the beginning, but it contains all the tools someone freelance teaching Chinese students needs to host fun, interactive classes with their students. The pricing section on Classin’s website is a bit confusing as they don’t explicitly tell you their plans and pricing. However, at the time of writing it seems that one-on-one classes are free for up to 40 minutes. Let’s look at some of the pros and cons of Classin:

Pros:

• Interactive features and mini-games for kids
• Dedicated online classroom with tons of useful features and tools
• Most Chinese students know Classin and might have experience with it

Cons:

• Not very user friendly in the beginning
• 40-minute free time limit
• Sometimes error messages display in Chinese even though language setting is English

Ding Talk

Another Chinese platform that I’ve used is Ding Talk. Ding Talk is AliBaba’s communication and online meeting platform. It’s totally free and super easy to use. Ding Talk definitely has a few things going for it, but it’s not my first..or second choice. Here are some of the pros and cons of Ding Talk:

Pros:

• Super easy to use and free
• Dedicated ‘online classroom’ feature
• Can upload lessons to the online classroom as PDFs or PPTs
• Also acts as a messaging app, so can also communicate with students 
• Most students already have it
• Schedule and invite students to class easily

Cons:

• Poor audio/video quality compared to Zoom or Voov
• Sometimes classroom features don’t load and have to restart app/computer
• Can’t resize/expand the video boxes (and they’re tiny in the online classroom!)

Wrapping Up

These are by no means the only online platform options, and there might be some out there better than the ones I’ve covered above. However, from my experience I would have to say that my first choice for freelance teaching Chinese students is Zoom. Bear in mind that my students are a bit more advanced and don’t really require super interactive classroom features. Usually, a pen to draw with or something to create shapes is plenty. If somehow your student can’t access the Zoom classroom, I’d have VooV on stand-by.  Classin is another one I’m interested in but more than half of my students study for 50-55 minutes, so the free 40-minutes isn’t enough for us. Happy teaching!