Keeping Online Tutors From Saying ‘Au Revoir’ To eLearning Platforms

The pandemic has raised heated debates about how to safely educate students at a time when having pupils and teachers flock into school buildings and college campuses raises risks to potentially contract or spread the virus.

Some families and students have turned to online tutoring to get extra one-on-one education support after many schools closed early in the spring and as digital classes begin to ramp up for fall.

Adults are also navigating online platforms to find freelance instructors that can help them refresh their skills for competing in a new remote work landscape. Those who have lost jobs during the economic downturn may also look to eLearning platforms to get training that could better prepare them for new careers.

Global platforms power these connections, enabling students and instructors to find each other across borders. These digital marketplaces can only do this work if the payments experiences they offer are also compelling and convenient to teachers and students, however.

In the August Smarter Payments Tracker®, PYMNTS explores how education-focused freelancer platforms can create payout experiences that are suited to international professionals’ needs and payments suited for global students.

Around The Smarter Payments World

Seventy percent of freelancers worldwide are no more than 35 years old, according to recent research. This means that gig work platforms will need to cater to the younger generations’ payout preferences. This is likely to result in high demand for receiving funds quickly and conveniently via person-to-person (P2P) payment apps.

No single payment method will suit all needs, but many employers in Europe are finding it important to disburse freelancers’ funds onto payroll cards. Managing these card programs can be a challenge for firms that rely on many different partners to each provide some of the services essential to running such programs, however. This could drive employers to seek to use more all-in-one card-issuing and management platforms to streamline the administration.

Gig work marketplaces also must be sensitive to the payments and payout options that employers and freelancers in different countries can access. There are 83 countries in which PayPal users can send but not receive funds, for example, and there are many countries in which having a bank account is uncommon, meaning that employers need their freelancer platforms to offer alternate ways to pay these professionals. A roundup of research details these and other considerations that must factor into choices for how to conduct international transactions.

 Find more on these and the rest of the latest headlines in the Tracker.

How Currency Options, Digital Wallets Power eLearning Marketplaces’ Global Expansions

eLearning platforms connecting students and freelance educators around the globe need to be able to provide checkout and payout experiences that are familiar and convenient for all parties. Instructors want to be paid fast and in local currencies, while students want to use their favored payment instruments and home currencies as well, according to Peter Fitzpat­rick, vice president of payments at online education technology platform Thinkific.

In this month’s Feature Story, Fitzpatrick discusses how serving these needs and answering emerging payment trends means offering a wide array of payment and payout methods, such as enabling transacting with local and global digital wallets and pushing payouts onto debit cards.

Find the Feature Story in the Tracker.

Deep Dive: How Freelance eLearning Marketplaces Can Create Payments Approaches That Attract Educators

The online education sector has long been gaining attention this year as students seek safe learning options from home. Last year’s predictions held that the space would undergo a 14 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2018 to 2022, but the pandemic has pushed that expansion into overdrive. Serving this burgeoning demand requires eLearning platforms to offer smooth payments experiences, however.

This month’s Deep Dive details how freelance educator platforms work with payment partners to meet their users’ varying payment needs and provide seamless international transactions.

Download the Tracker to read the Deep Dive.

About The Tracker

The Smarter Payments Tracker®, done in collaboration with Nium, is your go-to monthly resource for updates on trends and changes in smarter payments.