The Online English Teaching Company Review And Guide Why Teaching At alo7
ALO7 is a Shanghai-based educational company. Beyond offering online teaching positions, they also provide comprehensive online English learning materials to thousands of local K12 schools in China. As a result, you will be using the ESL teaching materials and lesson plans curated by ALO7 to the various type of students and class type range from one-on-one, one-to-3+, to group settings. Job and compare details about ALO7 and the comprehensive application Guide.
Pros
Relatively good pay. Pay rate is $15-22/hr with multiple incentives for quality and attendance possible. The incentives include 5% for stability, another 5% for quality, another 5% for having more than 3 students in a class.
Majority of the teachers are happy working for ALO7 and have great reviews.
Hire college students
Require only 6 hours per week (12 25-min classes) for the peak teaching hours (6 pm to 9 pm Beijing time).
Comprehensive ESL teaching materials are provided
Cons
Limited to teacher candidates from US, Canada, UK, and Australia.
Only have teaching hours between 6 pm and 9 pm Beijing Time.
Teacher Reviews
I have worked for ALO7 for over a year now and wanted to share my experience. I have worked for another tutoring company as well, and my ALO7 experience is by far superior. I have been provided with excellent training to make teaching the classes super easy. There is always a demo video of each type of class, so I have an example to follow and the lesson plans are very thorough. I have a steady schedule, and I was allowed to pick my hours, although it is early morning as expected. The support team is very quick to respond to any issues. Payday always arrives on time, and I have had no surprises in that area at all. They do allow a bonus opportunity, which is nice. Overall, I really enjoy teaching with ALO7 and have had a great experience with the classes, students, and support staff.
I have been with Alo7 since June 2017, here is my honest review. I hope it will be helpful for anyone looking to apply or in the hiring process.
Here is a timeline of my hiring process (disclaimer: I was hired right at the end of the transition period when Alo7 paused their hiring due to a number of reasons that were explained to all current tutors and those in the hiring process. I am confident it will go quicker for any new hires)
June 1st: Applied & was asked to schedule an interview that same day
June 9th: First Interview
June 15th: Mock Class
June 16th: Contract Sent & Signed
June 18th Readiness Check Complete
June 19th Official welcome email received- I’m hired!
June 28th: Teacher Orientation: Tech Test
July 2nd: Paid Experience Session
Took time off from July 15-July 22nd
July 26th: First Lesson – woohoo
Let’s start with all the things that make Alo7 an amazing company to work for:
The courseware: It is engaging and interactive- the children AND teachers have fun!
Management and Support Team: They are authentic and truly care about their online teachers. Communication is sent out often via email and our Facebook Group.
Training: There are weekly meetings (unpaid) that are informative and offer great tips for making our classes even better. Alo7 also has a fabulous YouTube channel and Pinterest page full of ideas, images, teaching tips and more!
I work with ALO7 in many ways, the largest being the Social Media Manager. However, I am still a contractor with them and teach just like everyone else.
I have been doing the online English teaching thing for a few years now. I’ve worked with many companies and still work for a few. I may have some bias to ALO7, because I truly enjoy how they work. The management, the classes, the pay. And as someone who loves teaching, the freedom to not just be an entertainer. The advanced classes are amazing.
ALO7, and I speak honestly, has the best courseware I’ve seen. The sheer amount of variety for the curriculum available keeps you from getting bored. Not all classes are perfect. A lot of them need fine tuning and suggestions to make them more effective, but the main ones are just so well done.
The big thing that sets ALO7 apart is that ALO7 is primarily a business to consumer company. They work directly with large schools and schools book the classes, not the parents. However, and part of why they are hiring again, is the expansion of business to consumer bookings. Specifically, looking for applicants that have a great time with the younger set. Singing ABC’s and teaching basic English.
Class Booking
Yes, there was a slip up last summer in over hiring. This will not be the case this time. The majority of our tutors have near full bookings at this point. We also have new bookings, called race classes, where you choose slots from a mass email that goes out. These are different from long-term school bookings.
Most of our teachers have a full schedule based on a few things: mostly the time slots they have open. The partner schools do most of the booking but we also have something called “race classes” where you choose slots from a mass email that gets sent out periodically.
Teaching Platform
ALO7 has very comprehensive ESL teaching materials for online teaching. Alo7 has completed training for a group of teachers in Shanghai. Alo7 is one of the largest digital curriculum providers and B2B online English tutoring service provider in China for student age 5 to 15. They only work with partner local schools.
Interview Preparation & Tips
The mock class was only 10 minutes in total, started teaching the beginner level and then halfway through she asked me to change to intermediate. I had a bit of time left at the end, so played a little game. Just talk slowly, ask plenty of questions for the intermediate level, and you should be fine.
How strict are they when the lesson plan says 2mins for this, 3mins for that? I’ve been practicing but its hard to watch the precise time while using the courseware. Is it more flexible whereby you can spend a little less time in one section in order to spend a bit longer on another? They weren’t strict at all about the timings on the lesson plan – it didn’t matter how long I spent on any one section.
The interview is conducted and evaluated by how well you interact with the “student” (mocked by the interviewer). Smile, use lots of TPR and props, and you’ll do fine.
We allow you to take your time. We like 10 minutes per demo (one per age group) but we are able to adapt pretty easily. Mostly, we want to meet YOU. It’s all good… Use TPR, smile a lot, don’t be afraid to be silly/funny/yourself, and be at peace. We have been there, too. I spend a good deal of the interviews laughing, smiling, and getting to know the applicants. There is only so much you’ll learn from standard questions. Getting to know how people truly interact is golden. 
We have surveyed and gathered and information about ALO7 from various sources, including Online English teaching jobs and the job review group. It receives generally great reviews from teachers, including great pay rate, great teaching features, flexible teaching hours, reliable booking rate, and supportive community
