Welcome to Cambly!
For many people, learning English means a better life. As you can imagine, studying a foreign language can be very difficult. We started Cambly to help!
Cambly students learn English by chatting with native speakers, and many of them find that this is the most rewarding and fun way to learn a new language. We really appreciate tutors to deliver fun and high-quality lessons to our students. That’s why we and our students are both thrilled to collaborate with friendly and interesting tutors, like you!
We’ve developed this Tutor Guide for all of our tutors, both new and experienced. It is made up of six articles covering everything from our platform to tutoring tips. The articles build on each other so it’s best to start with Part 1 and finish with Part 6, especially if you’re new to Cambly. After finishing the Tutor Guide, you’ll be equipped to tutor on Cambly (but you may still want to review this guide periodically)!
We hope you’re excited to start helping people from around the world practice English!
Platform Crash Course
Check out this walkthrough of the Cambly Classroom, then read the overview of our platform. Don’t worry about all the new vocabulary! We’ll cover things in more detail later on in the Tutor Guide.
Once you log into your tutor account, you will see this page:
Dashboard: You will see all your incoming calls here, so we ask that you keep this page open and unmuted when you’re tutoring. Once you get matched to a student, you will hear a ringtone. Simply click their name to answer the call.
Schedule: Priority Hours - This is where you can sign up for Priority Hours (1-hour blocks during which you get featured to new students PLUS 15 minutes of guaranteed pay if you don't receive many calls). Signing up for Priority Hours is a great way to start building your base of regular students. Reservations - On-demand lessons are great, but if you want a more predictable schedule, you can use our reservations system! Here, you can set your reservation availability or even propose a time for a regular student.
Library: The library is full of teaching resources and lessons created for you to use with your students during a lesson! Students can choose to have a conversation or enroll in a more structured course. If a student is enrolled in a course, the classroom will automatically open with a lesson. Lessons are simple and easy to follow, and best of all, no teaching preparation required!
History: Want to jot down a note about where you left off during your last chat? Just click on a student’s name in your call log to send a message or visit their profile. This tab also contains your tutoring stats and current account balance.
Fun Fact! Wondering where the name "Cambly" came from? As Kevin and Sameer (our founders) tell it, Cambly is derived from the Spanish word "intercambio" which means "exchange" in Spanish, as in language exchange. We started out as Intercambly, but shortened it to Cambly for ease.