Do you have a passion for teaching? Today becoming a teacher doesn’t mean that you need to travel to a school to teach. In recent years, technological developments allow you to teach from the comfort of your own home.
VOIP (Voice Over IP) programs such as Skype, Facetime and PhoneMe have been developed for communication from anywhere in the world. The fact that you can use both sound and video to communicate live over the internet means the possibilities are endless.
Online Teaching
As part of the “What Job Can I Do Series“, In today’s blog post, we’re looking at jobs that could allow you to live your dream life. Recently I met with Sarah Jameson from the UK who provides online English lessons Via Skype to students that are based in Eastern Europe.
Over the last couple of years, she has developed her business from scratch to the point where she now teaches four one hour lesson’s five days a week from the comfort of her own home. Teaching online is a career that you can easily do from the comfort of your own home, but also from anywhere in the world.
Who Hires Online Teachers?
Traditional Colleges – Many traditional colleges are getting into the online education industry. Some campus-based colleges offer select courses online, while others offer entire degree programs. If you’re interested in teaching online, your best bet may be to become a member of the campus faculty and teach a few traditional classes first. After you’ve established yourself as a teacher, you can use your experience to take your lesson’s online.
Online Colleges – Online colleges are becoming more and more like traditional schools. Many of today’s online schools have rigorous courses, highly qualified teachers, and regional accreditation. They usually require instructors to have an advanced degree or extensive industry experience.
Non-profits and Adult Education – Adult students often face extraordinary challenges when continuing their education. Many adult learners work full-time and are the primary caregivers in their families. Online education makes school much more accessible to these students, and it’s catching on among adult education nonprofits that teach ESL and GED classes. Foreign language classes and schools are also getting into online education because many of their students are scattered abroad.
Tutoring Companies – Online tutoring companies serve students of all ages. Some tutoring companies, such as Sylvan Learning Center and HomeworkHelp.com, focus on elementary, middle, or high school students. Another example is Kaplan which offers online test preparation for college SAT tests and postgraduate study. Many of those who work as tutors have prior teaching experience, but it isn’t always a requirement.
Degree’s For A College-Level Position – If you want to teach at an online college or university, you’ll need at least a Master’s degree. Many teaching positions require a Ph.D. Most online schools require the same degrees needed at traditional schools.
If you want to work in adult education at a non-profit, you often won’t need more than a Bachelor’s degree—although a Master’s in adult education could help you land the job. Online tutors generally don’t need advanced degrees, unless you’re working for a company that offers online test prep in the GRE’s, MCAT’s, or another postgraduate test.
In-person Teaching Experience – Online teaching is still a new craft. If you have years of in-person teaching experience, you can show your employers that you know the basics of the job. This will give them greater confidence that you can handle the challenges of teaching online as well.
Many people become online teachers by finding opportunities within the traditional schools where they work. If you’re already established as a professor at a traditional college, you may be in a position to lead your school’s first foray into online education. If you work at an adult education nonprofit, you may be able to earn a grant to run an online class.
Familiarity with Technology – Online teachers need to be comfortable with the technology they’ll use to teach the class. If you’re applying for a job as an online teacher, it may help your chances to show that you have experience as an online student. You don’t have to have a history as an online student to land a job as a teacher, but you will need to show that you can use the required technology.
Where To Find An Online Teaching Role
Starting out can be difficult given your lack of experience, however there are a number of specialist schools that specialize in helping online teachers find role. It’s likely they will take a cut of your earnings, but it gives you a great opportunity to build up your reputation and experience which will help you take your online career to the next level. Below are 10 online teacher websites to help you get started in your online teaching career.
- AtoZTutoring.com – A site exclusively for in-home tutoring as opposed to online.
- BookALesson.com – Site for instructors of specialties like music and many varied sports. Helps you automatically book appointments and let people see when you have open slots in your calendar.
- Find-Guru.com – Allows you to list your tutoring abilities for any sort of subject from basic math to computer networking.
- Jobs4Tutors.com – Site looks for more than just tutoring, but also assessments, evaluation, and mentoring.
- TakeLessons.com – Company providing lessons for all kinds of musical instruments and singing, looking for instructors in over 400 cities.
- TeachStreet.com – Site for teachers of all kinds of lessons from schoolwork to sports, music and more.
- TutorLinker.com -Allows parents to easily search for tutors around their area and compare them against one another, which makes it essential for the tutors to be competitive.
- TutorNation.com – Site will help you with training and certification and then you can start taking on students.
- Tutorz.com -A nationwide search enabling students and tutors to connect.
- WiziQ.com – Site for helping tutors to find students from anywhere in the world while providing online classrooms for you to use.
Nick Jones
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