Your computer can be your office.
It can be both challenging and rewarding to teach an online college course. It enables you to teach subjects in which you have an interest and background, while affording you the luxury of a flexible schedule. Often you can teach online college courses as a secondary job for supplemental income. You need strong time management and organizational skills, though, to be successful at teaching online classes. You also need a working knowledge of one of the leading online teaching platforms: ANGEL, WebCT or Blackboard.
Instructions
1. Learn the basics of the top online teaching platforms. These are ANGEL, Blackboard, and WebCT. Many online institutions provide training on the platform they use after they hire you. Once you learn any of these platforms, you will increase your potential value to other online institutions.
2. Acquire the education to teach the course you want to teach. To teach any subject at the undergraduate level, you need 18 graduate hours in that subject in addition to a master's degree. For example, if you want to teach business classes, you need a master's, preferably in business, with at least 18 graduate credits in business courses. But even if you have a master's degree in psychology, if you also have 18 graduate credits in business courses, you can teach undergraduate business classes.
3. Create a workable schedule. Once you secure your first online class, create a realistic schedule to help ensure you are meeting requirements for grading, student contact, and providing additional resources and teaching. Many online institutions require a minimum number of log-in's per week, as well as a minimum number of office hours. The online environment allows you flexibility in scheduling these duties, but you must perform them to meet your contractual obligations.
4. Time management is a key to success.
Use a calendar to plot out what days your students should turn in their work and what days you will do your grading each week. This helps ensure that you do not fall behind in your work and that your students get the feedback they need to fulfill upcoming assignments in a timely manner.
5. Create a clear syllabus. Often online courses will already be created for you by your online institution and will come with a standard syllabus. Edit this syllabus to establish policies for things such as attendance, late work acceptance, and writing quality guidelines. This helps you enforce your own rules as well as those of your online institution in the event there is a grade dispute with a student. Also list all of the assignments and their due dates to help students stay on track from week to week.
6. Maintain professional communication with students and other faculty members. In an online environment, it can be easy to feel anonymous and forget there is a person receiving the email or message you are sending. Remember, if you would not say it to a person's face, do not send it in an email. Keep all communication polite and professional.
Tags: online institutions, business classes, business courses, credits business, credits business courses, graduate credits, graduate credits business