Teaching Online Classes

Posted by Dorit Sasson Mar 17, 2007

I have to say there is something uniquely different about online teaching especially teaching online college programs. For two years, I participated in an in-service online teaching course which included preparing lessons that could be done online or offline. For the final project, I prepared a slideshow of my project, what lessons I created, documentation using pictures, as well as my own reflections. It was a very rewarding two year experience.

I compared this experience with that of my regular teaching job. It was the quietest job with no discipline problems, but involved a lot of preparation, thought and getting acquainted with the material and needs of the students. Yet all along, I felt their motivation was high and constantly was growing.

It was an entirely different teaching world than I had been used to. The students were motivated and interested and contrary to what I thought about teaching online classes, the interaction was personal and helpful. For this, there were forums where students could ask questions and raise concerns and even a live web chat for direct immediate issues in order to proceed to the next task.

Online teaching is not for everyone I would say, but it is becoming the new wave and there are many online teaching programs and certification programs that could help advance your degree and teaching education.. Many teachers I know prefer the live interaction of a full class with the discipline and live intrusions. As an online teacher, you have great independence to expedite knowledge at great efficiency.

There were also resources for online teacher training and it was quite an achievement to cater to my own online teaching resources.

What really took me some hard time getting used to however, was the fact that online teaching completely abandons the entire textbook and pen system altogether!

Teaching online classes is definitely making its ground in the future years of online education. Usually, teachers are expected to get to know the software of the online teaching provider companies. This interim takes time to become adjusted but, if you have supportive online teacher colleagues, they can usually help you through.