Could You Teach Online?
More and more teachers are finding work on the web. Are you next?
Melissa Baker, an eighth-grade English teacher in Sandpoint, Idaho, was looking to make some extra money over the summer when she saw a flyer about teaching online. Although admittedly not a computer whiz, she was intrigued. To prepare herself for the challenge, she took some courses with the Idaho Digital Learning Academy (IDLA). Now she has been teaching online for the past four years, conducting classes in English, geography, and economics. She does this part time—for about an hour each evening—in addition to her full-time job at Sandpoint Middle School.
Comparing her two jobs, Baker says she enjoys teaching online because of the smaller class size and easier classroom management. “As a middle-school teacher, I spend a good portion of my time telling Sam to sit down or Sally to quit writing notes. Online you don’t have that distraction,” she says. Baker also insists that an online class does not have to mean an impersonal one. She constantly e-mails students individually and, as a result, forms close connections with them. “It’s rewarding to help students who couldn’t be successful in a traditional classroom environment,” Baker says.
As online learning expands, more and more teachers like Baker are testing the waters. Some teachers are assigned online courses as part of their regular workload. Others teach a class or two part time to boost their income. Full-time online teaching is yet another growing option. You don’t have to be a technology expert to give it a go, but you do need to be willing to try new things.
A glimpse at the landscape
Online learning generally refers to full courses taught over the Web by a licensed teacher. Often it is self-directed learning: Students progress at their own pace. Courses are offered in the core subjects, such as science and math, as well as in electives such as foreign languages. Some are remedial; others are advanced. Some courses are 100 percent online; others take place in a computer lab with an instructor nearby for support. Hybrid courses are popular because they require students to have face-to-face classroom time in combination with independent work online.
While it’s been around for more than a decade, online learning is taking off in classrooms across the country. A growing number of schools are trying to engage tech-savvy students and prepare them for the jobs of the future. Nationally, enrollment in K–12 online learning is growing by 30 percent a year. In 2007–08, one million K–12 students were enrolled in online classes. According to the International Association for K–12 Online Learning (iNACOL), 44 states have significant online learning programs.
Yet barriers do exist—namely, funding, policies, and tradition. Formulas that dole out money to districts based on seat time were created when schools couldn’t foresee learning over the Internet. (States are currently developing models to overcome this obstacle.) Although economical in the long run, online learning takes a significant initial investment to get started. And there is still the feeling among some educators that kids learn better in a traditional classroom than over the Internet.
What to consider
In trying to decide whether online teaching is right for you, start by checking it out as a student. “Teachers need to experience online learning as a learner first,” says Jill Montoya, online professional development coordinator at Jefferson County Public School District near Denver. “You have to have a passion to offer different learning experiences and a belief that this is a good mode of communication.”
Before offering online courses to students, Jefferson County first introduced this approach to teachers through online professional development. It wasn’t as easy as many expected. “It’s much more engaging [than a traditional classroom],” says Montoya. “You can’t enroll, attend, and then just tune out. Everyone has to contribute, not just the five loudest people in the room.”
Tera Schnacker, a teacher at Bear Creek High School in Castle Rock, Colorado, took an online course herself, but says she was still nervous about teaching her own class online. She was asked to develop an earth science course as part of her regular job—one for credit recovery and another as a hybrid course. Schnacker, who considers technology her strength, says she learned by doing and came to like helping students advance at their own pace.
“The hardest thing is adjusting to monitoring everything online,” says Schnacker. “We are so used to that face-to-face interaction.” She was also surprised by how much more time it took to give individual feedback and respond to students’ e-mails.
Indeed, while many teachers respond to the flexibility of teaching online, it’s demanding—and time consuming—to be on call 24/7. The Florida Virtual School (FLVS) goes to great lengths to tell teachers who are applying that they will put in more hours than they realize, says Julie Young, president and chief executive officer. But even this warning hasn’t deterred applicants. Although FLVS only offers full-time positions, it has a long waiting list of teachers who want to teach online.
“These teachers really like the one-on-one approach that online offers,” says Young. “They don’t have to move students along who are not ready.” FLVS, established in 1997, offers about 90 courses to approximately 63,000 middle- and high-school students.
The Idaho Digital Learning Academy also has a waiting list of teachers interested in teaching online, says Donna Hutchison, director of the program. She advises that teachers who want to actually get away from students not bother applying. In fact, she says, online teachers have even more contact with kids. At the same time, they are freed up to focus more on the subject matter and on individualized instruction.
The benefits of online
More and more research is showing that learning online is equally if not more effective than learning in the classroom—which helps add legitimacy to the movement. According to a 2008 National Survey of Student Engagement study, students have also stated that they feel more engaged in an online course than in a traditional one, and that online courses demanded higher-level skills and more participation.
Without the constraint of a 50-minute class, online discussion groups allow students to have unlimited, in-depth conversations. Students also may sign in from different schools and districts, which adds to the diversity of opinion among classmates. For students too shy to speak in a traditonal classroom, the virtual connection provides an alternative to a face-to-face setting. And because all activity online is electronic, every interaction can be measured and content can be updated as needed.
“Teaching online can be an exciting challenge that forces you to think of new ways to convey material,” says Lorri MacDonald, a part-time forensic science instructor with the Michigan Virtual School (MVS). (Michigan and Alabama are the only two states that require students to have an online learning experience before graduating from high school.) Since she likes to talk with her hands as she teaches, MacDonald adds flash movies to her lessons so students can see her. To demonstrate how to search a crime scene, MacDonald posts photos in an online presentation.
“What makes me good at this job is that I’m not afraid to take a risk,” says MacDonald, who was named Teacher of the Year by the MVS. “If I make a mistake, I say, ‘Oops. This is the first time this is running.’ I’m really honest with my students.”
Overcoming the pitfalls
For online learning to work, there needs to be support. Schools can’t just put students online and forget about them until the end of the semester, says Hutchison of IDLA. Students need monitoring, especially those who have poor self-
directed behavior. Schools that report low completion rates online often don’t have the support in place that they need.
The National Education Association (NEA) is cautious in its support of online learning. If the courses are conducted by a licensed teacher, the organization supports it, says Andrea Prejean, NEA technology specialist. But the NEA is concerned about poor-quality software programs and instances in which the parent becomes the teacher. Also, it does not support full-time online learning programs for K–8 children. “Younger children need to be in school and socialized with other students,” says Prejean. The best online courses have a balance of face-to-face time and instruction online, she maintains.
Training may be the key to having a good online teaching experience. In a 2008 survey of America’s teachers and support professionals, the NEA found that although educators do get technology training, most do not feel prepared to use technology for instructional purposes, especially for individualized instruction.
“If you are intimidated by technology, don’t try online teaching,” says Bear Creek High School’s Schnacker. At the same time, don’t let misconceptions about it being rigid or impersonal keep you from trying. “Often teachers feel that if they teach online they will lose part of who they are in the classroom,” says Schnacker. “But you can still be exactly who are in the classroom when you’re online.”
“You have to be open to new things,” points out Baker of Sandpoint, Idaho. “Teaching online is something different. If you aren’t open to change, then it probably isn’t best for you.”
What the future holds
The traditional classroom is designed to teach to the middle, says Karen Henke, founder of Nimble Press in Pasadena, California, and an advocate for online learning, resulting in students on the fringes often missing out. According to Henke, teachers are feeling tremendous pressure to have all their students achieve, especially with No Child Left Behind, and yet educators have not changed the system of delivery. Online learning can be a powerful tool in reaching all students, says Henke.
But online learning does not mean the demise of the traditional classroom, Henke adds. Students will always crave in-person interaction with teachers and friends. “Schools are social networks. We don’t want to lose that special connection. Everyone who is successful has had some special teacher in their life,” says Henke. “We don’t have to think of online learning as an ‘or.’ Think of it as an ‘and.’”
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5 Tips to Get You Started 1 Enroll in an online professional development course to see if the format is right for you. For more, visit the International Association for K–12 Online Learning.Curious about teaching online, but don’t know where to begin? Here’s some expert advice. 2 Ask your state department of education if there is a local agency that coordinates online teaching. Or check out the report Keeping Pace with K–12 Online Learning : 2008 to learn what is happening in your state. 3 Submit your application and expect a rigorous screening process. Candidates should be student-centered in their philosophy and ready to provide more individual attention to meet students’ diverse learning needs. 4 Get plenty of training. Many online learning academies offer an online course to acquaint teachers with the technologies, basic pedagogy, and online classroom management. Look for opportunities to network with veteran online teachers. 5 Be open to new things. Online teachers must be willing to adapt to innovation. While teachers are experts in teaching, students are often the experts in technology. The best online teachers bridge that gap. |
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