A New School Year: An Online Teacher's Perspective

Last year, I started working for an online education provider. At first, I worked as a part-timer, clocking anywhere from 2-15 hours per week. In April, I went full-time. October will mark my one-year anniversary at this company, and my 6-month anniversary as a full-time teacher for them.  In honor of the occasion, and because it's been on my mind lately, I thought I'd give a little overview of what exactly it is an online teacher does (and doesn't do).*

1. We do not come up with the curriculum... for the most part.  All of the curriculum is already available online.  Students work at their own pace or according to a pacing schedule (depending on their needs).  They read the content, play online games, perform web quests, and watch videos that have already been created for them. 

2. We DO enhance the pre-packaged curriculum with our own helpful resources.  In my courses, I have a FAQ/Resources tab where students can watch tutorials I've created, download helpful documents, and visit outside links that supplement the course content.

3. We do not sit in front of a webcam all day with a chalkboard behind us.  Most of my teaching is asynchronous: a student asks a question via email, I answer it a few hours later; a student turns in an assignment, I grade it within the next day or two; etc.

4. We DO meet with students online in a synchronous virtual classroom for office hours, to offer one-on-one support, and for weekly help sessions.  These are optional for the students, but I am there just in case (sans webcam).  We communicate via microphone and chat window.

Some myths:

• The online environment is too impersonal.  Absolutely not! I create new welcome banners, announcements, and resources on a daily basis.  I have control over the colors of the buttons and their shape.  My staff info page is inviting (see below), and I've also included a way for my students to instant message me straight from the course.  I even included a teacher blog within the course, where I post funny English YouTube videos, reviews of great books, and humorous grammar errors.

• Online teaching isn't real teaching. This is a semi-myth.  It's true that I don't come up with the curriculum or day-to-day lesson plans, but I do get to know my students and do a lot of on-on-one guidance.  And I teach mini-lessons weekly, going over major concepts or clarifying assignment requirements.   While I do miss lesson planning and the thrill of seeing students' eyes light up when we discuss literature, I don't miss taking home hours of grading every night and waking up at the crack of dawn to prep.
• Online teaching is easier than brick-and-mortar teaching. I have 200 students and I teach 8 different courses, 4 of which are A.P. I have to know these courses intimately, have read all the assigned texts, and could lose a course or gain a new course with as little as 24-hours of warning.  Over the summer--when enrollments are very high and students are cramming semester-length courses into a matter of weeks-- I had a daily grading queue of approximately 200 assignments.  True, I got to work from my home office in my pajamas, but easy? I think not.
• Online students are home-schoolers. This could not be farther from the truth. The majority of my students go to a brick-and-mortar school during the day and are taking my courses either to make up credits due to poor grades the previous semester, or are trying to get ahead.  I have one student who travels the world playing the violin, is being actively recruited by several universities, and is taking several online AP courses to supplement his brick-and-mortar schedule.
• Online school is (pick one): the way of the future/never going to last: From my experience this past year, I've learned that online education is definitely not suffering.  Our company had over 100,000 enrollments this year, for example.  However, I don't think online education is going to become the only education option in the future.  I've found that the most successful students are those who have support from both their online teacher (me) and their school-site mentors/counselors.  In my opinion, the most successful schools in the future will be hybrids, offering a mixture of on-site and online lessons. 

Here's my course banner for October.  Can't wait for my students to see it!

*This is only applicable to my company.  There are many online education providers, and they all operate differently.  Of course, none of the other companies as is AWESOME as mine, but I digress...