5 Important Questions to Ask Yourself Before Teaching English Online

THE EDUCATIONAL WORLD IS CHANGING. FOR YEARS, WE HAVE SEEN AN INCREASE IN THE NUMBER OF ONLINE LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES.

Not only can students take college classes online, but even high schoolers can opt for cyber education. The good news for ESL teachers is that language learning is no exception. Today’s students have many opportunities for online learning, and that means that you have just as many opportunities for on line educating. Telecommuting isn’t for everyone, though. Teachers considering this type of job opportunity should think carefully about the issues tied to online education before they decide to quit the classroom.

1. CAN I GO ANYWHERE OR EVERYWHERE?

One of the biggest deterrents some haveto teaching English as a second language is overseas travel. Packing up and leaving everything and everyone you know is not only stressful, it can be terrifying. Learning to thrive in a foreign country involves issues of language and culture. In my own experience teaching in East Asia, even getting a taxi can be complicated to the new overseas teacher. Online teachers avoid this cross culturalstress because teaching over the Internet means you never have to leave your living room. On the other hand, many English teachers enter the field with ideas of adventures from one end of the globe to the other. If you opt to teach online, you lose the unique adventure that is teaching overseas. You will still have cultural conundrums, but they will come from your students and your communication with them through the computer.

2. WHAT’S REALLY IN IT FOR ME?

Though teaching is itself the best reward for many people, ESL teachers must still consider how to cover the bills, and that means thinking about money. Many overseas teaching opportunities come withlots of zeros on the paycheck. Othersmay not pay as much but give perks that make up for what you don’t get in your income. Online teachers may find thatthe financial benefits of teaching online are less than what they could get travelling overseas. Teaching websites that hire you as teacher or tutor may pay by the hour, and though it’s likely to bemore than minimum wage, it’s less than what you would make through other venues.

Other opportunities may offer more money upfront, but pay attention for the words ‘independent contractor’. If you are hired as an independent contractor, your employer will not take taxes from your pay before it comes to you. Your paycheck will be bigger, but when April 15 rolls around you’ll find that you own a large percentage of what you made. Independent contractors need to calculate how much of what they make will end upgoing to the tax man, and then decide if the job is worth what they are paying. Finally, be wary of any company that asksyou to pay money upfront. These are questionable at the least and illegitimate at the worst, and you want to avoid them on your online teaching journey.

3. DO I HAVE THE TECH SAVVY?

With online teaching comes a dependence on computers. Before signing up to be an online educator, you should take an honest look at your own tech savviness. Resources like Skype and Facetime make video conversations possible, but teaching may take more than a webcam and an internet connection. Some companies will require you to download software and have specific connection and processing speeds. Because you don’t go to an office, you’ll have to tackle any technology bugs on your own though you may get the assistance of a helpdesk professional. Potential online teachers should think about what they can doand who they can turn to when they have technology needs beyond what they can handle themselves.

4. CAN I FILL IN THE GAPS?

Potential online educators must also ask themselves if they have what it takes to tackle all their students’ questions on their own. Where classroom teachers often have coworkers they can turn to when they run into a language conundrum, online teachers most likely will lack such resources. It’s important for teachers to think about their education and experience and whether they will be able to answer their students’ questions. Having a coworker to turn to can be very helpful. Even when you know the answer to the question, sometimes knowing the right way to explain it to your students can make or break your lines of communication. Online teachers need to have the background that enables them to answer questions without a buddy to turn to. In addition, online video chatting will still lack some communication clues that in person conversations make available. It’s important that online teachers be able to fill in those communication gaps without clues such as body language.

5. DO I HAVE THE GUMPTION

Online educators, especially those who choose not to work through a larger company, need to be able to sell themselves. Keeping profiles updated and selling your skills is important. Though you may get some referrals from one student to another, you will have to remember that you are your own boss and your own marketing department. You will need self motivation and independence to keep your personal business, your English education business, growing and thriving. Students will come and students will go, but teachers who can market and sell themselves will find a steady stream of English students.

TEACHING ONLINE CAN BE A GREATOPPORTUNITY, BUT IT ALSO HAS ITSDRAWBACKS. BEFORE YOU JUMP INWITH BOTH FEET, CONSIDER IF ONLINEEDUCATION REALLY IS THE BEST MOVEFOR YOU.

Move Classroom to the Cloud: Pros & Cons of Teaching Online

1. TEACH FROM THE COMFORTOF YOUR HOME

One big pro depending on your circum-stances, is that you can teach from thecomfort of your own home. You don’tneed a lot of equipment, just a com-puter, web camera, internet connection,and microphone. Most computers come with built-in cameras and mics are cheapenough to buy and easy to find. A wire-less internet connection works wonder-fully for the best and fastest connectionpossible. It is a terrific advantage to beable to work out of your home simplyfor the convenience of it. It is comfort-able and can enable you to host lessonsearly in the morning or late at night if youchoose. In addition, there is no commute,so you will never be late to class

2. SET YOUR OWN SCHEDULE

Teaching online enables you to setyour own schedule, devise your student base, and choose what types of lessons you will provide. This can be very freeing and if you are juggling other commitments, this arrangement makes it easy to set a schedule that works to your ad-vantage. Teaching ESL online enables you to decide the combination of students that will work best for you, whatlevels you would like to teach, as well as what subject matter you are interested infocusing on.

3. TEACH STUDENTSIN VARIOUS PLACES

One interesting advantage to teaching ESL online is that you can teach students from many different locations. You could have students that are spread across acountry, or you could mix students frommany different countries. Teaching multi-cultural classes has a lot of benefits as well as students of varying ages and cultural backgrounds. Depending on whereyou are located and the time difference of your focal countries you may be able to manage having many countries represented in your classroom. When deciding whether or not an online classroom is good for you, you want to be honest with yourself when it comes tothe challenges and negative aspects. As with the positives, negative aspects canoften be flipped to a positive depending on how you examine the circumstances.

4. MORE CHALLENGINGTO BE INTERACTIVE

It can be more challenging to host interactive activities when you are teaching online. This is not to say that it cannot be done, it just takes a different mind-set and more planning. Many interactive activities and games just won’t work simply because you are not face-to-face with students. You will have to come up with alternatives and find other ways to have students interact, communicate and learn from one another.

5. DIFFICULT TO SHAREASSIGNMENTS

A point a lot of teachers overlook is thesubject of materials. You have to figureout what books and materials will be utilized in the class and how students will gain access to them. This will mostcertainly impact your interactions on a whole. Another difficulty you face is disseminating and sharing information andassignments. It is pretty easy to be ableto email all the students a handout or as-signment, but you can’t be sure that all ofthem will be able to access it during theclass or remember to have it ready to go. Also, it is more difficult to have studentsshare writing assignments, homework or other exercises. You will need to devise a way to share documents that all students can access and understand. Consider hosting a bulletin board or creating an email group to get students in the habit of communicating in this way.

6. DISCIPLINE CAN BE AN ISSUE

Generally speaking, ESL classesare pretty manageable when it comes to behavior and discipline. However, the online environment changes this dynamic, and may make it a bit more difficult tomonitor all students and enforce requisite behavior. One example of this might be that students could get away with takinga back seat in the participation department. If a student is particularly quiet, reserved, or shy, it may be difficult to breakthrough those barriers in the online environment. The opposite may also holdtrue. If you have a student who monop-olizes the conversation, it can be problematic to enforce class guidelines. You will have to approach these problems as they arise and think about how your classroom management style will be different online. There are ways to reach students in cyberspace, but you may find this to be particularly challenging.

7. TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES

Technical difficulties may perhaps be the most daunting problem you willface in an online classroom. No amount of troubleshooting and preparation cancontrol the inevitable. Students will have problems with their connections, someone won’t know how to login properly, bandwidth in some countries can resultin choppy videos, non-existent reliability for connection, or endless technical issues. You’ll want to explore these issues and try out your technologies before you intend to use them for a full-time class. If you are in a country where the connection is almost impossible, you are out of the game completely. You may want to explore possibilities for how to troubleshoot problems when they arise. Consider having a chat capability ready to go if your video falls over, or enable some social media where you can communicate the problem clearly to all students at the same time.