How Online Learning is Changing Teaching Careers

Access to online learning resources has brought about a revolution in classroom settings, all the way from primary school to higher university degree courses. E-learning and distance learning has become a hugely valuable resource to educators and teachers, allowing them to harness a new model of knowledge sharing that gives students the tools to learn at a pace that suits them best. It is a unique, student-focused approach that allows students to share educational direction and maximise both time and teaching resources. As a result, online and distance learning has become hugely benefit for teachers, both as part of their job and as part of their own personal and educational development. We’ve taken a look at some of the main ways distance learning has impacted the teaching career for the better.

#1. Teacher Learning and Development:

Any good teacher needs to be open to continuing their own learning and indeed, many of the best teachers and individuals who never stop learning something new. Teachers who want to develop their careers even further may be interested in taking additional courses or even attaining a master’s degree – however, in the past, it may have been difficult to achieve this without the need to give up their job as a teacher.

Today, teachers can continue working full-time teaching classes while dedicating some or all of their time to studying something else themselves. This masters in education distance learning degree, for example, is a great option for teachers who would otherwise never be able to get to 9 AM lectures on a weekday because they’re teaching a class at that time, and don’t have the luxury of being able to give up their job to study. As a result, distance and online learning are providing avenues of progression for teachers who may not have been able to access these opportunities otherwise.

#2. Students Work at an Individual Pace:

Online learning courses allow students to work at an individual pace, which for the teachers who lead them provides much-needed effectiveness and maximises the potential for individual learning styles and curves within the classroom environment. Unlike a traditional classroom setting where students are expected to keep up with everybody else, many online and distance learning solutions account for self-directed, self-paced learning and allow students and teachers to work together on an individual level to meet scheduled targets.

#3. Theory Application:

These days, more people than ever before are accessing news and information, communicating and sharing concepts and ideas via technology – particularly students and young people. Online learning gives teachers the ability to truly tap into this new realm of constant learning, providing them with the power to fully embrace the real-world application of theory through a range of interactive teaching options such as multimedia, video calling, and chat. As a result, teachers and educators have everything that they need in front of them to really harness the power of everyday, modern technology to bring a range of educational theories into the online classroom.

#4. It’s Practical:

In today’s modern world with increasing political and economic instability, education budgets are often cut back more and more. Online learning has provided an incredible solution that can be used to compensate for any reduced access to teaching information, plus time that can be dedicated to tracking the progress of students. There are practical benefits of online learning that teachers can benefit from, not only in their career role but also as a student themselves. As a teacher, online learning often brings about a reduction in time-based efforts and workload – for example, LMS systems allow teachers to easily and quickly create quizzes and tests using pre-existing templates and expanding questions banks – and these tests can be marked automatically. In addition, course curriculums can be reused or reconstructed easily using new course templates, while teachers can save a significant amount of time with the ability to track the submission of digital assignments.

#5. It’s Set to Get Bigger:

Online learning offers a huge range of benefits for teachers, educators, and students. So it’s no surprise that a huge percentage of university courses are now delivered online, and online learning is becoming a far more implemented tool in schools and colleges, too. This provides both schedule flexibility and cost-effectiveness for both teachers and students, in addition to access to new learning platforms and the ability to learn from some of the best educators around the world as distance is no issue when you are learning online. In today’s schools, a modern, blended approach to both online and classroom learning allows both teachers and their students to access a much larger variety of teaching and learning tools and resources.

#6. It Puts Students First:

For many teachers and their students, one of the biggest benefits of online learning opportunities and LMS platforms is that teachers are more able to focus their energies on working directly with students, rather than time-consuming manual tasks. The ability to automate marking, issue tests digitally, and track student progress using reporting and analytics software is beginning to make the education industry a far more innovative, accommodating environment that puts students first. And, online learning isn’t just capable of empowering and encouraging students to progress beyond the expectations of the course – it also encourages them to explore further and learn ahead of the curriculum by making learning more functional, fun, and relevant to today’s highly technological world.

Online learning isn’t only beneficial to students – it’s also brought about a huge range of positive benefits for teachers. The ability to expand their own educational achievements without compromising on their career abilities put students first, and automate time-consuming tasks like marking tests has transformed working in education for many teachers who have embraced online learning today.

Are you a teacher who is interested in exploring online learning, either for yourself or for your students? There is a wide range of online and distance learning courses available today for students of all levels and in every subject.

What are your thoughts on online learning? Let us know in the comments.