Most online educational institutions prefer that applicants have a Ph.D., but will consider applications from experienced teachers who hold master’s degrees.  Without a master’s, it can be difficult to find a job teaching for an online university.

“The master’s degree is really the minimum educational requirement,” according to says Thomas Green, the provost at National University, which has 36 fully-online degree programs serving more than 11,000 students.

Experience in the online classroom is an added plus–but not absolutely necessary. “We know that we can provide the training and the tools to be successful in the online classroom,” Green says.

Most online universities provide new teachers with intense training, meant to help them acclimate to teaching in the online classroom.  “Teaching online requires a very different set of skills,” Green says. “Since much of the course content is already there, teachers become facilitators of knowledge instead of lecturing for hours.”

Online teaching can be more time-consuming than teachers expect. eTeachers must be organized and accessible by email at all hours of the day and night, and should be active participants in online discussion forums. “Students are used to immediate feedback,” Green says.