If you’re currently teaching in a brick-and-mortar but are considering the possibility of heading online, you may want to take a course to boost your comfort with online teaching and help your CV stand out.
In March 2007, PBS TeacherLine (a division of PBS) began a Web-based course entitled “Mastering the Skills of Online Teaching.” The six-week, 45-hour course costs $525 and trains existing K-12 teachers to build and master online facilitation skills. Instructors are taught how to provide effective feedback, deepen online discussion and encourage students to construct knowledge together. “The training has colored the way I write emails and converse with others online and face-to-face,” says Sandra Gothard, a master facilitator for PBS TeacherLine who is also an online adjunct for Lesly University.
The key component of the program is the Facilitator Training Lab, a simulation environment that allows teachers to practice and refine their online instructional skills. For additional fees, teachers can earn graduate credits for the course from either Adams State College or Indiana University.
“We have filled the course to capacity with every offering and have added additional sections,” says Melinda George, senior director of PBS TeacherLine. She attributes the success of the program to the growing popularity of online learning and “the recognition by teachers that taking this course and garnering these skills can help broaden the arenas in which they are eligible to teach.”
The Sloan Consortium recently launched an online teaching certification program as well. Teachers with at least one year of instructional experience at an accredited higher educational institution can apply for the certification program, which costs $1,499. The program is divided into two parts: a nine-week commitment to take the first three courses, and then a two-year time frame in which teachers must complete three additional electives, each requiring a one-week time commitment. The program will train educators to build online courses, give and receive peer feedback and learn to apply pedagogical principles that work best in the online classroom.