It seems these days that no corner of society is immune from the all-pervasive Internet, and the field of education is no exception. There are computers in schools for children of all ages. Many colleges and universities offer learning programs that use computer-based curriculum, or offer distance learning programs online. Additionally, there are online universities offering courses in everything from basic accounting to Visual Basic. Naturally, this expansion of the education model has opened new opportunities for classroom teachers.

Jennifer Golden, manager of instructor-led curriculum for the SmartPlanet e-learning Web site, hires what she calls subject matter experts, or SMEs, to teach online courses. "That means other people recognize that you’re an expert. You’ve written a book, have teaching experience or something else in your background." She explains. "It has to be enough that my members would recognize you are expert." Golden also values excellent writing skills, since the interaction with students takes place on message boards.

In addition to teaching online, there is work available developing courses. Online learning sites work under two major models: self-study courses where students simply follow lessons on their own time and instructor-led courses where a teacher manages the course and is available to answer questions at set times. Either way, there is a lesson plan and syllabus, which opens up another avenue for teachers in search of online work.

Most of Golden’s instructors come from either a classroom or training background. "I’ve found that, generally speaking, the people who have written a book on a subject are better course developers. And people who have taught in classrooms are better teachers," she says.

The online teaching and learning environment is similar in many ways to the traditional classroom environment. "I was really amazed at how similar it was, working with students in a college situation and online," says Fred Andrews, a computer science teacher at Vanier College in Montreal who started teaching online two years ago. "The thing that was similar was the way you go about engaging students. It’s largely an engagement of personality, people, your sense of self and your respect for the student. The whole presentation and interaction comes across through language."

This human element is what drives a teacher to excel. "A good live instructor will be good online," says Len Sitnick, co-owner of Tectrix Inc., a Baltimore-based technical courseware development and training firm. From his experience hiring teachers and teaching himself, Sitnick says it’s the connection to people and the communication skills that make a good teacher, whether online or live. "You’re there to engage them and get them excited. If you are doing that live and you can also write well, then you will be a good online instructor."

Because the written word is the primary connection that teachers have with students online, it’s important that a teacher convey content clearly and is sensitive to people’s feelings. "There’s a sense of being extra careful because you don’t have any other gestures online, like body movement and so on," explains Andrews.

"You can hurt someone’s feelings online even if you don’t intend to," agrees Sitnick.

Personal interaction is also important in an online learning environment, because it helps build camaraderie, just as in a classroom. This feature of online teaching surprised John Smiley, a Visual Basic author and teacher, when he first started teaching online almost four years ago.

"Even though people were just writing messages on a board, there was a lot of personal and social interaction," he says. "I’ll have people go through a 10-week without knowing the names of the people who sit next to them. Online, you have people who are asking about snow in Wisconsin or heat in Arizona."

Smiley also found another benefit of teaching online was that it saved him time. "Someone asks a question, and 15 minutes later I get the same question," he says of classroom teaching. "That doesn’t happen online, because on a message board, hardly anything is lost. If someone asks a question, everyone gets the benefit of the answer."

The message board format also allows teachers to research and respond to questions in their own time. "You can then give a really good answer, and it’s going to be correct rather than having to go back and patch up later," explains Andrews. "You spend more time trying to come up with something that is useful than going back and forth and repeating stuff."

Realistically, online teaching is a way to make some extra money. "The money is good, but no more than good part-time money," Smiley explains. It’s important to read your contract in case it precludes you from teaching the same course somewhere else.

Smiley, Andrews and Sitnick all said they happened to be in the right place at the right time when they got involved in online teaching. As in so many other fields, it is important to network with people, make connections and talk to everyone you can if you are interested in online teaching. "If you teach at a college, check with them first," advises Golden, who envisions the online education field expanding. "Right now I see it weighted to IT topics and adult students," she says. "There is no model for secondary education, although I think it will eventually happen."

Some Learning Sites

ActiveEducation

Cardean University

CyberStateU.com

CyberLearning Universe

DigitalThink

ElementK

Get Smart Online

NETg

SmartForce

SmartPlanet

Umbrella sites

America’s Learning Exchange and CyberU help you find classes online and have lots of links.

Furbello.com

Peterson’s