Teaching Online vs In-Person Teaching

There are a number of similarities between teaching online and teaching in-person.

For those wanting to teach online, coming from a traditional school background has its pros and cons.

For those that have never had any formal teaching training, have never taught, or might have a limited amount of experience with teaching online the challenges and learning curves vary.

Classroom Management

In a physical classroom, there are so many different ways to manage the behavior of the students.  The best way to manage behavior in a virtual classroom is by utilizing the tools and functions of the technology being used. 

For example, in Zoom, the presenter can mute, turn off audio, and place participants in the waiting room.  The waiting room is the equivalent of telling a student they need to take a break in the hallway.  With in-person teaching, a teacher can approach a student and speak to them privately, with a Zoom function, private chat messages can be sent.  If a student is being disruptive in the classroom, the behavior can distract everyone.  Cameras and audio can be disabled in most video chats to curve unwanted behavior if redirection has not worked.

Lesson Planning

Both require lesson planning.  The biggest difference is the sharing of content.  Most traditional teachers share their work with their team.  With virtual teaching, the teachers have to develop their content.  Of course, they can purchase content or have someone to develop it for them.

The lesson plans, for virtual teachers, then has to be created and turned into a visual presentation that can be screen shared.  However, all classes do not require visuals (ex: social clubs, physical education as the instructor is the visual).

Administrative oversight

Most traditional teachers have some type of administrative oversight whether its in class observations or being told what to teach in a classroom.  Online teachers may have limited oversight depending on where they are offering their courses.

Professional development

Licensed/Certified teachers have some form of professional development or a certain number of hours they have to complete of professional development throughout the year.  Virtual educators only need to attend and participate in professional development if they choose.

Scheduling

In a traditional classroom, there are teaching and planning hours.  Virtual educators determine when they want to teach and have the option to produce pre-recorded lessons.

Feedback

Virtual teachers get feedback and reviews as they are offering their classes as a paid-for service.  Traditional teachers get feedback too, but it’s typically on their yearly reviews. 

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In my experience with coaching people that want to teach online, the transition for in-person teachers is a bit more challenging until they change their mindset.  Only when those teachers let go of all the “rules” they were taught about teaching in the classroom do they flourish as online educators.  People that have a business mindset tend to flourish because they come into this career thinking about their role as a businessperson first.  Those that have no experience teaching tend to flourish especially if they are creative and willing to focus on teaching their passion versus trying to teach a “trendy” topic.

Teaching online can work for anyone.  My Masterclass shows how to navigate all the areas of teaching online including an extension of what was mentioned above.  If you’re ready to start or grow your career in online teaching, check the course out.