Breaking Into Online Teaching
I begin my journey transitioning to a new career in adult education 3 years ago. After spending years working in health information, I felt that I had accomplished my career goals and desired to change the direction of my career. After investing so much time in this field, I wanted to carefully weigh my options for the future. I wanted to spend the second phase of my career enjoying my work and making an impact on others. I have always enjoyed the training aspect of my career in health information. The best part of being health information professional is to invest in others by teaching them what you have learned over the years. Teaching seemed to be the right fit for me to remain in the field I love and teach those coming into the profession.
My goal was to teach at a traditional school in the health sciences area. I knew I needed to go back to school to obtain a master's degree to meet the qualifications for an instructor. I found an online school that would work around my work and family life. I enrolled in the school of education in 2005 and obtained my master's in 2007. I contacted local community colleges and technical schools in my area looking for my first teaching job. Also, I targeted online schools to broaden my search. I applied at several online schools for part-time and full-time teaching positions. Although I had years of experience in health information, I did not have any teaching experience, and in particular experience with facilitating classes online. Most online schools want you to have at least 1 to 2 years of experience teaching online.
I continued to send out résumés and contacted health information program directors offering my services as an adjunct just to get my foot in the door. Eventually, my persistence paid off by attending a job fair for instructors at a community college. I talked with the dean and chair of health science programs and played up my experience. I expressed my desire to teach any courses in the health sciences area. I completed an application and left several résumés. I got the name, position and phone number of every person I spoke with at the job fair. I graduated 3 months after the job fair and got an offer to teach in the medical assisting program. I was finally going to realize my dream of teaching.
Although I did not have a year of teaching experience preferred by online schools, I continued to pursue online schools as an instructor. I refused to take no for an answer. You must be persistent and play up your experience as much as possible. I was contacted by an online school for an adjunct position. I made it through the initial human resources screening interview. After a few weeks, I was contacted by human resources and a series of interviews was set up. I made it through the series of interviews and was asked to submit an essay on my teaching philosophy. I was offered the position and was on the top of the world.
Here are a few tips on how to break into online teaching:
- Assess your skills as health information professional. What courses are you qualified to teach?
- Target local community colleges in your area and offer to provide your services as an adjunct instructor. Some community colleges offer online courses.
- Contact the program directors of health information programs in your state. You can get a listing from the state health information association.
- Broaden your search by considering teaching in areas such as medical assisting, office management, secretarial/unit secretary.
- Create a computer file of the contacts you have made and follow up on these. The goal is to keep your name fresh in the mind of the potential employer.
- Attend faculty job fairs at community colleges. Bring an updated résumé and be prepared to sell yourself.
- Take courses related to instructional technology (courses on e-learning, podcasting, instructional design).
- Get comfortable with navigating and researching on the Web.
- Update computer hardware and software. Teaching online requires that you have updated software and hardware.
- Conduct research on online schools that you are interested in. Make sure the school is accredited. Look at how long the school has been around. What is the graduation rate? Are there problems with student retention?
The best advice that I can give anyone interested in teaching online is to showcase your unique skills as health information professional. Be persistent in your search for an online teaching position and market yourself to online institutions. We have been educated and trained to perform a variety of tasks that make us uniquely qualified to teach students over a wide spectrum.