5 Steps Guide To Becoming A Successful Online Educator - Getting Started

The internet has opened us up to countless opportunities where not only has learning become more accessible but teaching has too. With dedication, commitment and passion you can jump-start into teaching online courses and even getting paid for it.

While you might have thought of the idea of becoming an online Educator, most times it becomes a herculean task to put it into play by getting started with it.

In this guide, I’ll be explaining very simple steps that can get you started on becoming an online Educator and platforms where you can contribute to.

1. Set personal goals and regular schedules

Setting personal goals or goal setting cannot be overly emphasized. It is the backbone of accomplishments. With so many things happening so fast around us it is very easy to push out being an online educator from your priority list.

To prevent you from doing it later and by later I mean -the following weekend, the following month or the following year, you need to set up concrete goals with specific dates and numbers: how often you will publish a new topic? If you’re to get paid for publishing your content? how much do you expect to earn from your content?

The reason why you do this is that having a knowledge of your commitments and the number of resources you need to put in — the time and the data you need to make the research with is very important.

You should also learn to get an accountability partner. This person is going to be who you will report to and give updates on your development; how much you’ve been able to write, how much you’ve been able to publish, how much you’ve been able to earn. In some cases, you could also form a group where you have fellow teachers and educators where you can ask for feedback and help from others.

2. Pick A Class Topic

Although no formula is cast-in-stone, there are practical steps that you can use to develop a class topic that fits your particular skill and your niche perfectly

Having a clear understanding of your audience as the people you are going to reach out to is very important. You should be able to research your audience perfectly and think of a creative project you did in the past that you can teach them.

The following are important indicators that can guide you in choosing a class topic:

- Pick a target audience:

Here you are going to create the category of students you intend to reach out to. Whether they are in the junior level or the senior level, whether they are preparing for examinations, all students that require a certain skill-set whether it is Photoshop, Microsoft word, excel, robotics even computer programming

- Research your audience community:

here you’ll properly identify the skills that you think your audience will see as most practical and relevant

- Think of a creative project you’ve done in the past:

Naturally, learners are attracted to educators who have done stuff. You should sit back and identify creative projects you enjoyed doing and how you can build your class topic from that Project.

3. Pick The Right Online Platform

At this stage, most people get confused as a result of the readily available options that exist on the internet but what’s important is choosing an online learning platform that best suits you.

You should be able to select a platform that meets your needs whether it is about maximizing your earnings, having readily available class creation tools or even being part of the community that is passionate about learning and teaching. At the moment LetsLearn and Brainiacs offer a learning platform that can get you started.

4. Make Your Class Interactive and Online Friendly

A handful of online courses tries to duplicate the form of learning that happens in the four walls of a classroom but interestingly it doesn’t work that way.

Students that learn online, tend to make it to the final stage of the course when it is made shorter. Educators are always encouraged to create classes that come in small chunks; classes that typically last about 20 to 40 minutes.

By making your content easy to digest students get to stay focused and committed for weeks. It also creates a sense of achievement which from every indication is the best part about learning one great hack about this is putting yourself in your students’ shoes by taking some online courses.

5. Communicate, Connect, And Engage

One thing that online teaching has reduced is face-to-face interaction. Some people say it’s making it more difficult to Foster and maintain student engagement but in this period of the COVID-19 global pandemic, it is the best form for learning.

Interestingly online learning platforms now leverage on tools that will eliminate this barrier. Some other learning platforms go to the extent of making use of machine learning and artificial intelligence models on their platforms for sentiment analysis and other forms of behavioural learning.