It doesn’t matter what career you’re in. To succeed you will need to take an interest in your professional development. Careers in the field of online tutoring jobs are no exception. Professional development should be part of the career plan of anyone involved in delivering online learning.
Because online tutoring jobs are a relatively new development in education, a significant number of practitioners are self-taught. People feel their way into this way of teaching, learning as they go along. Probably they make some mistakes and encounter some difficulties, but they get there in the end, becoming more competent and confident, and gaining a fuller appreciation of the terrain of online learning with experience.
As time goes by, and as online learning plays an increasingly important role in the field of education, more and more resources are available to teachers to facilitate their professional development. On the one hand, formal courses have taken shape and, along with workshops and other upskilling events, are offered both in teacher training institutions and, of course, online.
A 2008 study examined the needs of K-12 teachers and the challenges they face delivering online learning programs. The top two areas of need were the use of communication technologies and time management. In relation to meeting learners’ needs educators with experience of online tutoring jobs identified developing students’ ability to take responsibility for lesson mastery, along with time management, as key issues. Also identified as important in online learning was the need to develop ‘alternative interventions’ to help teachers respond to the differing needs of different students.
People working in the field of online tutoring jobs are likely to have experienced these challenges to effective teaching. Keeping up to speed with solutions to problems in delivering online learning programs is a key aspect of professional development. Even if teachers are not in a mentoring or networking relationship with other online educators, there are opportunities for interaction at conferences and other meetings that can be hugely helpful.
Teachers will find a variety of journals and other resources online that serve as valuable aids to professional development. No-one planning to make a career in online tutoring jobs, or already doing so, can afford to neglect keeping tabs on developments. Because online learning is a relatively new and expanding field, research is constantly identifying new issues and teaching strategies to enhance its efficiency. This means that people involved in delivering online learning may have to devote particular attention to emerging research findings and available training and networking opportunities, in order to ensure their professional development and effectiveness as an online educator.
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