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UW-Stout Online Professional Development

Quality online professional development since 2004.

Three Keys to Finding Online Work

UW-Stout E-Learning and Online Teaching Career Center

Facilitation and Response: Discussion Best Practices

Learn More: E-Learning and Online Teaching Certificate

Infographic: E-Learning and Online Teaching Graduate Certificate Program

Finding E-Learning Jobs

Online teaching was the perfect part-time job for me. E-learning and online teaching replaced coaching and after school clubs as a way to supplement my income. I loved it! I was working with great teachers from around the world and learning new things everyday. I also realized I was opening a door to a new career. Eventually, after 25 years in a traditional classroom, I decided to take early retirement, and pursue my passion for online teaching and learning full time.

Now I make my living online and enjoy a freedom and flexibility that once seemed like an impossible dream. I am the program advisor for the E-Learning and Online Teaching Graduate Certificate Program at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. Working online is everything I'd hoped for, and more. It didn't happen overnight, but it did happen. I made the change one step at a time. It took me awhile to figure out how to find work.

I've found that the key to an online career is a power triangle of essential elements:

• Subject Matter Expertise
• 21st Century Networking
• E-learning and Teaching Experience

Power Triangle 
for E-Learning Success

Subject Matter Expertise

Your expertise is rooted with your life, academic, and work experiences. If you are a teacher, your expertise is established by the courses you've taught and the degrees you hold. If you are a military, corporate or medical trainer your expertise is established by your subject specialization and the variety of training positions you've held.

An Graduate Certificate in E-Learning and Online Teacher documents a new area of subject matter expertise!

Building Your Network

Roughly 80% of your e-learning work will come from networking face to face and online.

Decision makers want to hire people they know. When they can't find someone they know personally they reach out to an extended network of trusted advisors. Many jobs go unadvertised or are created when a person with the right skills is discovered.

Building your networks will open the door to a new future.

5 Ways to Build Your Professional Network

1. Start where you work right now.

• Let your professional circle know you are pursuing an e-learning certificate or a degree online.
• Many participants in UW-Stout's E-Learning and Online Teaching program are offered new e-learning jobs where they are currently working..

2. Find Professional organizations and conferences.

• Go to conferences and get to know others who share your professional interests.
• Attend both face to face and online conferences (Webinars).
• Have business cards printed and hand them out!
• Design and pursue your own professional development path.  This Educause Planner will help you plan your future! 

3. Become an online student.

• Successful online students become successful online teachers.
• Get to know your classmates.
• Some of your strongest professional bonds will be with colleagues you meet in your online classes.

4. Be active in professional networks.

• Join an online network dedicated to your specific professional interests.
• Join job search oriented social networks.

5. Build your professional credibility with a website or e-portfolio*.

• A professional presence on the Internet is important.
• Build a classroom website.
• Write a blog about an area of interest.
• Create a wiki for collaborative projects
• Show what you know with an e-portfolio.

*Those enrolled in the E-Learning and Online Teaching Certificate Program will build these components and moreduring their training.

E-Learning and Online Teaching Experience

The University of Wisconsin-Stout E-Learning and Online Teaching Graduate Certificate Program provides experience as both an online student and an online teacher.

You have a developed a skill set as a classroom teacher or trainer. However, teaching or training experience does not fully prepare you for the unique challenges of e-learning and online teaching.

• Jumping into online teaching job without training can be a painful and frustrating experience.
• You need experience as an onlne teacher and specialized training in facilitation techniques to develop the craft of effective online instruction.

As an online student:

• You will experience the best practices of online learning.
• You will learn how to develop a community of learners through intense collaboration and discussion.
• You will build strong professional bonds with your colleagues.
• You will work with highly trained master teachers who are dedicated to helping you grow and learn.

As an online teacher in training:

• You create curriculum and assessments using Web 2.0 tools.
• You facilitate small group discussions.
• You practice the teaching skills in a supportive environment rich in timely feedback.
• Each of the five classes is a model of the best practices of teaching and learning online.

The Certificate Practicum: Real World Experience

• If you've never taught an online class, you'll teach with a mentor teacher in one of our online professional development classes.
• If you are currently teaching or training online, we craft a program that offers you the course design or teaching skill feedback you most need.
• Customized internships with K-12 Virtual Schools are also possible.

Build a future as a teacher and learner in the 21st Century! Join us and open the door to a new career!

UW-Stout's five-course E-Learning and Online Teaching Graduate Certificate focuses on the strategies and techniques of teaching online. The courses model best practices in e-learning with interactive discussions and hands-on experiences creating and using blogs, wikis, podcasts, and Moodle in K-12 education. The courses will benefit educators and trainers interested in designing online and blended courses or using Web-based components to enhance face-to-face instruction.

Courses are offered each semester (three times each year). All courses earn three graduate credits.

Read More about Finding E-Learning Jobs! 

Here are more articles about strategies for finding online work, and the kinds of preparation and paperwork you should be working on: 

1. Where and How to Find E-Learning Jobs
2. Finding E-Learning Jobs
3. Finding Online Teaching Jobs: Are you a Online Teaching, Adjunct Instructor, K-12 Virtual Teacher? 
4. E-Portfolios for Career Development: It's not just resumes anymore!
5. Make Money Teaching Online 
6. Successful Techniques and Proven Strategies for Finding Online Teaching Work
7. Build an Online Career (Interactive Graphic)
8. E-Learning Job Listings

Generation Text

Richard Paul on Critical Thinking

My father taught me to 'always examine the premise' of an argument.   He explained that if you accepted someone's premise you could be easily convinced they were 'right'.  If you looked skeptically at the basis of their argument  you would think more clearly and argue your for your position more effectively.  Dad wanted me to become a lawyer. I almost did, but chose education instead.  I wanted to work with people when they were at their best.

I've been fortunate   I've had many great teachers. The one that had the biggest impact on my 'critical thinking' was Dr. Richard Paul.

He was the keynote speaker at a education conference I attended in the late 80's.  His talk was challenging.  He took the crowd to task and spent an hour beating the educational establishment like a cheap drum for not systematically teaching critical thinking. I loved it. It felt good to have my thinking validated in a dramatic and Socratic manner

Dr. Paul's ideas and passion lit me up.  I was so luck to run into him in the hotel bar. This lead to 2 hours of fascinating conversation, part debate, part conversation, our talk changed my teaching life. I learned I could hang in with a heavy weight.  I saw a way to make a change in my classroom.

Richard Paul was a man who made me think.  And it was good.

I bought his books.  I used his Socratic questioning methods in class. I printed and hung a banner that said:  Learn how to think! on my classroom wall. This became one of my foundation values as a teacher.  It remains so to this day.

One of my most cherished memories is of being pilloried in the principal's office by an outraged parent. This particular father had a truly brilliant daughter. She had a hungry mind. His voice shook with anger as he pointed at me and shouted:

"How dare you teach my child to challenge authority!"  

I'll admit that I was very upset by this at the time. But over the years that encounter has become a badge of honor. 

Richard Paul's work clarified by thinking about teaching. I wanted to attend the summer session at his Foundation for Critical Thinking in Sonoma California but simply couldn't afford the time or money.(Being a young teacher with a growing family and a pitiful pay check had it's limitations.)  I truly regret not following that path. 

I found a great two part video from Richard Paul that reminded me why I wanted to learn more from him.  I watched both videos several times.  Once again his ideas lit me up.

Critical Thinking - Standards of Thought - Part 1 http://youtu.be/gNCOOUK-bMQ

Critical Thinking - Standards of Thought - Part 2 Foundation for Critical Thinking: http://youtu.be/Ksk2-ayoBck

Dr. Paul was a lot more interesting in that bar in Arizona than he is in these brief lectures.  Still he lays out the foundations of critical thinking in less that a half an hour.

As I wrote this, is thought about my access to professional education in the 1980's and said "I wish there had been an online option."  So I just checked and found there are two online courses offers through Cal-State Sonoma on critical thinking for instructors.  I'm tempted! http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/online-courses-for-instructors/574

Dennis O'Connor -- Thinking about thinking in La Jolla CA while the piano player echos the halls with fine music.