As educators, even as we teach and nurture students to be the best version of themselves, we are also interested in acquiring new skills. We want to be well-equipped to give our students the best education that we can, and to do that, we must invest time––and sometimes money––in ourselves. For those of us who are budget-conscious, we are constantly on the lookout for free online teacher training courses.
“Whether we are talking about a class or an exam, the challenge is moving smoothly between a face-to-face and a virtual platform, without this impacting negatively on the learning experience.”
With school disruptions as a result of the Coronavirus, analysts such as Enrique Dans have challenged the status quo of education. Similarly, we believe that from this crisis, we have been forced to adapt and to experiment with different online teaching pedagogies. As the pandemic continues to rock the world, some of these changes are here to stay and they will indeed change education forever.
In light of these circ*mstances, upgrading courses for teachers to learn the best methods to teach online are even more important. Even when the pandemic is behind us, it would be beneficial to incorporate these new skills into our current curriculum.
To help teachers tide through this difficult period, we have identified eight free online teacher training courses:
Teaching for Home Learning by National STEM Learning Centre on FutureLearn
The Online Educator: People and Pedagogy by The Open University on FutureLearn
English Teaching courses by British Council
Instructional Design Models by the University of Maryland on edX
Class Central
Promising Practices in Online Teaching and Learning by Keith Restine
Teacher Training Videos by Russell Stannard
MIT OpenCourseWare
1. Teaching for Home Learning by National STEM Learning Centre on FutureLearn
FutureLearn provides over 140 free online teaching courses. One of these is the Teaching for Home Learning series that has two courses, one for primary Science and the second for Secondary Science. Each course occurs over two weeks with an estimated commitment time of three hours per week.
This series of online teaching courses were designed to help teachers adapt to online teaching in light of the Coronavirus pandemic. This course will walk teachers through the role that teachers and parents play in remote learning, as well as some pointers for conducting Science classes for students remotely.
Moving forward, teachers should ideally adopt blended learning in their teaching. In other words, this course does not merely cater to remote learning. It also aims to complement face-to-face lessons with online components.
2. The Online Educator: People and Pedagogy by The Open University on FutureLearn
After you have completed Teaching for Home Learning, consider enrolling in The Online Educator, a course that takes place over four weeks with an estimated commitment of four hours per week.
This course equips teachers with the skills to design and innovate online teaching materials. It is perfect for teachers who are curious about how to package and present online learning resources in the best way possible for students.
For free users, the course will be accessible for six weeks. Teachers have the option to upgrade to purchase the digital certificate upon course completion.
3. English Teaching Courses by British Council
British Council is one of the leading organisations that help students and teachers all over the world with the English language. Just as students can tap on the resources published by the British Council as part of their independent learning exercises, teachers can similarly learn to teach English!
The British Council offers free Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and the content that they share are frequently switched around. Currently, the Teaching for Success series seeks to inform teachers about the latest developments around English teaching from using multimedia sources to multilingualism.
4. Instructional Design Models by the University of Maryland on edX
Instructional Design Models is one segment of the Instructional Design and Technology MicroMasters Programme offered by the University of Maryland on edX. This course imparts knowledge for teachers to craft online lesson plans, encourage collaborative learning, and to ask questions in a way that provokes thoughtful responses.
This course is for teachers who are intrigued by the rise of online learning and are curious about what ideas can be adapted into traditional approaches to education. Interested participants can enrol in this course for free, with the paid option to upgrade to a verified certificate or even to pursue the full MicroMasters programme.
5. Class Central
Class Central offers thirty-one free online teacher training courses. Of these, twenty-seven carry the option to purchase certificates. These courses are offered by schools such as the Relay Graduate School of Education, the Erasmus University Rotterdam, and the University of Colorado Boulder.
6. Promising Practices in Online Teaching and Learning by Keith Restine
Keith Restine initially designed and published this course for internal circulation to help his colleagues adjust to remote teaching. Now, Restine has generously published his online teaching course under the Creative Commons license for all teachers to access.
The aim of this course is for teachers to learn how to conceptualise and implement an online teaching curriculum. This curriculum will comprise online group activities, strategies to encourage active learning, and time management.
This free course is one of the most extensive and it comes with a ninety-two paged free coursebook.
7. Teacher Training Videos by Russell Stannard
We understand that some teachers may not have the time to commit to full-length online modules to upgrade their teaching skills. Fortunately, Russell Stannard produces short videos to help teachers pick up the skills necessary to teach online. These videos range from five minutes to twenty-five minutes and are perfect for teachers with limited time to spare.
Stannard imparts technical skills with tutorial videos for Zoom, Google Docs, Moodle, and other online teaching platforms. Teachers who require more help on the technical aspects of online teaching should find Stannard’s videos informative and engaging.
Please watch this video below for an introduction to Stannard’s online teaching training videos:
8. MIT OpenCourseWare
MIT is one of the world’s top universities in a variety of majors. In 2019, QS World University Rankings designated MIT as the top university in the world for the eighth year running. Everyone wants to learn from MIT, and the good news is that you can! MIT has published portions of its vast archive of course materials for anyone to peruse for free.
Under the Teaching and Education tab in the MIT OpenCourseWare course finder, there is a list of courses at the graduate and undergraduate level for teachers to view. These online modules feature recorded lecture videos and thus enables teachers to watch the seminars offered by MIT’s best lecturers in the field.
The following video is an example of a recorded lecture published by MIT OpenCourseWare on YouTube. Here, the director of MIT’s Teaching+Learning Lab, Dr Janet Rankin lectures about using educational resources in the classroom:
Summary: Taking online teaching a step further
This article has introduced you to eight free online teacher training courses:
Teaching for Home Learning by National STEM Learning Centre on FutureLearn
The Online Educator: People and Pedagogy by The Open University on FutureLearn
English Teaching courses by British Council
Instructional Design Models by the University of Maryland on edX
Class Central
Promising Practices in Online Teaching and Learning by Keith Restine
Teacher Training Videos by Russell Stannard
MIT OpenCourseWare
These courses encompass a broad range of topics to ensure teachers have the technological know-how and have the appropriate strategies for online teaching.
Here at HeyHi, we want to empower teachers to conduct interactive online lessons. At the same time, we hope to ease the burden of teachers by making it easier to host virtual lessons.
Teachers have free access to the above eight resources to understand how to teach online. However, teachers also need the technology to back up all of this knowledge. Therefore, we have developed HeyHi’s online whiteboard for educators all over the world.
HeyHi is primarily an online whiteboard with video-conferencing capabilities integrated into the platform. Since the application is designed for teachers, the aim is to cultivate a virtual learning environment that is interactive and collaborative. Therefore, the video images of participants are non-intrusive and are kept to the side of the screen to minimise distractions.
Since multiple students can collaborate and write their input on HeyHi’s shared whiteboard, HeyHi paves the way for student discussions and collaborative learning even if students are not physically together.
Students can import worksheets and notes in the form of PDF documents or images. They can then annotate and mark up the uploaded materials to share with the rest of their peers. With different coloured pens and highlighters, students can draw diagrams such as the one below to enhance and augment their learning experience. These basic drawing tools are available even for users on a free subscription plan. Teachers who want to expand their use of HeyHi to larger class sizes may find it worthwhile to upgrade to a higher tier at competitive prices.
On HeyHi’s online whiteboard, teachers retain control over how content is shared in a virtual classroom. To minimise accidental disruptions, teachers can apply screen lock and selectively permit students to provide their input as the lesson progresses.
HeyHi’s online whiteboard is ideal to deliver online lessons because it is highly accessible. Students can view and participate in lessons from their desktops. Alternatively, they can also download the application from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store.
If you are interested in giving HeyHi’s online whiteboard a try for your next online lesson, please request a demo or even experience the user interface for yourself!
Taking online teaching courses enables you to make intelligent decisions about your future and get qualified at any time. We have 25 years as an accredited education provider and only offer courses that provide relevant industry qualifications.
This accelerated course, designed so that you can focus on achieving the best possible degree classification, will allow you to graduate in just two years, instead of the traditional three years. This is without the extra pressure of having to meet the teacher standards to gain QTS while on a placement.
You can easily begin this journey with an online teaching degree. In this article, we will go into detail about all you need to know about teacher accreditation.
Teachers play an important role in society as they help learners gain knowledge and skills that prepare them for life post-school or in their respective career paths.
Full-time courses usually take three to four years, while part-time courses take four to six years. If you have undergraduate credits from previous study, you might be able to complete a course in two years.
The average pay range for an Online Teaching job varies greatly (by as much as $11.54), which suggests there may be many opportunities for advancement and increased pay based on skill level, location and years of experience.
Does Teachable have a free plan? Yes, Teachable offers a free plan, though it only gives access to to test the platform out for 14 days. You can create your course and get everything set up, but you'll need to upgrade to a paid plan to start selling your courses.
A teachable Basic Plan is an affordable option for new course creators. With just $39 per month or $29, if you are paying annually, you are allowed to upload unlimited courses, access to unlimited students, video bandwidth, and hosting.
Google offers several courses that provide free certification through various excellent e-learning platforms. The best part about these courses is that you can access them from any part of the world with the help of the internet.
How much does a Google professional certificate program cost? Each program is free to try out for seven days with a Coursera trial. After the trial ends, the program will cost $39 a month to keep learning, so the faster you complete each course, the more money you'll save.
Take the Google Certified Educator Level 1 exam (~3 hours) to assess your ability to successfully integrate Google tools into their teaching practice to enhance teaching and learning. This exam will help you build your confidence as you work with educators and Google tools.
If you already have a bachelor's degree, you may be able to become a teacher in just one year by enrolling in a master's in education programs for non-teachers with a licensure track.
You may follow one of two routes in becoming a teacher, namely: a four-year Bachelor of Education degree (B.Ed.); a three-or four-year Bachelor's degree, followed by a one-year Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE). Once completed, both routes lead to classification as a professionally qualified teacher.
You can work as an unqualified teacher in a secondary school/further education while training part-time or you can complete a University or College course such as the Professional Certificate in Education (PCE) or the Certificate of Education (CertEd), which both meet the requirements of Level 5 DET.
Wherever you are in your journey to becoming a teacher, don't let your age be a factor. Students and schools need all kinds of teachers. Your experience will most likely be an asset: part of what makes your teaching and your classroom uniquely valuable to your school community. In short, it's never too late to teach!
There are some real advantages to online degrees. First, because you don't pay for housing and textbooks, they cost less. Job applicants have less stress from student debt. Second, students who earn online degrees from accredited schools often do so while holding a full-time job.
Yes, you can teach English online without a degree! While some of the major online teaching companies require a degree, there are many that don't. A TEFL certification can provide you with the training and qualifications that you need to get a job teaching English online.
How Fast Can You Become a Teacher? Becoming a teacher usually takes between four and five years. It is possible, however, to become certified to teach in only four years. This is accomplished by completing an accelerated program which completes the credentialing process within the four-year bachelor's degree.
In 2021, the average K-12 public school teacher nationwide was paid $65,090. Average teacher pay was the highest in New York at $87,738, followed by Massachusetts and California. In three states — Mississippi, Florida, and South Dakota — teachers made less than $50,000 on average.
Mississippi saw the highest teacher-to-student vacancy rate in the 2021-22 school year. The state reported having nearly 69 missing teachers per 10,000 students. In comparison, Utah had less than one missing teacher per 10,000 students.
Florida leads the nation with nearly 4,000 unfilled teaching positions for the 2021–22 school year, followed by Illinois with 1,703 and Arizona with 1,699.
Become An Online Tutor. Do you have expertise in a particular subject, or do you have experience in teaching students in a university in any subject? ...
Mississippi has the lowest average teacher salary of $45,574, followed by West Virginia with $47,826. The other states with average teacher salaries under $50,000 a year are New Mexico, Florida, South Dakota, Kansas, and Arizona. ... Teacher Pay by State 2023.
Yes.Teaching English online provides great opportunities to earn a good salary on either a part-time or full-time basis. While it isn't the most lucrative profession, it does offer great flexibility and convenience, including the ability to make money from home while impacting the lives of others.
But can you support yourself working as an online teacher? Teaching English online salaries depend on your qualifications and the specific job, so you can expect to make anywhere from $12-$40 USD/hour.
As independent contractors, online teachers are required to pay 15.3% in taxes on their yearly income. This amount includes 12.4% for social security and 2.9% for Medicare. To be safe, make sure you set aside 15.3% from every paycheck you get into savings to avoid surprises during tax season.
You can host a class online for free using Google Meet. The free version allows you to meet with 100 people for 60 minutes. This is more than good enough for most course creators.
"Google Classroom is available for free for schools that are using Google Apps for Education., but there's a paid G Suite Enterprise for Education tier that includes additional features, such as advanced videoconferencing features, advanced security and premium support.
If you want to teach online and earn money, Chegg is the best platform for you. Chegg gives you the security of your job, flexibility in working hours, and a stipend for your services. This will allow you to earn money and gain knowledge from all over the world. So, don't wait any longer and start earning.
All group meetings scheduled and hosted by Basic (free) users, on Free and Paid accounts, are limited to 40 minutes, regardless of number of participants in attendance. This includes: 1 host, 1 or more participants. 0 host, 1 or more participants.
Like Slack, Trello, and other online team-based platforms, Microsoft Teams is far more of a 'teaching platform' (though it's not designed expressly for teachers) than Zoom.
On July 15, 2022, Zoom is changing the meeting duration limit for 1:1 meetings hosted by Basic (free) users on paid accounts to 40 minutes. This change creates a uniform 40-minute meeting duration limit for all meetings hosted by Basic (free) users on all account types.
Universities, colleges, and private organizations offer free online college courses to help students acquire new knowledge and skills. These courses cover a variety of traditional academic topics and other subjects that can lead to career advancement and personal enrichment.
Google Workspace for Education offers Education Fundamentals to all qualifying institutions at no cost. For those that want more premium features, Google also offers paid editions including Education Standard, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Education Plus.
I highly recommend Google Classroom to anyone looking for a simple application to make the online teaching-learning process easier but one shouldn't expect it to cater to all needs. Pros: The best thing about Google Classroom is that it's free.
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