Online Teaching Jobs - Being An Effective Mentor

By Author: Romen Chertres
Total Articles: 57
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Online teaching jobs are much more diverse than most people realize. Anyone entering the field will have a variety of options. One choice is how much time the online educator wants to spend in hands-on helping of learners.

On the one end of the online learning spectrum there are downloadable courses that people get on with on their own, with little or no interaction with tutors or educators. These online teaching jobs may require the online educator to design and put together courses, without having too much to do with the learners themselves. At the other end of the spectrum are courses in which instruction, guiding and mentoring are absolutely central to the online learning experience.

A number of online teaching jobs fall somewhere in the middle. Contact with students typically involves a variety of methods. There might be email contact as well as direct instruction and discussion, by phone or videocall.

Mentoring in your online teaching jobs may also involve other types of contact. Perhaps you organize an online forum or learning community where your students can work with each other. Moderating a ...
... discussion forum is another kind of mentoring contact, even if it's less direct. Even how you mark and give input on assignments is part of the equation. Some online teaching jobs may also entail occasional face-to-face meetings, at events where students can come together.

The extent to which you are directly involved in your students' learning experience can vary hugely, depending on your subject, your teaching style and your students' needs. The key to being an effective mentor is being aware of those needs and providing a service in which you always step up to the plate.

It may sound incredibly simple, but the first and most important step is to make sure your students have the opportunity to express those needs. Learners may be reticent about showing weakness, or express views that may be critical. Providing learners with a comfortable space to give feedback is crucial. In your online teaching jobs, acting on that feedback is the next step in the process.

Effective mentoring means being available to your students when they need input. This can be a delicate balance. In your online teaching jobs you will want to be sensitive to their needs (pre-exam, panic for example) without becoming a slave to their demands. It means providing help but not doing their work for them. Building students' capacity to act on their own initiative is just as important as being there when they're feeling out of their depth.

Thinking through your mentoring style is something you can profitably do before you embark on a career in online teaching jobs. It's also something that you need to specify when you describe your services. A student who is expecting a high degree of direct personal attention but whose mentoring by you turns out be mostly by email is likely to be disappointed. In your online teaching jobs, good mentoring is about good judgement, good communication and good relationships.

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