How to Start Teaching Art Online
Teaching art online sounds like a lot of fun, and it seems like it would be hard to do, plus where do you even start?
How do you find a job teaching online?
I get asked this question a lot, and it depends on what your goals are. Are you hoping to teach art online full time? Are you looking for a similar salary and benefits to what you have at the public school, or are you hoping to do this on the side for extra income? Once you know your goals, that can help you to focus your searching.
I started teaching online 7 years ago, and it started from a simple google search ( teaching art online). Then I started to fill out applications. An important thing to keep in mind if you want to teach online is that you’re going to need to demonstrate that you have enough tech knowledge to do the job.
Where you teach will determine how much autonomy you have. Make sure that you understand expectations about the content that you teach, needed tools, and what your schedule looks like. One of my reasons for switching to online was that I wanted more flexibility and autonomy.
I mainly work with homeschool students and do not work for a traditional online school, here’s what that means.
- I pay for and host my own website where all of the course content lives for students to access.
- I create all of the course content and pay for the needed tools to do so. Computer, cameras, screen recorder and video storage, website.
- I set my schedule and determine what the overall class looks like.
- I’m paid per student, per month for the duration of the course (ie: no salary)
- From year to year, I don’t know how many students I will have. I work to make sure that home school families are aware of the courses that I offer.
As you can imagine there are pros and cons to all of the above and you need to reflect on what will work best for you.
Flexibility is important to both myself and my students. All course content is created and recorded so that students have access to it as soon as the course begins. We have weekly class calls, however, since those are online, I can do them from pretty much anywhere, so I’m able to keep the class running, while I go on vacation. I do need to grade and provide feedback to students weekly, so I need to set time aside for that to happen, for me, most of my grading happens over the weekend.
Since I’m working with high school AP students, it means that they usually already have a solid foundation of knowledge and work ethic. Teaching an intro to art course of a course for middle school students would likely look very different.
Teaching Online at the College Level
I used to also teach online graduate courses. This allowed for a lot of flexibility, however, as above, it’s going to vary depending on what school you’re working for. Make sure to ask questions and understand their processes and procedures. I loved teaching college courses online and only shifted away from this position as a different position within the school opened that was more appealing to me.
If you’re thinking about teaching online, below are questions that I’d encourage you to ask yourself.
- Are you self motivated and good at creating your own schedule and structure?
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Are you happy spending a lot of your time in front of a computer?
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Are you comfortable on camera?
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Do you like spending a lot of time by yourself?
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Are you good at problem-solving with technology?
Are you thinking about teaching online or creating your own courses to make money on the side?
I often receive additional questions about how to teach online and how to start your own courses. If this is something that you’re really interested in I recommend that you check out the course Do/Teach. Do/Teach is a self-paced e-course designed to lead you through the process of developing a creative e-course, workshop, or in-person course. You’ll develop a class based on your unique skills, talents, aesthetic, or vision that doesn’t just teach people how to rip you off. (After all, you want to protect your confidential processes.)