Hi, I am wondering if anyone can give some advice. I live in the United Kingdom and I am studying for a degree in humanities. I have always been interested in teaching but I do not want to do the PGCE training in order to be a classroom teacher. I have always wanted to be a distance learning or online tutor. You see, I am very shy and have tried to get myself to think about doing teacher training but I would prefer to teach on a distance learning basis. I am interested in doing an online tutoring qualification but does anyone know if I would need to do any other qualifications? I look forward to hearing from you.
If you're in the UK, you can't go too far wrong with this one. http://www3.open.ac.uk/courses/bin/p12.dll?Q02F10_education OU tutoring vacancies are usually advertised once ayear, but they're still looking at the moment http://www3.open.ac.uk/employment/associate-lecturers/ Beyond the OU, I think most institutions in the are keeping the tutoring and teaching pretty much in-house at the moment. Angela
Also, I should have added that behind every OU course there's a huge team of educational developers and specialists who help build and support the course. Keep an eye on the general OU vacancies page at http://www3.open.ac.uk/employment/jobs-external.asp for any jobs that come up. Generally they like a subject background, plus some development experience and an interest in the pedagogical aspects of distance learning. Angela
Hi Angela, Thanks for replying to the message. I am already studying with the OU. The thing is, I don't want to have to do a PCGE and then gain teaching experience in order to become a distance learning/online tutor. Would the course that you mentioned be an alternative to a teaching qualification? Thanks
The OU doesn't require a PGCE or a teaching qualification for tutors unless you're doing something in the education field, although having teaching experience at any level never hurts. In fact, there are currently no compulsory teaching qualification requirements for university-level teaching in the UK, although membership of the ILT is being pushed by most institutions. If you're already doing Humanities at the OU, have a chat with your tutor, who'll be able to tell you a lot more. I tend to know more about the technology and organisation side of things, as two of my closest friends work in course development at the MK campus. Angela
Hi Angela, Thanks for replying to my message. I actually asked the OU about teaching their 10 credit points courses and although they said that you don't need a PGCE qualification, you do need teaching experience. I really want to become a distance learning tutor but I lack any teaching experience. I'm too shy to do any classroom practical teaching, so how am I going to get the experience? Also, do you think that the distance learning tutoring qualification you suggested would compensate for not having teaching experience? I look forward to hearng from you.
Hmmm. Traditionally, most of us in UK academia got over our shyness about teaching by doing some part-time work whilst postgraduates. It is, after all, very difficult to be shy about teaching people you're quite likely to run into in the department day after day. Given a few years, I think that there will be plenty of DL teaching practice courses, but at the moment they're as rare as hen's teeth. H802 comes close, but it doesn't involve any teaching practice. As far as I can see, all the IET courses assume that you already are teaching in some form, and want to know about how to move to DL or online. None of them provide initial training or teaching experience, so I suspect that the OU wouldn't count them. Similarly, the Capella certificate course http://www.capella.edu/reborn/html/schools/education/train_cert.aspx is very nice but doesn't involve any real teaching experience. I think you're going to have to ask the OU for more specific details about this problem. If the OU say you have to have done some face to face time, then the least threatening environment would be your local college of adult education. They're always looking for tutors, especially if you're prepared to teach basic skills, and they'll provide training as well. Best of all, the average college of adult ed is full of people who volunteered to be there, really want to learn, are quite often just as shy as the rest of us . . . and are extremely likely to turn into the OU students of the future, so you'll have excellent experience with the type of student you'll encounter later. Angela
Hi Angela, Thanks for reply. I don't think I have confidence to teach adults in a further education college either but I know what you mean about it probably being the least threatening place to start teaching. The reason that I want to teach by distance learning is because of not wanting to stand in front of a class to teach. You know when you mention teaching adults basic skills? Would that have to involve taking a class on my own or would it mean helping qualified teachers in a class? Woujld it have to paid work or could it be voluntary? Thanks.
Get a new mantra? Andrea, each time you keep repeating your "shyness" mantra it becomes more ingrained in you. I have no doubt you *could* teach a face-to-face class, and if teaching is something that matters to you, you would grow into the role. The shyness would start to slip away over time, and you'd be fine. Doesn't mean to avoid distance tutoring, but don't close doors on more customary forms of teaching. There are plenty of excellent teachers who are quiet presences in a classroom. Peter
