Online Education Degree Programs
“A teacher can but lead you to the door; learning is up to you.”
– Chinese proverb
Overview
Do you like to teach? Enjoy the satisfaction of helping develop young minds? Maybe you should consider a career in education, backed up by an accredited online education degree. Teachers – from K-12 right through college level – are responsible for helping students learn, understand and apply concepts. An accredited online education degree, whether a Bachelor’s, Master’s, or Ph.D. in Education, or even a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in Education, will help you find the job you want as an elementary school, secondary school or college-level teacher, department head, or even principal. Along with accredited teacher's assistant certification and other online education degree programs, an online education degree may be the key to your success.
Whether your interest is in teaching, education administration, being a teacher's assistant or becoming a professor at a college or university, the job you are interested in will involve shaping the minds of tomorrow. It's an important job and one that requires the right credentials or certification. For a degree, education, on line or off, is always necessary. If you don’t have time to get an education degree off line, you should consider starting your degree education on line. For teacher's assistants, an online degree education can be conveniently attained while working. Depending on the point in your education career, an accredited online education degree or certified training as a teacher's assistant may be a smart place to start. You should research various online colleges or online universities and choose which of the many education degrees they offer are right for you.
Online Education Degree: Career Insights
- Educators need to be educated – even elementary school teachers must have at least a bachelor’s degree, take additional coursework in education, and be licensed.
- However, it is possible in some cases to get a job as a teacher and then earn an online education degree.
- Market demand for teachers fluctuates with the population, and right now is the time to get your online education degree: the children of the Baby Boomers are going to school.
Preschool Teachers
Preschool teachers – who teach children ages 2-5 – typically have completed coursework in early childhood education. To be a preschool teacher requires patience, creativity and the ability to think like a child -- without behaving like one – as an online degree education will help give you. Preschool teachers tend to work in less structured environments and to work with smaller size classes.
Elementary School Teachers
Elementary school teachers – that is, kindergarten through fifth grade – typically teach one class of students multiple subjects. These teachers must be capable of instructing in a broad range of subjects, typically English, mathematics, science and social studies. Though you’ve probably mastered all these subjects at the elementary level, an online education degree is necessary to teach you how to manage and impart information to your students.
Middle and Secondary School Teachers
By middle and secondary school, students’ coursework becomes much more difficult and teachers tend to specialize in a particular area, such as history, shop or gym. In the case of middle and secondary school, even if you’re an expert in the subject you teach, an online education degree can equip you to deal with behavioral issues arising from the onset of adolescence, when many children seem to have difficulty focusing on their schoolwork.
College Professor
College and university faculty are expected to have an advanced degree such as a master’s or Ph.D. in their chosen fields as well as to be a trained and licensed educator. College-level educators are expected to be actively engaged in research in their fields in addition to simply being able to teach subjects to undergraduates. An online master's degree in education is a great way to pursue this avenue of teaching while continuing to work in the education field.
Administration - Principal, Superintendent and Directors
From elementary school through university level, the teaching faculty is paralleled by administrators, all of whom have education degrees, responsible for setting educational direction and standards at the school,. At the elementary and secondary school level, the top administrator is the school principal , whose ultimate responsibility is to ensure that students receive an education that meets government standards. The superintendent of schools is a position with responsibility for multiple schools. The superintendent works with principals, faculty and parents to set direction and make decisions about education. Secondary schools also have administrators in charge of specialty areas such as the Director of Special Education, whose role is to see to the needs of learning-disabled children.
College or University Administration
At the college level, there is typically a college president, whose responsibilities involve hiring other administrators and faculty and raising money for the school. The top educational administrator is the dean of students, who is in charge of setting and enforcing academic standards as well as standards for teachers. Some schools attempting to mimic current trends in business may also have a chief learning officer or a chief knowledge officer.
Now that you’ve been educated about careers in education, you should continue to learn more about accredited education degree online programs such as the bachelor of arts in education; bachelor of arts in education with a specialization in special education; master of science in education; masters teaching degree; master of arts in education with a specialization in curriculum and instruction; master of arts in education with a specialization in special education; Ph.D. in Education; and Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership. An accredited degree in Education, whether it’s from an online, campus or correspondence college or university, will be a valuable experience and credential necessary to your career.
Click here for a complete list of accredited online Education degree programs