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Top Ten Instructor Benefits
- Flexibility in Scheduling. As with online students, online instructors also benefit from more flexible schedules. This can allow instructors to more easily travel or attend conferences during a semester, or even move their main residence due to fewer commutes to campus.
- Can Prevent Some Lower-Enrollment Courses from Being Dropped. In several instances, instructors report they could convert a class or a program that may not work financially in the classroom to the online format and maintain or grow its FTEs.
- Reach Out-of-State Students. Many online instructors note they have attracted students from other states and other countries to enroll in their online courses.
- Reach a New Group of In-State Students. Instructors report that they are reaching a new demographic of Wisconsin residents who include middle-aged people who work full-time and want to pursue a degree.
- Learn Something New. Learning how to teach online courses can reinvigorate your interest in teaching.
- Improve How You Teach in the Classroom. Instructors report that one of the surprise benefits they found in teaching online is that they've carried over some of their new techniques to their face-to-face courses, such as being more structured or even using the online learning management tool for their classroom courses.
- Shift Some Responsibility to the Student. If a student misses a face-to-face class session, the burden is often on the instructor to bring handouts and assignments to a subsequent class for that student. With online courses, all the information is available online and the responsibility lies with the students to do each assignment.
- Connect with Students. This was another surprise to some instructors who may have thought that their relationship with students would become impersonal through the online format. Many report that the opposite was true - that the one-on-one nature of communication made them feel a closer connection to each student.
- Attract More Motivated Learners. Instructors note that online students can be more focused, more motivated, and more self-disciplined than classroom-based students, making the online teaching experience very gratifying. Districts and individual instructors make available a broad variety of screening tools to help students assess their suitability.
- More Control over the Learning Environment. Instructors note the structure required in online courses can be a powerful organizing factor.
