Why Online?

If you are reading this, it means you are one of the early subscribers to this newsletter and I am so grateful for it. I wanted to give you a little background of how I got here. My career thus far includes 25 years as a teacher-turned-district administrator, and then as an edtech corporate partner that supports school districts. While working in my school district, my team was responsible for shifting everyone to remote learning when the COVID pandemic caused schools to temporarily close doors. Although the circumstances were rough, it was a true testament to what was possible with online resources. The rushed response did not produce ideal results, because there was absolutely no time to properly prepare teachers and students for this new learning environment. They were thrown into the deep end and left feeling like online instruction wasn’t worth the effort. This is understandable. 

In spite of the failed COVID remote learning response, people everywhere continued to seek out online options for college degrees, professional certifications and self-help resources. There has been a 400% surge in people seeking online learning options in the last 5 years. As a veteran educator, I have been less than impressed with the instructional design of some of these efforts. So what did I do about it? I started a business to design and build quality elearning for educators and small businesses. When a customer comes to me with a need to create a custom online training course, I build it from scratch. 

However, there is even more opportunity here. Like you, I continue to hear the stories of teachers leaving the profession due to various reasons, and there isn’t a crowd of new teachers signing up to replace them. I don’t have solutions to all the issues they are facing, but I do want to dangle the option of shifting to online teaching as something to consider. First, there is a huge demand for quality online instruction. The global eLearning market size was valued at $210.1 billion in 2021 and is expected to surpass $848.12 billion in U.S. dollars by 2030. The onset of artificial intelligence will contribute even more growth. The group that would have a comfortable head start to join this educational revolution would be those already in the education field….teachers. 

Making the shift to teaching online takes more prep than just activating a Zoom call. The good news is that my support resources will help hesitant teachers ease in with confidence. My training style can take a beginner through all the basics to command a captive audience in a virtual learning environment. This doesn’t have to be a full time commitment either. Ideally testing this out as a part-time gig would bring in a steady second income stream without additional stress. So if you are here, you will get access to all my tips and guidance. If you or anyone you know is interested in getting “upskilled” for this change, download my free ebook as a first step to building confidence online.

Thanks again,

Akilah