For some learners, the biggest advantage isn’t the technology, but simply being able to take part without the difficulties of traveling to a classroom or training venue.
At a Glance
The biggest benefits of online teaching include greater flexibility, lower costs, the ability to teach learners anywhere in the world, improved work-life balance, reduced travel, easier sharing of learning materials, better accessibility, and new income opportunities.
What are the Two Types of Online Teaching?
It is useful first, though, to explain the two different types of online teaching, as there are definite differences for you as a teacher or trainer teaching online.
Online teaching usually falls into two main categories, and these are synchronous teaching, where the trainer and learners meet live online, and asynchronous teaching, where learners complete lessons in their own time. Many trainers use a combination of both approaches, depending on their audience, client, and training goals.
Many organizations now combine classroom sessions with online teaching in a hybrid learning approach.
1. Real-Time Teaching (Synchronous Teaching)
Synchronous teaching online normally takes place live using video conferencing platforms such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams. The lessons take place in real-time just like in a classroom, but online and using equipment such as your computer/laptop, a webcam, and a microphone. Learners can ask questions in real-time, have discussions, and get immediate feedback, much like they would in a traditional classroom.
The advantage is that you get that real-time interactivity with your students, i.e., that instant communication where they can, for example, ask or be asked questions and you can instantly answer and help them. The main issue is that everyone needs to be available at the same scheduled time, which can be challenging for busy learners or those in different time zones.
2. Asynchronous Teaching
The other type of teaching online is asynchronous teaching. This means that you put courses online on a platform such as Teachable, and then the student can do that course anytime they want, 24/7.
So with asynchronous teaching online, there is no real limit to who you can teach, as they can study at any time of the day and from anywhere and without the worry or hassle of setting up a webcam to learn online. They can just log in and start doing your course.
1. Geographic and Borderless Reach as an Online Teacher
One of the biggest benefits of online teaching is that it allows you to reach learners anywhere in the world instead of being limited to your local area.
Okay, you will need to speak their language, or they’ll need to speak yours, but the potential audience is simply massive.
One thing you will need to study and gain an understanding of, though, is how to market yourself as an online teacher or online trainer to reach this worldwide audience. How do you actually reach these people to get them to study with you online?
2. Time Flexibility and 24/7 Tutorials
Online teaching means that you can potentially offer learning at any time of day, giving both you and your learners far greater flexibility.
If you want to offer your courses online on a platform such as Teachable (and as we do for our Train the Trainer course), you do not need to be present when the person is studying your course.
Typically, you design this type of course with videos, PDFs, PowerPoint presentations, and whatever you wish to include, and you upload the lessons to a learning management system (LMS) such as Teachable.
A person can sign up at any time to buy your course, and they will immediately have access to study your course whenever they wish to, and they can normally log in from anywhere worldwide.
You can also include drip-fed content on the course, and what this means is that for parts of the course, if you wish to, you can make it so that users have access to some lessons at certain dates, i.e., one week after they start the course.
3. Lower Costs for Teachers and Trainers
One of the biggest financial benefits of online teaching is the potential to save money on venues, travel, and other delivery costs.
It is not always cheap to rent a venue, especially if you are working as a freelance trainer, as I know many of you do. Working online means saving a lot of money if you are a freelance trainer who has to take the cost of hiring a venue out of the profits from the training you provide.
Teaching online also has equipment costs, such as a quality webcam, microphone and lighting. We explain everything you’ll need in our guide to online teaching equipment.
Like the savings from venue hire, savings on travel costs can also be a significant saving you make by teaching online. The cost to drive, get a taxi, or fly (for workshops taking place far from home) can really add up for a trainer.
Despite the cost of needing a decent HD webcam and microphone, etc, teaching online, I think you will agree, is far cheaper cost-wise than teaching in person, in a classroom or training room offline.
4. Great for Employee Training and Saving Time
One of the biggest advantages of online teaching is the time it can save by reducing travel, streamlining administration, and making training easier to deliver.
Time Management is something that many of us struggle with, and as a corporate trainer or teacher, life can certainly be hectic time-wise.
A great thing about online teaching is the sheer amount of time you can save versus traditional classroom or training room teaching.
Okay, there is, I will admit, a learning curve when you first start teaching online, and this in itself can be time-consuming. Once you get over the learning curve of teaching online, though, you save time on:
- traveling to/from the training location
- printing materials manually (as with online teaching, digital documents are much easier to distribute)
- dealing with issues such as locked classrooms or double-booked rooms, etc that can sometimes occur
Overall, teaching online is great for your own time management as a trainer, so do be patient when first learning to get used to the likes of Zoom, Skype, or MS Teams at the beginning.
5. Information Sharing Made Easier and Greener
One of the practical benefits of online teaching is that learning materials can be shared instantly, updated easily, and reused without the cost and waste of printing.
In traditional in-person teaching, it is typical to print out a bunch of handouts for the students. With online teaching, you can send them the same documents as digital documents, i.e., as PDFs sent by email, and this has the benefit of:
- Being more environmentally friendly
- Documents can easily be updated as needed up until the class starts
- Saved print costs and time
6. You can Work from Anywhere as an Online Teacher or Trainer
Online teaching gives you far greater flexibility to work from wherever in the world you wish to, provided you can find a reliable internet connection.
Many cities these days have co-working spaces that include meeting rooms that you can use as a quiet space for providing online teaching. Likewise, you might want to teach online part-time for a few months while renting a villa in Greece and spending the afternoons going for leisurely walks. The option is there!
As an online trainer, you really can literally work from anywhere in the world, as long as you have the most basic equipment you will need to teach online.
Working remotely is much easier when you have the right technology. Choosing the right software can help you teach more effectively, wherever you’re based. See our guide to the best online tutoring tools for recommendations.
7. Develop New Digital and Technology Skills
One of the benefits of teaching online is that it helps you become more confident using digital tools and learning technologies.
You might have to get familiar, for example, with how to use online digital whiteboards, or how to use breakout rooms, and get familiar with using a microphone and webcam. Likewise, getting the lighting right can take a bit of getting used to at the start.
Alas, these skills that you will learn from teaching online, such as using the equipment and software involved, are actually great skills that will bring you into the modern era.
Web conferencing is here to stay and now permeates our lives. Web conferencing is the future for many business meetings, online training workshops, video calls with friends and family, and so on, so it is certainly not a bad thing if you are pushed towards having to embrace these technologies.
8. New Job Opportunities for Online Teachers
Teaching online opens up a lot more opportunities to work with learners globally.
Given the geographic barrierless opportunities to find teaching work worldwide from your own living room (or beach hut if you so desire), there is of course competition globally.
If you are a specialist in a certain niche, perhaps DDA for example, you can build a clientele that matches your teaching expertise.
Online teaching, without a doubt, gives you more freedom and along with it, some very interesting teaching opportunities.
9. More Equal Opportunities for Learners With Access Issues and Disabilities
Online teaching can create more equal learning opportunities by making education easier to access for people who face practical barriers to attending face-to-face classes.
A wheelchair user might find it sometimes quite challenging to get to certain venues or locations, based on the lack of transportation, facilities, and guidance (i.e., signage for wheelchair routes into a building).
An incredibly positive thing and one of the key benefits of online teaching is that it provides users who have accessibility challenges with the same opportunities to attend training.
In other words, online teaching provides greater equality and diversity opportunities for those not only with disabilities and access problems, but those from disadvantaged backgrounds, and who might, for example, struggle to finance paying to travel to a venue every day because of the financial cost.
10. Saves Time, Money & Benefits Mental Health: Benefits of Online Teaching for Students
Online learning can save students time and money while making education more accessible and flexible.
Online teaching provides potential students, whatever their age, with a greater opportunity to study a wide range of subjects. CPD (Continuing Professional Development) is something that benefits those also in their 50s, 60s and beyond and brings learning to us all.
Online learning makes education a far more practical possibility for many in terms of time and cost.
What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Teaching and Learning?
In addition to the benefits of online teaching, there are always some disadvantages you might also want to consider. The pros and cons are as follows:
Advantages of Online Learning
- It makes it far more inclusive for everyone, including those with mobility issues and those who might lack commuting time to get to training, such as a busy mother.
- Enables one to teach and train people to one standard no matter where they are based worldwide.
- Environmentally friendly – means participants can take training from their own home and avoid any carbon footprint.
Disadvantages of Online Teaching
- You can suffer technical issues such as a computer failing or a problematic WiFi connection, or one or more of your participants might experience issues.
- There is a lack of face-to-face in-person contact, and sometimes this makes it harder to engage with the students.
- It is far easier for participants to get distracted during online training and teaching sessions.
If you’re planning to teach online, you may also find our Online Teaching hub useful.
Where Can You Find Online Teaching Materials?
You can find a wide range of soft skills training materials by clicking the banner below:
