Teach History Online
The past is full of lessons to be learned, secrets to uncover, and lives to be celebrated. Making it come alive for students of all ages is a rewarding experience and the mark of a true history teacher. Thanks to the rapidly growing online education sector, users the world over have countless ways to access quality history courses and learn without limits.
If you’re looking to share your expertise, you’ve come to the right place.
This article will help you get started with teaching history online. We’ll tell you what you need, where to look, and how to create courses that bring the past to life.
Why Teach History Online?
Everybody is knowledgeable about something. Maybe your “something” is a certain time and place in the past. History is the passion of countless professionals who’ve studied hard and enthusiasts who devour book after book in their free time.
The digital world and post-pandemic workspace provide plenty of opportunities for you to monetize your passions, from educational specializations to side hustles. If you’re passionate about history, there’s a way to make your expertise and enthusiasm work for you.
Teaching history online has several major benefits:
- Accessibility – So, you have specialized knowledge about medieval Vietnam that many in your town or city find obscure. That’s no problem. Online education transcends borders and physical limitations. Your students can come from anywhere in the world and you can take your classroom to those who want to learn.
- Flexible hours – You don’t need to keep to faculty hours if there’s no faculty. With online teaching, you can choose when you work, including full- or part-time positions. If you want to produce a pre-packaged course with its own materials, students are free to learn in their own time. Online education works around you.
- Payment – Unfortunately, there isn’t a high demand for history teachers outside of established academic positions in schools and universities. Many with qualifications and expertise find jobs hard to find. By teaching online, you can sell your skills to a global audience and build a reputation that provides great financial returns.
- Diversity – The online education space isn’t bound by four walls and a whiteboard. By working digitally, not only do you have the freedom to craft your ideal course, but use online materials to keep the content fresh and engaging for your students. You make the rules and the content.
Online Teaching vs. Tutoring
Before going any further, it’s important to make the distinction between teaching and tutoring online. Though the two may overlap in several areas, the individual focus is quite different.
As an online teacher of history, you’ll be involved in crafting, coordinating, running, and evaluating courses and classrooms and students. Your role will be more overarching and holistic. You can create these holistic courses and host them on sites like BlurBay.
On the other hand, tutoring is a more personal approach to teaching history. You’ll work with individuals and small groups to help them grasp certain materials. If working within an established syllabus or course, you’ll need intimate knowledge of the content to be successful. Note that you can find tutoring work on sites like Preply and Skooli.
Do I Need Qualifications for Online History Teaching Positions?
When it comes to any form of teaching, passion and enthusiasm will be the driving forces that’ll keep you going and keep students coming back for more. That said, any subject needs a certain level of expertise to be taught effectively.
To teach history online, it’s a good idea to have some form of qualification. If you’ve got a university degree in history, a major, or any postgraduate certificate, then you’ll have a strong head start in establishing trust in your work and marketing yourself more effectively.
Qualifications and credentials are strong selling points in the online world.
But it’s important to remember that qualifications aren’t the be-all and end-all. If you lack qualifications, but have years of expertise that you can demonstrate to potential students, then you can just as readily make a successful career from teaching history online. Similarly, if you have years of experience in the field, or know more than anyone about the history of your small town, then your perspective is still valuable.
Laying the Groundwork
You’ve made up your mind and you’re ready to teach history online. Before you jump in, you’ll need to lay the proper foundations.
Choose Your Field and Area of Expertise
Human history is vast. As such, any history teacher needs to specialize in certain areas. At higher academic levels, these topics become even more hyper-focused. You might only have partial knowledge and broad overviews, so dig deep into your chosen areas of specialization. Not only does this make your particular skillset more complete, but also sets you apart, making it easier to market yourself.
Everyone knows about the American Civil War, but what about 9th century Byzantine politics?
Rates
You need to know what to charge for your course and valuable time when you teach history online. Granted, this can be a daunting prospect at first. You want to charge what you’re worth (qualifications boost your salary, after all), but don’t want to price yourself out of the market.
Look around at other history courses and teachers. Assess their qualifications and what they charge for their coursework. Price yourself competitively, but don’t undervalue your hard work and dedication.
You’ll also need to consider how you accept payment, and may need to set up a universal account like PayPal to receive money from students globally.
Marketing
The world needs to know what you have to offer. Social media is your friend when advertising your teaching skills and courses. Promote your work on forums and educational sites and consider offering free lessons. For example, sites like BlurBay let you offer as much content as you like for free, and putting lessons up on YouTube will drive history enthusiasts to your work.
Testimonials
Once you’ve started attracting students and taught multiple classes, consider asking them for testimonials and ratings. Who better to speak for the course than those who’ve completed it? Word of mouth is a powerful marketing tool and successfully leveraging it can increase exposure and trust in your work.
Choosing the Platform
Where you offer your skills or host your work is an important consideration. After all, you want a partner site that helps not hinders your work, and offers a robust infrastructure and reliable name. In some cases, you can even create your own hosting site, but you’ll need the tools to do so.
Here are some things to bear in mind:
- Your needs – Consider the curriculum you want to teach or the course you want to create. Does the partner site have extra tools and features to make it easy to host or create them?
- Student management – You’ll have a lot of admin and evaluation on your hands as a teacher. What tools and features does the site have to facilitate this? Are there spaces for students to connect with each other and discuss the coursework?
- Security and storage – Does the site ensure that your data is well protected from piracy and hacking attempts? Does it facilitate the storage of coursework and data online in a secure and accessible way?
- Multi-platform support – Many students will access your work from different devices and systems. Does the site come with apps and multi-platform support?
- Analytics – Are the tools in place for student feedback? What analytical tools are there to ensure you have an accurate idea of student engagement and course progression?
Rather than reinvent the wheel, try leveraging sites with the infrastructure and reputation to host your history teaching expertise. Sites like Udemy and Teachable are big names in the online education world. You can also use more generalized hosting sites like BlurBay, which offer hosting for only 5% commission and require no user accounts for purchase.
What You Need to Teach History Online
Just because you work in a digital classroom doesn’t mean you won’t need to invest in the right equipment. Be sure to invest in the following for the best results:
- Have a good microphone, webcam, and reliable internet connection.
- Set up a designated working space that you can stream or record from. Ensure it’s tidy and well-lit.
- Gather the history textbooks, audiovisual materials, and other resources you plan to use in your work. Make them digital and store them online if possible.
- Create an outline and plan of your work that you can share with students. Give structure to your schedule and announce the dates of tests and when essays should be completed.
- Develop your content in interesting ways to ensure engagement. Quizzes, polls, interactive learning, and more are all areas where digital education shines. Use it to your advantage.
- Set assignments, tests, essays, or projects that work towards a final course grade. This is needed in order for students to demonstrate the skills they’ve acquired to earn their qualification.
- Establish feedback and communication channels for your students. Their voices should always be heard, as should yours.
Future Learning With History
Online education is the perfect way to make history come alive for students all over the world. If you have the expertise and a passion for the past, why not teach it digitally?
And if you’re looking to create and host history courses online, why not use BlurBay for all your hosting needs? Not only can you seamlessly host your own courses and resources, you pay no hosting fees at all, only a flat commission of 5% on every sale.
Start your online history career today and share your knowledge with the world.
