Just as there are many benefits to online teaching and learning, teachers need to be aware of and deal with certain issues. As stated previously, some teachers will be happier teaching in the traditional classroom than in the online environment. However, if these issues can be overcome, then online teaching can be a truly rewarding experience.

A Different Environment

Teaching from your home can be a very different experience than teaching in a classroom. For one thing, you have to show a great sense of self-control so that you actually sit down each day and do your work. Further, you will not be interacting with “live” people each day — instead, you'll be working online or talking on the phone. Many people have a hard time adjusting to this and miss the human interactions of a traditional school.

It is much harder to separate work life from home life when you work at home. Work can easily consume an inordinate amount of time, thereby leading to family issues and problems. While you can leave the traditional classroom at the end of the day, your work is always with you at home. Students are constantly e-mailing and turning in work. Knowing when to turn off the computer takes just as much self-discipline as knowing when to turn it on.

Finally, just as in traditional schools, you will be asked from time to time to perform extra duties. It is important to keep in mind that many of these extra duties will probably be completed during your own time. This means that your work schedule can quickly eat into your “life schedule.” If you keep your priorities straight, you will be a much happier person and employee.

Time Commitment

Online learning does require a huge time commitment from the teacher, in a different way than in the traditional classroom. While online teachers do not necessarily work more hours than traditional teachers, they do have a very different schedule. This can make them feel like they are working more than in the regular classroom. This is partly because students can work any time and can ask questions any time. Therefore, you will probably need to check e-mail and voice messages every day of the week, including weekends.

Further, the students who go to traditional school will not be available for phone calls and other communication during normal working hours. Therefore, you will be making many phone calls in the evenings and on weekends. Online teaching requires flexibility.

Be Wary of Cheating

One final concern of many online teachers is cheating. Just as in the traditional classroom, online cheating does occur. Because teachers are not seeing their students complete their exams or work in class, it is difficult to be assured that the work turned in is truly their own. That is where phone calls come into play. Online teachers must use phone calls to verify the knowledge of their students.

Online instructors also have the tools of the Internet at their disposal to help determine whether something has been plagiarized. If you think that a student has directly copied something, you can copy and paste the sentence into a search engine and see if any direct matches come up. Of course, this will not help for work that has been copied from written texts, but it does help control plagiarism issues.