Extra Income From Online Teaching

Students Earning a Bachelor Degree Online Offer Employment for Academics

2011-06-30T11:34:00.000-05:00

On the surface it would appear as if teaching college and university students for a living is a hopeless endeavor, but that would be a mistake that many academics with earned graduate degrees make on a daily basis. Granted, the amount of income it is possible to earn from teaching in a physical college or university classroom on a traditional post-secondary campus is minimal at best, but there is a viable alternative for available to individuals with earned graduate degrees, a masters degree or Ph.D., in the form of teaching students earning a bachelor degree online. Currently, the community colleges, state colleges, four-year universities and technical schools are nowhere near the potential numbers of online degree programs they will be able to offer in the near future. The for-profit colleges, however, recognized the potential of distance education technology at least a decade ago and they have used it to the advantage of their student populations. In fact, when a prospective online adjunct instructor starts to apply for online college courses to teach at is a very good idea to start with the for-profit colleges. After all if one wants to drink from the online education well, it is smart to go to the well that has the most to offer. This is not to say that the publicly supported post-secondary academic institutions will not be able to catch up with for-profit colleges. In fact, the academic administrators for each state colleges and universities are diligently working to deploy as many online bachelor degree programs and online master degree programs as possible. After all, the student population is today far larger than at any time since the middle of the last century. This means that an academic with an earned graduate degree and evidence of classroom experience can enter a new career field, teaching online for online degree programs, and have an excellent chance of developing in a relatively short period of time a full-time online teaching portfolio with as many as ten online college classes in it.

Teaching online full time will require an academic to learn how to use a personal computer to access the thousands of websites of community colleges, state colleges, four-year universities, for-profit colleges and technical schools, but it is becoming easier every day to navigate the Internet and, therefore, easier to submit multiple online faculty position applications. The best way to start an application strategy for online adjunct faculty positions is to use a computer to go directly to the schools’ individual websites. After arriving at the academic website it is important to locate quickly as possible the link on the first page that leads to the faculty application section. Once in the faculty application section it will be easy for the prospective online adjunct instructor to submit applications every day to the various online college degree programs that allow the students enrolled in an academic institution the chance to earn a bachelor degree online. It is not necessary for an adjunct college professor to remain anchored in a physical college or university classroom on a traditional college or university campus any longer because there is a genuine need for academically prepared and technically proficient online adjunct instructors to teach the growing numbers of college university students enrolling in online degree programs.

Academics Should Consider College Degrees Online as a Revenue Source

2011-06-26T10:02:00.000-05:00

To say that academics with earned graduate degrees, a masters degree or Ph.D., need to take swift action to develop additional revenue sources is a vast understatement in light of the diminishing budgetary funds required to pay faculty salaries. Every day the news is chock-full of information about how educators are losing economic ground at an unprecedented pace. Of course, traditional adjunct college faculty members have been aware of this erosion of financial support from teaching college and university students for at least the last decade. A traditional college adjunct instructor is making so little teaching college courses on any single traditional university campus that they are forced to spend the bulk of their income and their free time driving back and forth between other physical post-secondary campuses. Obviously, this behavior contains the seeds of futility.

An alternative to this sad scenario is for academics to consider teaching college and university students earning college degrees online as either a partial or full source of revenue. Distance education technology has matured over the last years to the point where post-secondary academic administrators are eagerly reaching for it as a way to offset the growing expense of building out and maintaining physical college and university classrooms on the physical campus. The result has been a proliferation of online bachelor degree programs and online master degree programs which need academically qualified and technically proficient online adjunct instructors to teach the many online college courses. The academic in need of income from teaching should certainly look to the large numbers of college and university students currently enrolled in online college courses that they access from their personal computers by logging onto the Internet as they earn an online business degree, a registered nursing degree online or online master in teaching. Naturally, each of the online college classes within the areas online college degree programs needs a qualified online adjunct instructor to teach it. This means that there is a growing and expanding amount of intellectual work reliable good academic and learns how to find the schools that offer college degrees online today to their student populations.

The best way to be even developing an online teaching schedule containing numerous online college courses is to go directly to the websites of the thousands of for-profit colleges, community college’s, state colleges, four-year universities and technical schools. Each of these post-secondary academic institutions already incorporates some form of distance education within their curriculum. With the passing of each semester, there will be more online college courses made available at each of these colleges and universities. The reason this will happen is that the economics of maintaining a physical plant such as the community college campus and the GNU one desire on the part of college and university students to use their personal computers to access higher education will drive the development of more college degrees online and every unmentionable area academic study. As a result, there will be a growing need for technically prepared and academically qualified online adjunct instructors to coordinate the educational interface within the various online college degree programs. The adroit online adjunct instructor can not only earn a full-time living from teaching online from various online degree programs, but the online instructor will benefit from being able to teach for schools offering college degrees online far distant from the location of the online adjunct instructor.

Online Instructor Job Openings – Quick Look

2011-01-28T16:54:00.000-06:00

The academic employment situation at post-secondary academic institutions, community colleges, state colleges, four-year universities and for-profit colleges, is spiraling downward as a result of the evaporating faculty budget funds, and this is in the face of a student population larger than at any time since the middle of the twentieth century. The solution for both the colleges and universities and the adjunct faculty instructors is the implementation of accredited online bachelor degree programs and accredited online master’s degree programs. Distance education technology has matured significantly over the last five or six years, and that maturation is creating a new academic labor model that can work to the advantage of any individual with an earned graduate degree, a Ph.D. or master’s degree, if some level of understanding is acquired as to how this new model manifests itself. The simple fact of the matter is that if an adjunct college teacher wants to earn a decent living from post-secondary instruction the way to do it is to start applying for online instructor job openings.

An aggressive online adjunct instructor can acquire multiple online adjunct jobs with a variety of online college degree programs. The way this is done is to access the thousands of academic websites on the Internet and locate the faculty application section. Once in the faculty application section, which is specifically designed to accept the necessary academic credentials required to teach at the post-secondary level, it is relatively simple matter to load in your application materials. It is possible that an individual community college or state college is slow to deploy online degree programs and as a result it will be prudent to continuing submitting an application to teach online college courses for that institution until receiving a reply. It is important to have a rotational application strategy in motion in order to build up an online teaching portfolio containing six to ten online college classes in it.

Today’s college and university students are familiar enough with technology to make earning an electrical engineering bachelor degree online, an online masters degree in school counseling or an online bachelor degree in accounting a reasonable solution to the need for a college degree. The adjunct college instructor should also become as intimate with the functions of a personal computer and digital navigation of the Internet in order to earn a full time online adjunct income. It is entirely possible to earn a very satisfactory living from teaching online if the prospective online adjunct faculty member demonstrates the determination to apply to as many colleges and universities and community colleges every day as is necessary to fill up an online teaching schedule. In the end, the online instructor job openings are out there on the Internet, and there are more of them being offered to academically and technically qualified college teachers every day.

Degree Programs Online

2008-12-15T15:32:00.003-06:00

Degree Programs Online

Degree programs online have grown in number over the course of the last five years. They are a winning situation for prospective college students wishing to pursue a college degree while working full time. They are also a positive combination for colleges and universities wishing to maximize their expenditures for physical classrooms. It is an acknowledged fact that they represent the future of higher education because they increase the opportunities for more and more knowledge disbursement, By way of degree programs online, the more knowledge people will know, and the better suited people will be to grapple with the difficulties faced each and every day.

While traditional educational paths offered many opportunities for physical contact, they required the student to remain in one physical location for most of the year in order to attend classes each day. The program with this method of knowledge transference also has a heavy maintenance schedule that cost a whacking amount of money. Imagine the budget dent that air conditioning, paint, floor wax and the like makes each and every day. Further, the issue of mobility must b considered by both schools and students. The current economic meltdown almost ensures that people will have to have the freedom to move about the world. In the final analysis, degree programs online offer mobility to both students and the school.

Degree Programs Online Offer Mobility

Today, students and academic organizations need the freedom to move around. For example, employment opportunities for students may disappear suddenly and completely. In a similar vein, expenses for colleges and universities may go considerably higher because they receive less and less public funding, which is the result of people moving out of the community and not paying local or state taxes. As a result, it is important from an economic as well as an academic standpoint to be able to field and obtain knowledge on the move.

Mobility is key to survival in the current economic landscape, and do not make a mistake about it: education is economic value. After all, the primary reason anyone goes through the massive effort to secure a college degree is to increase his or her economic viability. There is, of course, the odd fellow or two who seeks knowledge for itself, and it is almost assured that the odd fellow will become an online teacher for any one of the hundred degree programs online.

Distance Learning

2008-11-26T17:04:00.003-06:00

Distance Learning

Distance learning means knowledge delivered from a remote location to a remote location. Usually, but not always, this means using the Internet to deliver education. What was once the stuff of fancy is now a booming industry employing a growing number of college teachers who would otherwise find themselves on the dole. The next administration may want to increase the scope of distance learning to accommodate the coming spike in higher education student populations.

The question arises as to why college populations will spike in the near term. It is simply that unemployment will spike, and historically, unemployed citizens, especially the younger one, flock to digital college campuses during downturns in the economy. There seems to be little doubt that this new electronic academic medium will be the oxcart by which this crowed of eager aspirants will carried into the electronic education age. Simply put, the laptop as college campus is simply too cost efficient for any academic governing board to ignore. One is tempted to suggest that every new college student will be issued a spanking new laptop along with a login ID and a password.

Distance Learning as a Catch Basin

The next administration has identified two million Americans who could go to college, but for their inability to consummate the financial request paperwork. Apparently, the five-page, 127 questions form is too high a bar for these aspiring college degree seekers. There is little or no reason to quibble with this estimation because certainly the number of out of work citizens will zoom in the coming months and years, and what better place for them to spend their time than in an institution of higher learning. Surely, the state and the nation will much calmer if these hapless individuals are busy with distance learning.

Granted, the idea that colleges and universities are not catch basins for the nation's unemployed might gain some traction with gray beards and academic malcontents, but they and their ilk can be safely ignored as they will soon be put out to pasture. No, the future is coming, and with it comes educational opportunities for all by way of monetary help determined by last year's income tax form. If a prospective college student cannot navigate a five page questionnaire, the officiating bureaucrat can easily determine need by checking with the federal offices that record our annual income. In this way, the bureaucrat won't be bothered trying to read semi-literate scrawls.

Distance Learning is the Growth Area

It may be obvious to all and sundry, but in addition to the hordes of new college students on the way, there are tens of thousands of highly qualified college instructors in need of extra income. This is a marriage made in academic heaven. Public, private and for-profit institutions of higher learning will find this happy combination an economic godsend, and the general public, meaning prospective students, will be simply delighted at the sheer amount of activity distance learning will bring them in their pursuit of knowledge.

Online Faculty Position

2008-11-05T13:46:00.000-06:00

Online Faculty Position

The availability of an online faculty position is dependent on the number of students enrolled at a particular school. This reasoning seems simple enough, but given the current economic circumstances, which can turn a person’s hair white on certain days, it is a bit of reasoning that bears closer examination. There are questions that are specific to the creation and sustainability of an online faculty position.

Is the Online Faculty Position Readily Accessible?

At first blush, the answer to this question seems self-evident. Of course there are many college teachers already in possession of an online faculty position. However, many if not most of those positions do not come with any sort of reasonable benefits. This creates an economic problem for the Instructor who has to consider the bigger question of whether there will be more work in the future.

It is all well and good to say that there is a relatively large number of teachers already in an online faculty position, but it more difficult to determine if the new administration will invest extra funds in the creation of more educational opportunities, which will, ultimately increase the sheer number of positions. It is possible that a college teacher will be able to survive in the face of the developing economic thunderstorm if he or she can actually find more work.

The current thinking is that the number of students will noticeably spike before the end of this year, and that next year, 2009, there will be a tidal wave of students attending college as unemployment mounts higher and higher across the land.

Have a Plan for Prosperity

Now is the time to decide just how to take advantage of the potential increase in college student populations. It may well be that the dollar amount paid for an online faculty position will not rise. However, this lack of increase in the pay per class might be off set by an increase in the number of classes.

Does this mean the college instructor will work more for the same money? Yes, it does in many instances. Still, it is preferable to work all the time as opposed to going without material advantages such as heat and food. It is entirely possible that the best a college teacher can hope for is more work. If expectations of material comfort are lowered, and expectations of working twelve hours a day grading essays are increased, college teachers, especially those that teach the liberal arts courses, can prosper accordingly during the coming lean years.

Online Classes

2008-10-07T11:15:00.002-05:00

Online Classes

I am after my online classes this morning. I snapped awake at dawn and started grading essays, 40 of them, as soon as I could open my eyes after swallowing a quart of hot coffee. As usual, my stomach started gurgling like an old fashioned percolator, but I didn’t really have the attention to spare because one of the discussion group members at a Yahoo forum I subscribe to for online classes asked the following question (and I am paraphrasing for those nitpickers in the audience):

“How will students pay for online classes?’

That is a damn good question. See, students do not get a discount for attending college online classes. They pay the full freight, and the full freight is very high these days. I have read that tuition for institutes of higher education goes up at double or more the annual inflation rate. That’s some hike every year!

Online Classes: The Wherewithal?

Do you notice I’m asking a lot of questions in this post? In fact, I just asked a question to ask a question. No one seems to have any answers about the economy these days. I use to think I was the most clueless person on the planet in terms of how money works, and I took some comfort in the idea that there must be a herd of very smart people driving the American economy because if it were up to me, we would be in the mess we are in right now.

Well, much to my surprise, it turns out that there isn’t a herd, even a small herd, of people much smarter than myself running things. Nope. It looks like people like me are running things, and people like me, a witless, educated writer trying to make a very small living by teaching online classes and not doing a very good job of it at that since I’m dead broke and soon, apparently will be even deader broke, if I can write it that way, because if there really isn’t any money in the banks, then there won’t be any money to loan students who want an education.

Online Classes: Is This How They End?

It could be that no matter how many promises the federal government makes about raising the cap on the amount of money a student can borrow in order to pay for an education, there might not be any money to loan out.

Goodness, I can promise to cover loans all day, but when it comes time to actually hand over the cash, it can’t happen because there isn’t any cash to hand over.

Further, if students can’t borrow the money to pay for tuition for distance education because there isn’t any cash to loan, then how many classes will simply disappear off my class schedule?

I haven’t held a long-handled shovel in years, and at my age, being one of those aging baby boomers without two nickels to rub together, I doubt I would actually be able to shovel dirt or concrete for any length of time without experiencing a heart attack, and I sure don’t want a heart attack because I don’t have any health insurance, primary or supplemental, because I’m just an adjunct instructor teaching online classes.

I have one online graduate class I’ve been teaching since July 2005. As of today, I am being paid the same money I was paid back in July 2005. How much less can I purchase in terms of good and services today than I could in July 2005?

Makes one think again about the problems of online classes.

Consolidate Student Loans

2008-10-06T21:41:00.002-05:00

Consolidate Student Loans

There might be a better way for liberal arts majors with heavy school debt to go about it, and heaven know that someone who thought there would be a living in going door to door explaining Huckleberry Finn is missing a few buttons, so to speak, but every effort to consolidate student loans must be examined and pursued if there is any chance that there will be rest for the weary. If you are already out in the market trying to pull down enough money to simply pay the rent, then you should take a look at the current economic situation and consider the option to consolidate student loans at a reasonable rate of interest.

By and large, for those who have taken out student loans without ever reading a word of the student loan agreement, and I admit to being one of those poor, misguided lamebrains who was in such a hurry to get to class that I just wobbled my signature at the bottom of the page with a leaky ink pen, student loans for graduate school generally are unsecured, which means there is nothing supporting them, so many students find that various interest rates on the loans guarantee future penury, which is ample reason to consolidate student loans at the first available opportunity. It has been my experience that the benefits of consolidating outweigh the costs. Both federal loans and private loans may be consolidated, but they cannot be consolidated together. Student consolidation loans are granted with the sole purpose of repaying as much debt as possible. Since the interest rate charged for a consolidation loan is significantly lower than the average interest rate of student debt, the monthly installments will be considerably lower than the combined payments of the paid off loans and credit cards. This is not a small matter when you realize that the financial institution will not accept a thirty page essay on the more obscure points of Zola as an acceptable form of repayment; no, bankers and their ilk want you to consolidate student loans in a way that benefits them.

Consolidation of Student Loans

I can understand that you are still dragging your feet on the consolidation of student loans that run in the mid-to-upper five figures, and while this is easily forgiven from the standpoint of literature, the outlaw poet is the stuff of legend, it is not easily forgiven from the standpoint of finance. Repayment of substantial student loans can be a daunting task for most students and their parents. According to estimates, graduates of public universities leave owing more than $10,000, while graduates of private colleges owe over $14,000 for their undergraduate years, and graduate students from both public and private schools might as well have an economic millstone around their necks since they sums they owe upon completion of their studies is three or four times greater than those incurred during the undergraduate years. So, even if repayment may start immediately, or is deferred until graduation, interest begins accumulating immediately. This, the balance will increase until you graduate and start making payments, or until arrange for consolidation of student loans on manageable terms.

Best Student Loan Consolidation

Getting the best student loan consolidation is the result of intense study and perseverance. College students who are in need of paying for their education, student loans are a great source of financial aid. The problem is that students today necessarily leave college with great amounts of debt. College tuition is constantly rising throughout the country and you can't get a degree at even a community college for free. Getting a student loan may be the only way to get into the university or college of your choice.

Credit checks are a part of private student loan consolidation, but you can add a co-signer if you do not qualify on your own. After making so many consecutive payments on time, you can release your co-signer from the agreement. Credit repair is possible, but it will going to take a lot of self-discipline and dedication.

Graduating students should fully understand the ramifications of non-payment on a student loan. Graduate student loans are tailored for today's student, with private graduate student loans having higher lending limits. One point of view is that this allows graduate student to spend more time focusing on studies. Of course, some of that study time needs to be spent on how to arrange the best student loan consolidation. Borrowers with one or more student loans may apply to a lender for a refinance option. When one refinances, the lender essentially pays off the original loans and refinances a loan to take their place.

In any event, a college education and the resulting degree is always worth the expense and effort, but in the end you will probably need to consolidate student loans in order to manage the incurred debt.

Heartburn Relief

2008-10-05T19:40:00.002-05:00

Heartburn Relief

I’m forever in the market for heartburn relief since I spend a lot of my day, and a lot of my night, sitting in front of a computer grading essay and drinking a gallon of coffee every six hours. The other day, as I walked around the yard clutching my belly, which seemed to be in flames, I dipp3ed into my mail box and found a free sample of some heartburn medicine.

Now, I am not one to take medication of any sort on a regular basis, but this acid heartburn is a problem, and I can’t stop drinking hot coffee because that is what keeps me at my keyboard. So, I figured I better find out a little about heart burn relief and heartburn medications.

Heartburn Relief Is Serious Business

Heartburn relief requires listening to your body. The next time you have heartburn, think back to what "fuel" you just put into your body. Heartburn relief in the form of milk can be effective and drinking a small amount of milk regularly over a period of time can start to heal the effects of heartburn as it washes acid back into the stomach.

Antacids are the fastest solution for heartburn since they balance the acid buildup in the digestive tract and stomach. This solution can only provide immediate relief and would have to be taken each time one experiences heartburn. Antacids that contain calcium will provide heartburn relief, as well as this essential nutrient. Be sure to check with your care provider before taking medications such as Pepcid AC or Zantac. Antacids should be used at least 30 to 60 minutes after you dine.

Antacids are taken by mouth to relieve heartburn, sour stomach, or acid indigestion. They work by neutralizing excess stomach acid. Antacids like Tums and Rolaids are certainly effective means of treating heartburn symptoms, but their effects are temporary at best, and only seem to adequately control about 25% of the people who take them. There are of course acid reducers like Zantac and Pepcid that you can take before eating, but the most effective class of drugs available for heartburn sufferers are called Proton-pump inhibitors. Antacids may interact with certain prescription drugs. When using this product do not exceed recommended dosage.

Acid Heartburn Relief In My Mailbox

Anyway, as I stood beside my mailbox rubbing my sore belly, which threatened to bust into flames at any moment, I looked at the free sample of Prilosec OTC in my hand. According to the information on the packaging, it works over the course of two weeks, and targets people who suffer from chronic heartburn which would be me. Evidently, Prilosec works by blocking the production of acid in the stomach, and, believe me, I would have run a garden hose down my throat if it would have put out the flames.

Well, I still have a little heartburn, and I suppose I could cut my coffee consumption down to half a gallon every six hours. In the end, however, I may have to resign myself to taking medication, such as I found in my mailbox this afternoon, if I truly want heartburn relief.

Save Money on Gas

2008-10-05T14:00:00.002-05:00

Save Money on Gas

I think about how to save money on gas. I think about it while I earn extra income from online teaching. Let’s face it, folks, high gas prices could are one of the big reasons the overall economy is in a downturn. The country simple facts are that most working people today are forced to choose between fuel and food. I really wish I knew a dead certain way to save money on gas.

I ran into a fellow late last night, and he was moaning about not being able to save money on gas because he had to drive across a big lake in order to reach the school he teaches at during the day. Well, it turns out that the drain on his personal economy from having to fuel a car is so great he had to start teaching nigh classes for a local community college. The problem with the second job is the same as the first job: there isn’t way to save money on gas if a person has to drive all around the place in order to get to work.

Ways to Save Money on Gas

Of course, I am huge on the idea of distance education as a way to increase the extra income from online teaching. Look, oil prices are going up globally, not just in the US. Sure, they’re up more in the US, thanks to our weakening dollar, and that is not something to ignore. Oil producers are keeping more of the stuff for themselves, India and China are pushing up demand, the Saudis have inflated their reserves, and oil's reserve currency, the dollar, is losing value. It should be pretty clear even to liberal arts majors that online teaching is a great way to beat having to shell out a pocketful of money for gas every time you go to work.

There is a lot of palaver these days about how improving your gas mileage is easy as pie. You will find a lot of tips on the Internet from people who are actually practicing them. Improving your car’s gas mileage is not difficult if you have a graduate degree in one of the liberal arts. With just a little effort in the thinking department, you can help yourself save money on gas and, as an added bonus, have fewer negative impacts on the environment while you earn income from online teaching.

Save Money on Gas Every Day

Now, the fellow who moaned and wept about all the money he had to spend on gas to actually earn a living, if it can be called that after he deducted the cost of fuel, could save money on gas every day by securing an online faculty position. It wouldn’t take him much effort, since he is already a college instructor, to find any number of online faculty positions that would allow him to work from home or a local coffee shop.

It remains to be seen if the fellow I write about comes around to ask how he can save money on gas. In an economy such as the one we are faced with today, which will become more and more difficult to deal with as time goes on, it only makes good sense to take a swing at the extra online income offered by online degree programs. Indeed, if nothing else, the fellow could find himself with more than one way to save money on gas.

Laptop Insurance for the Unexpected

2008-10-03T16:54:00.002-05:00

Laptop Insurance

Let’s face it: sometimes the cat knocks over things or things simply slip out of our sweaty hands, and if you are trying to earn extra income from online teaching, you better have laptop insurance. The only way to really make any money in this business is to have the resources, your laptop in particular, in trim at all times. I have graded essays and responded to student emails at every hour of the day and night. The chances that you will damage your laptop by dropping it on a sidewalk or leaving it on the hood of your car and driving away to the sound of crashing technology seems slim. I’ve done both, and it made me very glad I had laptop insurance.

Stuff happens! I realize we try to keep up with our equipment as best we can, but the country simply fact of the matter is that physical objects slip and slide around as if they are possessed by spirits. Why this is I do not know. However, it is better to realize the potential of an accident than to be caught without any way to recover.

Laptop Computer Insurance

Laptop insurance covers accidental damage and theft, and yes, given the small size of laptop computers today it is a distinct possibility a thief will walk away with your machine right under your nose. There is any number of common situations addressed by this kind of insurance coverage. In the main, it covers theft, vandalism and damage caused by accidents, but it can also cover loss caused by natural disasters such as killer hurricanes, which I know something about and which wish I did not know first hand.

Generally speaking, and I’m no expert about laptop insurance, a policy should cover accidental damage, including fire and flood, liquid damage and malicious damage. Some policies can offer you, for a fat fee I imagine, worldwide protection that guarantees replacement of the stolen laptop in 48 hours. Keep in mind that accidental damage means that you did what you could to protect your laptop, but it was still damaged. For all I know there may be a policy that will replace your laptop if you become enraged at having to correct yet another comma splice and throw it against the wall of your hotel room, but I am almost certain this will cost extra.

Laptop Insurance Can Save Your Online Income

I strongly recommend that you have laptop insurance if you plan on traveling away from your current location. Imagine for a moment that your attempts to dance the tango after that weird program where old movie and television personalities attempt to amuse the easily amused American public by pretending they are not crippled with various physical ailments result in a crushed laptop monitor. This situation could cause you to miss a grading deadline, and with the economy in the wind now, there wouldn’t be any problem finding at least fifty teachers to replace you.

Sure, this is an expensive addition to your operating outlay, but it is always better to be safe than sorry, and your most important tool for earning extra income from online teaching deserves laptop insurance.

Best USB Mobile Broadband Service

2008-10-02T15:47:00.001-05:00

It is impossible to earn extra income from online teaching if you can’t access your classrooms at all hours of the day and night, and I have found an expensive solution called mobile broadband. The entire point of mobile broadband, as demonstrated in those television advertisements where the old duffer finds the Internet on a deserted island or on the North Pole, is to allow the user access from those locations that do not have wireless service, much less an Ethernet connection. You might not think that the extra expense of this service is worth your money, but you might think again about it if you are driven from your home by bad weather. As you hurl away from your city at 70 miles an hour, and you have a deadline to meet in your classrooms, the expense will be justified because you will be able to sit in the passenger’s and enter your classrooms with your USB mobile broadband service.

Believe me when I say I’ve done just that.

I live in a city on the gulf coast, and from time to time I have to flee for my life. The first time I ran away I didn’t have any USB mobile broadband service. I would up 300 miles away from home and was forced to use a dial up connection to access my online classes. Let me tell you that way some struggle! I vowed never to get caught out again without independent access to the Internet and my online classes, but I had to do a little research and spend a pretty penny to accomplish this goal.

USB Mobile Broadband Is Just the Ticket

When I returned home, after several months of exile, I started a search for mobile broadband, and I investigated the following three providers:

AT&T Mobile Broadband

Version Mobile Broadband

Sprint Mobile Broadband

In the end, I went with AT&T mobile broadband because my cell phone service was already with this company. Since I am a curious sort of person, I did a little research about mobile broadband in general and found out that it really is an emerging technology, and that it works very well.

Mobile broadband access to the Internet was something a wishful thinking thing for a lot of years. However, today it is quite functional and 3G networks actually do deliver reliable high-speed mobile data services to consumers and business professionals. Due to the nature of the technology, it is too slow for downloading but it fast enough to check your email and enter your online classes.

Mobile broadband works by accessing the internet via mobile phone masts and utilizing the new 3G infrastructure which allows for high-speed data transfer. This means that mobile broadband providers now provides much greater performance than in the past, with average download rates of 400-700kbps, or about 50x faster than earlier networks. Further, with mobile broadband you can get a connection anywhere you can get a cell phone signal, which is pretty much anywhere in the U.S. Just plug in your USB mobile broadband hardware and go online, even if you are being driven down the highway in order to escape a killer storm!

AT&T Mobile Broadband in Rural Areas

After I purchased what I consider the best USB mobile broadband service, I soon had the opportunity to return to the area I evacuated to the first time. I mean the place where I was forced to use dial up to access my classes. To my great delight I had access speeds equal to any wireless access speed I could get in a coffee shop.

I admit the service is expensive, but if you want to guarantee that you have constant access to your online classes, I highly recommend making the plunge and acquiring the best USB mobile broadband service from AT&T, which is what I use every day now.

A Few Thoughts about Supplemental Health Insurance

2008-10-01T16:26:00.001-05:00

The idea of supplemental health insurance is certainly one that needs some consideration today by anyone teaching online for a living, but since I do not have and primary health insurance as an online adjunct, there simply isn’t anything to supplement at this point. Plus, given the general state of the economy, the very thought of having to search out some form of health insurance that will actually pay the medical bills should one’s tennis elbow blow out suddenly, or, heaven forbid, a digit is lopped off in error while chopping up the vegetables foe the evening meal.

Really! The imagination runs riot at the thought of having to pay any sort of medical bill in this day and age. So, in order to quell the resultant anxiety of pondering how to type corrections for online essays with a perpetually running ear or a thundering bowel that refuses to listen to any sort of reason, it is prudent, to say the least to think about these issues.

Affordable Health Insurance Plans

As I understand it, supplemental health insurance is designed to be just that, a supplement to an existing health insurance plan, and it goes without saying that many people do have some sort of policy that should, it is assumed, protect them against the onslaught of health-related disaster. Here is the gist of things: what happens is that there will be a cash payout on top of any other form of insurance payout, and is often used to pay for lost wages, or to pay deductibles from other policies. Got that?

This extra business—and extra expense, let me tell you--should cover other items not included in your regular health insurance plan. It can cover additional living expenses and lost income due to absence or time off from work. Basically, it is designed to cover the gaps that your regular health insurance may have due to deductibles and co-payments. Put as simply as possible, supplemental health insurance covers additional expenses that your primary insurance will not cover at for any reason whatsoever. Following are three excellent sources for the necessary coverage: AARP health insurance, Humana health insurance and Blue Cross health insurance.

AARP Health Insurance

For seniors online teachers 50 years of age and older, AARP health insurance is supposed to be quite good, but I imagine it all depends on what you try to collect. It is always best to plan ahead and reduce the cost of the health insurance, which means taking very good care of your physical self so you will not be a bother to the carrier of your health insurance. If you are at high risk for a serious accidents, illness, or hospitalization, which most seniors are or soon will be, it is important to have the peace of mind that having additional insurance coverage can bring you. Believe me, I could go for such peace of mind, but I seriously doubt it will come my way.

Humana Health Insurance

Humana Health Insurance is another wonderful purveyor of health insurance products, at least from what I hear these days. I feel quite sure that a simple telephone call or e-mail inquiry will result in a slew of bright colored brochures and high energy emails. Generally speaking, Humana supplemental health insurance is an additional type of insurance that you can purchase to help cover costs you might incur in case of accident, hospitalization or if you get certain diseases, like cancer. The benefits are paid directly to you and will help you replace lost income and pay for out-of-pocket expenses you’re your regular health insurance does not cover. This health care product is specifically designed to pick up where your normal health insurance leaves off, and there is every reason to believe that it can go a long way paying for medical procedures, experimental treatments, dental work and vision care, provided of course that the premiums are paid on the dot with legal tender.

Blue Cross Health Insurance

I doubt there has ever been a health insurance provider with a more sterling reputation for prompt accommodation and lightening quick response than Blue Cross health Insurance. I imagine that most of your neighbors immediately recognize this company as one of the top in the nation, and if your find that those near and dear to you can tell you at the drop a hat what Blue Cross does for a living, then you can rest assured that they will be able to provide you with a complete laundry list of options for your health insurance needs. Remember, you don’t need health insurance, primary or supplemental, for what ails you right now; you need it for what will ail you tomorrow.

If you can earn enough money teaching online to afford it, I would certainly recommend looking into what can certainly be a really beneficial addition to your personal economy. Goodness knows I wish I could spare the money for a small policy, and perhaps someday, if I work hard enough and smart enough, I will be able to afford health care, both primary health coverage and supplemental health insurance. Until that day, however, I’ll just continue to be extra careful with my body and my mind as I grade student essay after student essay.

Here’s to your good health today and tomorrow.

Online Degree Programs Among Extra Income Ideas

2008-09-30T00:03:00.002-05:00

There are many, many extra income ideas, such as online education, floating around today, and, yes they do generate extra online income. However, it remains for us to ask just who is really benefiting from the extra income from online teaching. Let’s face it: the economy is in very hot water, and the reason online degree programs, along with the necessary online adjunct faculty positions are growing like mushrooms on a wet lawn, and it does not take a rocket scientist to figure this out, is that the main part of tuition and fees students have to pony up comes from borrowed money.

Even though I am separated from my students earning online college degrees by physical distance, I am still able to identify their position on the food chain. It has occurred to me that most of my students are from economic backgrounds that do not traditionally provide the cash required to attend online degree program. They have to borrow the money, lots of it, by the way, to attend their chosen online degree program This borrowed money makes a first rate extra online income for the schools.

Online Degree Programs Control Extra Online Income

Given that online degree programs are relatively new, and that most online degree programs are able to hire an almost unlimited number of teachers seeking to supplement their meager incomes, it crosses my mind that online degree programs could be a way to keep both under employed college instructors and unemployed young citizens off the streets.

If you are a college instructor managing, say, a dozen online adjunct faculty positions, you hardly have time to go to the bathroom, much less consider in any serious way that you are being grossly underpaid, or that you are inside, literally, an electronic sweatshop that requires you to continuously seek more and more extra income from online teaching. This is not to say that the education experience offered by online degree programs in general is worth less than an on ground degree program, or that the education offered by those in online adjunct faculty positions is less than high quality, but the economic reality is unavoidable once some perspective is gained by both parties.

The Sweatshop Economic Model

The vast majority of educators have little or no idea how the educational economy actually works against them. Because of this ignorance, teachers may be uncomfortable initially because they do not know how to sell and manage their skills effectively on the open market, and, therefore, they are unable to view students as customers and to gauge their reactions to feedback. Perhaps the best approach in the beginning is to understand that undergraduate education today is a retail operation. The instructor is simply a clerk hired to serve the public. A strong grasp of this reality will help them tailor their lectures or tweak their online classroom performance. Intellectual practice does helps, as does practical experience, and techniques such as envisioning the student audience as customers in a shoe store, replete with smelly feet and unreasonable demands may help with initial discomfort. It goes without saying that teachers could condition themselves for these eventualities in a regular classroom, but the online format encourages students to respond much more vigor and in greater depth than a time-constrained classroom discussion. The simple fact of the matter is that it pays in the long run for a teacher in an online degree program to be resigned to getting the hands a little dirty learning as they adjust to the grim realities of how difficult extra income from online teaching really is once the computer is glowing.

Online instructors set the emotional and intellectual tone for their classes. It does not pay to begin teaching by expecting too much in the form of financial reward. They must make plans to consistently integrate the sweatshop model into their learning activities. Teachers in distance learning settings need to design deliberate methods to find out how well students are learning to be passive receivers of electronic information whizzing by at an ever increasing rate. Online instructors actually demonstrate how to behave in a learning environment designed to enrich the online degree programs themselves, and they have a responsibility to do this without tipping their mitts, so to speak, and letting on that there is something fundamentally wrong with an educational system that pays an a person with a graduate degree in an online faculty position so little money.

Online Faculty Position

2008-09-29T00:06:00.001-05:00

Extra income from online teaching can be earned on a regular basis, but in order to secure a classroom it is first necessary to qualify for an online faculty position. The only way to even be considered for one of these positions is to first earn at least eighteen graduate hours in a specific academic discipline. To be completely honest, it is best to have a Master’s degree in the discipline in which you apply to teach. Earning a graduate degree is costly in terms of both time and money. However, if you want to earn income from online teaching, it is imperative to earn the necessary academic badges before applying for any online faculty position.

Add to this the prospect that a driven academic can teach as many as a dozen classes online at a time, and it is easy to understand that an online faculty position is certainly a prize catch. Further, since there is no guarantee at all that another online class will be offered after one ends, despite successful completion of the class by the instructor, and the same driven academic is constantly trying to develop extra income ideas to shore up what could very well be a constantly disappearing extra online income.

The Online Faculty Position Is Actually Scarce

The reality is that there are a lot of qualified college teachers with loads of classroom experience trying to snag the elusive online faculty position. To put it country simple, given the great number of people with graduate degrees today, all but a few college teachers need extra income, and extra online income is quite attractive because if nothing else it does not require the purchase of gasoline.

The vast majority of college faculty teaching, say, English, composition or remedial writing and reading in 2008 are academic drifters, so to speak, picking up as many classes as possible at as many campuses as possible. The shear cost of maintaining and fueling a car or truck to take them to their various classrooms is enough to destroy the meager pay they receive for their efforts to teach difficult subjects. Therefore, the prospect of an online faculty position and the lure of extra income from online teaching are very attractive.

However financially attractive online adjunct faculty positions may seem at first, the brutal reality is that they do not provide access to health care or retirement.

The Online Faculty Position Does Not Provide Benefits

When teachers try to generate extra income ideas, and today most do so because they are forced by economic circumstances to at least try to generate extra online income, they often do not know that they will be perceived as throw away workers by the very schools that hire them for online adjunct faculty positions.

The run of the mill online faculty position does not provide access to group health insurance rates. While one can earn extra income for online teaching, one will not be offered any sort of retirement package. Indeed, it is a good idea for anyone seeking an online faculty position to read again The Grapes of Wrath.

These often painful truths are hard to endure, but they are the core realities of trying to earn extra income from online teaching.

Online Degree Programs

2008-09-28T12:26:00.003-05:00

Online Degree Programs

Online degree programs can, if you have the academic credentials, pad your income in the form of thousands of dollars of cash each month, and could very well ease the financial pain of having to choose between food and fuel in these parlous economic times; I would be overjoyed to tell you it would be as easy as turning on your computer and logging in to an online classroom to start the money train.

Sadly, I simply don’t have an easy answer to the question of how to obtain extra income from online teaching. My experience is that there are no quick paths to being an online professor. It will often take a year or more to even receive a response to your application to a school that offers online courses. Further, you will be required in almost every case to spend four to six weeks of your time without pay training to teach for each school.

Even after you successfully complete the training, for which you will not be paid a dime, you will have no guarantee that you will be offered a class.

Teaching for Online Degree Programs is Difficult

It is not a matter of just asking for the work and hauling in the cash. It is hard work that requires you to put in many extra hours after you have already put in a full day at the office. In many cases, schools that offer online classes require you to answer student emails and telephone calls every day. Of course, there is also the matter of mind-numbing administrative tasks, such as filling out spreadsheets containing information about student attendance.

Overall, online teaching is hard work that will consume your free time and tie you to a chair in front of a computer.

Don’t make the mistake that many have made and assume that online adjunct faculty positions are easy to find, or that the life of an online adjunct instructor is about dancing and drinking. By and large, the schools that offer online courses view online adjunct instructors as disposable labor, and that attitude leads to indifference on the part of academic management, which leads to a rough road for those seeking extra income from online teaching

Online Degree Programs Produce Razor-Thin Incomes

I have taught online for over three years. During that time, I have discovered that online teaching is professionally fulfilling and personally enjoyable, and I have discovered that extra income from online teaching is actually pretty thin in terms of purchasing power. I look at money from the view point of purchasing power. I am always wary of inflation. My experience is that online schools do not award raises to their online adjunct instructors, while ever increasing the number of students in the classroom.

I do not want to discourage you from seeking ways to earn extra online income, but I also do not want to give you the impression that you will soon be drinking fancy cocktails poolside while the money flows into your bank account as a result of having an online faculty position.

Not to put too fine a point on my thesis, but being an online adjunct instructor in online degree programs is about working very hard to learn time management skills in order to bring in extra income from online teaching.