It happens often, at least every other month. Someone I know or someone who knows me knows someone else who wants to get started teaching online. So, who ya gonna call? Why, me, of course. I’m lucky. I teach online. I work from home in my bunny slippers. Every day. It seems that working in my slippers daily, creating my own hours, and working as I wish, and how I wish is nirvana to others, but like everything else, there is a trade off. Working from home, teaching online, can be stressful, harried, and just as nerve wracking as working in an office with folks that one may not have the pleasure of choosing to communicate with daily.

While teaching online is a great job and it can be most fulfilling, it certainly has its drawbacks. First and probably foremost, one can’t see others, at least not easily and readily, and we just don’t realize how much more difficult communication can be when we can’t use facial and body language or voice inflection to help us converse. And, we don’t see others daily to chat about the kids, the latest movie, or other simple instances that those in an office discuss daily around the water cooler. Sometimes, working from home can be lonely and one can feel as if he or she is all alone and must make decisions without discussing it first with others because many times, that is the exact situation and we must go it alone.

So, you want to teach online? Here are some more tips you need to know before putting away the corporate suits and pulling out those comfy sweats and slippers. First, know that you must be highly organized and self motivated. You have to be a deadlines person, and you must always be available, always, 24/7. The one big drawback to teaching online is that you’re never really off duty. That’s right. Never off duty. You must be ready and willing to be available to check your phone for messages, go online and check for questions from students, and you must be able to maintain that almost constant communication, even through all holidays and major events, even those in your own life and those most personal to you, like the birth of your children or grandchildren. Unless, you are officially off the clock, you are officially on duty and students could not care less if you are about to push out another human being. If you are the teacher, you must be available.

Online instructors must be organized and ready to check their classrooms daily, no less than twice a day. Most institutions give instructors at least 24 hours to respond to students’ messages/questions, but put yourself in the student’s place.  If there is a deadline you must meet as a student within 12 hours, do you have 24 hours, as the student, to wait on a response?

Online instructors must be able to be available to set and publish office hours.  While most online students communicate with the instructor online, other students prefer to pick up the phone. So, when you tell students you are available at particular times and days of the week, you must be available then to answer the phone right away, or at least to be able to return the call within minutes.

Online instructors have meetings, sometimes many meetings, to attend on a regular basis. You have faculty meetings and you have committee meetings, department meetings, and sometimes, even subject matter meetings.  You are required to be there, regardless of what is happening in your life at the moment, so expect to meet frequently at times, and be prepared to participate and contribute in those meetings as well. Be prepared to get on a meeting call, sometimes with just a moment’s notice, when something has popped up that is urgent and must be discussed or decided.

Finally, online instructors must be fabulous communicators and not just any communicator but one who understands how to use humor, graphics, and other devices to help engage, intrigue, and instruct students. You must love technology and be open to the many technological inventions that come at us daily. You must be a communicator who never takes offense at gnarly messages from some students, but one who can read between the lines and understand that students too are under stress and that their frustration rarely is about you, but something else entirely.

You have to realize that you must smile and compose an even-toned message even when you want to throw the cat across the room because a student just can’t get it and you don’t know what else to do for him or her. You must be creative in both words and thoughts to never ever let your students down, but to always build them up, give them hope and success to help them reach their goals.  You must have empathy and understanding, and you must be able to communicate it in course announcements, notes, emails, and phone conversations.

So, if you’re ready, truly ready to be all that and a bag of chips to students, administrators, and your own family, you’re ready to teach online. Fluff up your slippers and get comfy. You can work from home.