Are you a history enthusiast or an experienced educator looking to share your knowledge with students worldwide?
Teaching history online can be a rewarding and impactful way to make history come alive for learners of all ages. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the essential steps to excel in the world of online history instruction, from setting up your virtual classroom, planning your class structure, and engaging your students in the most effective ways.
Continue reading or jump ahead:
- Why should you teach history online?
- Can you earn a living teaching history online?
- Qualifications needed to teach history online
- Steps to creating your online history learning experience
- Use technology to your advantage
- Conclusion
Related: The Ultimate Online Course Launch Checklist (Free Guide + Templates)
Why should you teach history online?
If you are passionate about history and find yourself educating your friends and family in everyday life about the past, chances are you would thrive as an online history teacher! There are many different ways that you can share your love for historical events, which we’ll explore later on. But first, let’s dive into some motivators for why you should consider being an online educator.
Teaching history online offers several compelling reasons for educators and individuals interested in sharing their historical expertise:
- Accessibility – Online history teaching transcends geographical boundaries, allowing educators to connect with students from all over the world. This means that students from remote areas or different countries can access quality history education that they might not have had access to otherwise, learning about different countries and past events that they might not have been taught about in grade school.
- Flexibility and convenience – Online teaching provides the flexibility to set your own schedule. You have the freedom to decide if you want to work full-time, part-time, or even as a side gig, making it suitable for those who prefer a less routine schedule or have other commitments.
- Diverse learning needs – Online history instruction allows you to serve students with diverse learning needs. You can decide how you want your class to be structured, and if you want to veer away from more traditional forms of instruction. As well, you can provide supplementary materials, video explanations, or interactive quizzes to help learners grasp historical concepts, making education more interactive, fun, and inclusive for a wide range of students.
- Entrepreneurial opportunities – Online history teaching can be a stepping stone to entrepreneurship. You can develop your own history courses, create educational content, and even build your brand in the online education space. You can also expand your offerings by selling digital products or memberships for recurring revenue, turning your passion into a fully-fledged successful business.
Can you earn a living teaching history online?
You can absolutely earn a living teaching history online! If you are passionate about sharing your knowledge, dedicated to your craft, and motivated to inspire others, there’s almost nothing you can’t accomplish. But, we’ll let you in on the secret of how to expedite your potential earnings and kickstart your online course.
Here’s how to set yourself apart as an online history teacher:
- Choose your focus – Determine the specific historical periods, events, topics, or themes you want to teach. You could focus on ancient civilizations, world wars, specific time periods, or even niche areas of history, like art history or economic history. The possibilities are quite literally endless!
- Set your pricing – Determine your rates for history courses or tutoring sessions. Consider factors like your qualifications, the level of history you’re teaching, and the demand for your services. Also, think about how you’ll handle payments, whether through the platform you use or other methods like PayPal. Take a look at what other online history teachers are charging for lessons that are similar styles to yours, and set your rate competitively.
- Market yourself – To ensure you actually have students to teach, you will need to put in a bit of effort to market your services. Promote your online history teaching lessons through social media, educational forums, and relevant websites. Consider creating a content marketing strategy, offering free webinars or historical insights, and leveraging email marketing to reach potential students.
- Showcase testimonials – As you gain experience and positive reviews, create a portfolio showcasing your successes and testimonials from satisfied students. This builds trust with potential clients and sets you apart as a reputable history educator. Let everyone know that you’re the best at what you do.
Qualifications needed to teach history online
In order to teach history online, there are essentially two crucial things that you need: passion and knowledge about your historical events. While there are other qualifications, these two are essential for succeeding in the world of online history instruction.
To teach history online effectively, these are other things you should have:
- A strong understanding of history, including the specific historical periods or topics you plan to teach and niche events you want to cover.
- Ideally, a degree in history or a related field. However, practical experience and a passion for history can also be valuable.
- Confidence and comfort with technology, as you’ll need to create and deliver online content.
At the end of the day, you want to build trust with your students. To do this, ensure that you have the qualifications and expertise required to teach your chosen historical subjects effectively. While not always necessary, a relevant degree in history or a related field can significantly enhance your credibility with your students.
Related: 10 Steps To Creating A Wildly Successful Online Course
Steps to creating your online history learning experience
Now that we’ve covered all the logistics, let’s get started planning out your online history learning experience and setting up your virtual classroom.
Decide whether you want to work through an existing online education platform, use your website, or a combination of both.
If you want to branch off on your own and create an online learning platform that’s solely yours, we’ve compiled a list of the best online education platforms out there.
First, keep in mind these key points when deciding which online platform to choose:
- Course creation – Search for a platform that enables easy-to-use course creation tools with drag-and-drop editors and course templates.
- Student management – Make sure you can manage student enrollment, track their learning progress, and complete administrative tasks.
- Community features – Discussion boards, group chats, and community forums can help you grow your business while creating an inclusive learning environment.
- Content security – Select a platform that protects your digital content from unwanted sharing, downloads, and redistribution.
- Certification, assessments, and quizzes – Whether you’re offering certification or tracking student progress, these elements allow you to ensure students are actually learning. This feature is also important if you want to sell to corporate or education-based clients.
- Multi-device and media support – Make sure your platform allows learners to use their mobile devices if needed, and also delivers content in a variety of forms, such as text, video, and imagery.
- Analytics, reporting, and support – Looking at data can help support the student learning process, and let you know how engaged your students are as a teacher. As well, choose a platform that offers tech support when needed.
Look for a platform that can accommodate both your current and future needs. The platform you choose will be the home base for all your operations, whether that includes student communication, hosting synchronous classes, or uploading asynchronous courses.
Here is a list of some of the top online course platforms:
| Platform | Pros | Cons |
| Thinkific |
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| The Leap |
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| Teachable |
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| Udemy |
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| Podia |
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Related: The Best Online Teaching Platforms to Earn Money in 2023
Creating an effective online history learning environment is crucial:
- Equipment and setup – Ensure you have reliable equipment, including a good microphone, webcam, and a stable internet connection for clear communication. Designate a dedicated, well-lit teaching space in your home, keeping it clutter-free and professional-looking.
- Organize and gather teaching materials – Collect your historical materials, including textbooks, primary sources, and digital resources, in an easily accessible format. Cloud storage services like Google Drive or Dropbox can help store and share these materials efficiently.
- Scheduling and course delivery – Establish a consistent schedule for online history classes and communicate it clearly to your students. Provide structure and predictability to encourage punctuality and active participation.
Designing a well-structured history curriculum is essential for online teaching success. Depending on your teaching method, style, and goals, the kind of curriculum you create will vary. This is also very niche dependent – think about what type of history you specialize in, as the format of your course will rely on the material you’ll be introducing.
Here are some tips to keep in mind:
- Define your objectives – Clearly outline your teaching goals and objectives for each historical lesson or course to keep your instruction focused.
- Break it down – Divide historical concepts into manageable chunks, making it easier for students to grasp complex topics gradually.
- Create engaging content – Develop interactive presentations, quizzes, and assignments that promote active learning and participation.
- Implement assessments and assignments – Use regular assessments, quizzes, and assignments to gauge your students’ understanding of historical concepts. Provide timely and constructive feedback to support their improvement.
Engagement is key to effective online history teaching. If you find that your class isn’t engaged in the material you are teaching, you’ll soon start to see empty seats in your virtual classroom. However, there are many ways to keep your students on their toes and excited for history lessons.
Try implementing these techniques:
- Interactive sessions – Host live history classes with interactive features and encourage students to ask questions, discuss historical events, and share their thoughts.
- Discussion forums – Create online discussion forums, chat groups, or communities where students can collaborate, share their historical insights, and ask for help.
- Use visual aids – Utilize historical visuals like maps, timelines, and primary source documents to make historical events come alive.
- Show your personality – You can promote student learning and engagement by simply being yourself, and showing your students what makes you unique.
Other tips for encouraging student engagement are in the forms of course support, and include offering one-on-one support through virtual office hours or individual sessions for students who need additional historical guidance.
Effective communication is crucial in the online history learning environment, as it can sometimes be challenging for students to find out all of the information they need to succeed in an online learning environment.
Be sure to regularly follow these practices:
- Clear communication – Ensure your historical instructions, explanations, and expectations are communicated clearly to avoid misunderstandings.
- Regular updates – Keep your students informed about historical course schedules, assignments, and any changes that may arise.
- Encourage questions – Create an open and supportive historical atmosphere where students feel comfortable asking questions and seeking clarification.
In an online learning environment, creating a sense of community will help your students feel motivated to succeed. It will also automatically improve class engagement among your online history learners.
Try these activities to foster a sense of community:
- Icebreaker activities – Start your historical courses with icebreaker activities to help students get to know each other and build connections.
- Collaborative projects – Incorporate collaborative historical research projects that encourage students to work together, even in a virtual environment.
- Virtual historical events – Organize occasional virtual historical events, such as historical debates or guest speaker sessions, to keep students engaged and excited about learning history.
Online history teaching is an evolving process. Be kind to yourself, and remember to continuously adapt and enhance your teaching methods. This will also help you stay competitive in your online teaching field, and stand out from your competition.
To adapt and improve, remember to:
- Gather feedback on your teaching style – Ask your students for feedback on your teaching style and course materials and be open to making adjustments based on their input and changing educational trends.
- Professional development – Stay updated with the latest historical research, teaching tools, and methodologies by participating in online history courses, workshops, and historical conferences.
- Stay patient and flexible – Understand that students may have different learning paces and adapt your historical teaching approach accordingly. Provide extra assistance if necessary.
- Recognize potential challenges – Acknowledge potential challenges students may encounter in an online learning environment. Offer guidance on technical issues, provide alternative resources for those with limited technology access, and ensure your materials are accessible to all students, including those with disabilities.
Use technology to your advantage
An online learning environment can be very different from teaching courses in-person, especially if you are an experienced educator.
You can leverage technology to enhance your online history teaching and combat any challenges. Using interactive tools and software online can bring historical concepts to life, such as historical mapping applications or virtual museum tours. As well, recording your live sessions (if you decide to offer them) can be beneficial for students to review or to catch up on missed historical lessons.
Another good idea is to create a library of supplementary historical resources, including documentaries, podcasts, and reference materials, to support your students’ historical learning journey.
Conclusion
By incorporating these strategies and tips into your online history teaching approach, you can create a more enriching and effective historical learning experience for your students while nurturing your growth as an online history educator.
With Thinkific, you’ll be able to develop online courses that cater to your students’ needs, whether that includes cohorts, one-on-one sessions, synchronous or asynchronous learning, or an on-the-go experience with Thinkific Mobile.
Start your journey as an online history teacher today. Sign up now to create and launch your first online course for free, and enjoy the fascinating journey of teaching history online!