Teaching Degrees - When You're Short On Time

While jobs are widely available for those with teaching degrees, and teaching degrees are now offered online as well as at traditional colleges and universities, deciding in which teaching field to specialize can be difficult. No matter which teaching degrees interest you, all of them will require several years of dedicated work to obtain.

Online Degree Programs

If getting a teaching degree online is the best option svailable to you, you will have to spend time researching the various online universities and their teaching degree programs. Consider hoe many online teaching degree courses you can comfortably fit into your schedule, and if those courses will be transferable to a traditional college or university if things chance and you want to pursue your teaching degree full-time.

Verify that the online school you are considering is accredited by the Distance Training and Education Council; the DTEC will let you know if that school's teaching degrees are accepted under state teaching certification requirements. Talk to other students who have completed teaching degrees with the different online programs and see what their real-world experience has been in finding employment.

If, on the other hand, you are considering one of the teaching degrees offered by a traditional institution of higher learning, you can expect to take between four and five years to qualify. While this may be fine for those just out of high school at the beginning their adult lives, there are many people who would like to return to school to complete teaching degrees. Perhaps they are unhappy in their careers, or simply would like the security of teaching degrees to fall back on if, as is happening to more and more people, their current jobs are eliminated.

Accelerated Teaching Degrees

For those individuals, having to attend school for four or more years to get heir teaching degrees is not feasible. And many educational institutions, both online and traditional, recognize their dilemma and now offering accelerated teaching degree curricula.

Depending on the individual's ability to work hard, and the classes available to him or here, accelerated teaching degree programs can be completed in less than two years. Designed for mature adults, the programs offer flexible scheduling and terms of shorter duration than the typical semesters or quarters on which normal teaching degree programs are structured.

Some colleges will give credit life and professional experience toward accelerated teaching degrees; this is true for both brick-and-mortar and online degree programs. But once again, make sure any online accelerated teaching degree program in which you are interested is accredited by the DETC. And if getting a teaching degree is designed to qualify you for a work promotion, make sure your company will also accept your online degree as legitimate.