Teachers as Contractors

Historically, one of the problems with teaching an online course has been the inability to earn a wage above the poverty level, even though the work load has been tremendous. I can think of four factors that will impact this scenario.

1. Teachers are their own contractors, thereby eliminating excessive administrative costs and enabling them to contract with as many schools as necessary to gain the required student enrollment.
2. Teachers share course materials through the Open Educational Resources initiative. While prior preparation is intense, eventually a teacher is only combining and editing course content. Using Moodle makes this easy.
3. Open Source Software (free) and Open Content is utilized where ever possible. I'll be incorporating copyright free music and original compositions.
4. Greater use of audio/video instruction and assignment submission will reduce the hours of reading and writing in addition to creating more personalized communication.