Top Online Education & Teaching Degree Programs in 2023

Online early childhood education degrees are attractive to students who wish to utilize their teaching skills to assist the youngest learners as they take their initial steps in education. Most programs prepare graduates to work with Pre-K students in both academic and child care settings. These programs are available at the associate, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral levels and cater to a diverse range of professional objectives. Coursework typically covers developmental changes from birth to eight years old, educational pedagogy, and creating engaging learning environments.

Elementary education programs online help students fulfill their goals of working with children enrolled in Kindergarten through middle school. These programs give you an understanding of developmentally-appropriate teaching practices, effective lesson planning tools, strategies for teaching students of differing ability levels, and an awareness of how education policy plays into educational goals and outcomes. You must seek licensure and certification to teach after completing this program.

Students who enroll in online secondary education degree programs want to work with high school students to prepare them for college and professional endeavors. Programs focused on this area of education provide you with the subject knowledge needed to teach standard and specialized topics and the skills required to work with students of diverse backgrounds and abilities. You must seek licensure and grade level certification after graduating to qualify for teaching roles.

Special education online degrees appeal to students who want to work with exceptional learners to meet their full potential. In addition to covering subject area materials, you’ll also develop specialized skills in understanding various types of learning disabilities and creating lesson plans that cater to individual needs. Both public and private schools providing campus-based and distance learning programs offer these degrees. You’ll need to meet licensure and certification requirements to teach with this qualification.

An online physical education degree is an excellent choice if you aspire to teach students of all ages how to lead healthy and active lifestyles. These programs prioritize fitness for all ability levels and educate students on how to design inclusive programs based on the most recent health and biomedical research. Students gain expertise in curriculum development, equipment maintenance, teaching proper sports movements, and overseeing athletic programs.

While an online master’s degree in education likely won’t qualify you for a university position, it can help advance your career and earn a higher salary. If wanting to work as a school counselor, instructional coordinator, librarian, or principal, you’ll need at minimum a master’s degree. These programs build skills in leadership, implementation of qualitative and quantitative research, curriculum design and assessment, and providing counseling to students from diverse backgrounds.

These programs exist for individuals who want to work in the highest tiers of education as a practitioner. Degrees emphasize training in areas of program administration, leading organizational change, transformational leadership, and using cutting-edge research to inform new ways of progressing the field forward. Rather than focusing on skills-building in conducting research, these programs teach students how to implement findings in innovative ways. They usually require three years of full-time study or five years of part-time study.

Ph.D. programs in education exist for students who want to build advanced skills in areas of research, policy development and implementation, curricular assessment and evaluation, and postsecondary teaching. These degrees tend to be more theoretical in nature than EdD pathways and give you the skills needed to contribute unique research, findings, and best practices to the discipline. They also provide the skills you need to lead college-level classes that prepare the next generation of educators.

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