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[a_salika]

Hello,

I am ABD in religious studies and am interested in teaching online courses to supplement my income and give me more teaching experience. It seems most online schools are looking for people in professional fields, so how does one go around to find jobs teaching courses on religion online? Where do I start looking?

thanks

[zharkov]

All the big for-profit outfits focus strongly on professional degrees, but it might (just might) be possible they have a religious studies course or two in their gen ed curriculum.  Be warned that (a) they don't pay all the well for the work required; (b) they have canned courses and a very prescribed approach to teaching; and (c) they don't have much cred in mainstream academia.   Your background might qualify you to teach something like comp, if you are game.

You may want to see if there are any public or non-profit schools in your state or region that have strong online programs.  There are where I live.  Again, the RS courses will likely be gen ed requirements, although some religiously affiliated schools will have more RS courses. 

[caesura]

There are some faith-based online colleges that have religious studies courses.  The only one I can think of of at the moment is Liberty, but I know there are others.

[systeme_d_]

If you're looking to be employable at a non-religiously-affiliated institution afterwards, don't teach online for an actively evangelical Christian or very conservative Catholic college.  It would be more trouble to get your CV past a search committee's initial weedout than the teaching experience itself would be worth.

Search committees at state universities, for instance, are often quite suspicious of applicants with CVs that reflect experience exclusively at ultra-religious institutions (or only at their PhD institution and one ultra-religious institution).    Is that fair?  No.  But it is the case.

[systeme_d_]

Just to be clear, I would also include ultra-conservative Jewish, Islamic, Sikh, Buddhist, or Whatever institutions in my cautionary statement.

[caesura]

I just noticed that Strayer has a current opening for an online religion instructor.  They also have a course called "Latin and Vocabulary Development" which I assume you would be qualified for.  You might also check out general humanities courses.

[a_salika]

Hello everyone,

thanks for all of your replies. For some reason I wasn't getting emails from the forums, so just logged in now to find your useful suggestions.

Since I specialize in Islam, my options are probably more limited since I can't teach the usual Bible courses, although I can do a comp religion course.

I doubt any Christian university would hire me, unless they are more liberal, so no worry about that. The question is, are there any schools looking for people to teach comp religion or Islam online?

thanks

[systeme_d_]

There are very, very few classes in Religion offered online, even today, A_salika.

You might find the occasional community college offering a class like "World Religions" online, but that's about it. 

However, Islam is still a hot field.  Depending on where you're located, you should be able to pick up a face-to-face class or two.  Is that something you'd consider?

[caesura]

Can you teach Arabic?  American Public University is looking for an adjunct to teach Arabic.  They seem to be having trouble finding someone because they are advertising pretty widely for it, so even if you don't have a degree in Arabic, it might be worth checking out.