10 Awesome Teaching Assistant Online Courses For You

Are you passionate about making impacts in the lives of young people? Do you see yourself directing young minds on how to make the right career choices? Then a few Teaching Assistant Online Courses might help you actualize that dream.

Teaching is a noble profession. It comes with so many responsibilities. As a teacher, your duty is not just to teach, but to also motivate and inspire the young ones to be valuable assets to themselves and the nation. 

In this article, we’ll look at 10 teaching assistant online courses you need to navigate that path of making a great impact.

But before we do that, who is a teaching assistant and what does he do?  Let’s find out.

Who is a Teaching Assistant?

A teaching Assistant is an individual who helps a teacher carry out instructional responsibilities. There are teaching assistants at the different levels of learning.

There are graduate training assistants (GTAs), undergraduate training assistants (UTAs), secondary school training assistants, and elementary school training assistants.

Elementary school training assistants are also known as paraprofessionals.

You need to be able to market your skills if you must be a successful teaching assistant. These

Roles of a Teaching Assistant

The roles of a teaching assistant are:

• Getting classrooms set for lessons
• Assisting teachers to plan lessons
• Making learning resources available to students
• Listening to students and assisting those who need extra learning support
• Assisting teachers to manage classroom behaviors
• Teaching students when the teacher is not available, etc.

These 10 Best Free Online Excel Courses will help you in managing students’ data.

How To Become A Teaching Assistant?

There’s no professional requirement for you to be a Teaching Assistant. Depending on the level of the students you want to assist, you only need to be knowledgeable enough to teach them.

That means for elementary school TA roles, you just need to have finished high school and know how to relate well with kids. To be a GTA, you are required to at least be a college graduate. This will enable you to assist the students with difficult course work they need help in.

You also need to be able to market your skills if you must be a successful teaching assistant.

10 Teaching Assistant Online Courses

Being a teaching assistant requires you to be knowledgeable enough to teach the students. You also need to be able to supervise and assist the students in both curricular and non-curricular activities.

Here are some carefully selected teaching assistant online courses that can help prepare you to be a better TA:

1. Teaching Assistant Fundamentals (Alison)

Access: Free

Level: All Levels

Duration: approximately 4 hours

This course is created to give you an in-depth knowledge of the roles of a teaching assistant and how to execute them. You will learn about the ideas and practices, skills and processes and professional conducts of a teaching assistant.

You will also learn how to carry out fieldwork with diverse schools and gain crucial information about their policies.

Having a deep knowledge about diversity, equality and inclusion in the classroom is important to ensuring equal respect and treatment amongst the students.

You will learn about the behavioral conducts of students and what makes them behave the way they do. In addition to that, you will learn how to take care of children with special needs and also properly understand the laws that protect them.

Here are the course modules:

• Teaching Assistant Overview
• Professional Developments
• Working with the school and its policies
• Discussion on curriculum, Assessment and Monitoring
• Providing the Best Learning Environment
• ICT, Literacy and Numeracy Development
• Child Development and the SEN Support
• Behavior Relationships
• Maintain strong communications
• Career prospects

Click here to take the course.

2. Diploma in Supervision (Alison)

Access:  Free

Level: All Levels

Duration: Approximately 15 hours

This diploma course teaches you how to be an effective leader in the classroom or any work setting. You will understand the various ways you can help your students to develop good habits, behave appropriately in class, and also feel comfortable around you.

At the end of this course, you will find it very easy to organize, coordinate and inspire your students to perform tasks. You will understand better what makes a good supervisor, very essential in the classroom or workplace.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and the ERG theory are important theories of motivation a teacher should know. This is because you need to know how to motivate your students to be their best at all times.

Though this course addresses supervision more as it regards to the workplace, everything discussed is applicable in the classroom.

Click here to take the course.

3. Teaching Character and Creating Positive Classrooms (Coursera)

Access: Free

Level: All levels

Duration: Approximately 17 hours.

As a teaching assistant, you will be dealing with pupils and students of different characters. For the pupils who are still developing, it is easier to help them build good characters. But it is more difficult to do the same when it comes to grown students and undergraduates.

That is the essence of this course. It is structured to introduce you to the concept of positive psychology and how to apply the lessons learned from it to maximize student engagement and accomplishment.

At the end of the course, you will understand how to integrate character-based objectives into your teaching.

Here are the course modules:

• Your character Journey
• The Science of Character
• Teaching Character in Every Moment
• Macrostructures
• Talking About Character Growth.

Click here to take the course.

4. The Art of Teaching: The Secret to Teaching Anyone Anything (Udemy)

Access: $9

Level: All Levels

Duration: 2 hours

Because being a teaching assistant requires you to teach too, this course is structured to teach you the Art of Teaching.

The course discusses teachers taking an unconventional approach to teaching, as it believes the traditional way is no longer effective. It seeks to provide a permanent solution to the mediocre education system currently in existence.

By the time you’re done with this course, you will learn the 4 common mistakes teachers make that prevent students from learning.  You will learn to build a quality and healthy relationship with your students. You will also learn the best way to give students feedback on their assessments and general behavior in class.

The instructors also discussed the principles of teaching every teacher should know and the traits of a highly effective teacher.

Here are the course modules:

• The Radically Happy Teacher
• Ditch the Negativity
• Integrate Life and Work
• Trade Anxiety for Confidence
• Open Yourself to Possibility
• The Radically Happy Classroom
• Know Your Students as People
• Write Your Thoughts
• Stop Planning Lessons
• Give Yours Autonomy
• Rethink Homework

Click here to take the course.

5. How to Teach Online with Zoom (Udemy)

Access: $9

Level: All Levels

Duration: approximately 3 hours

In this course, you will learn to use Zoom to effectively teach your students. The course is centered on teaching you the Zoom platform and how you can easily navigate it.

The pandemic era has made us understand the importance of organizing online classes. Your ability to use online meeting platforms like Zoom, Google Meet etc. to teach would be a great skill to have as a teaching assistant.

Here are the course modules:

• Introduction to Online Teaching
• How to Use Zoom to teach effectively
• Teaching online – ideas, techniques, games and online activities
• Extra videos and real life examples of activities.

Click here to take the course.

6. Lesson Planning for Teachers: Steps to Success (Udemy)

Access: $9

Levels: All Levels

Duration: Approximately 1 hour

Planning lessons is one of the most important tasks of a teaching assistant. It can be stressful, time-consuming and extremely frustrating.

In this course, you will understand the simple steps that help you plan lessons without stress. You will learn about the planning tools you’ll use in your lesson planning process.

You will also get to know how to decide the best lesson resources to use, and the perfect lesson sequence.

The course also gives you access to various documents and templates you can use to make your planning process easier. Most of these documents and templates are available for you to download.

Here are the course topics:

• Introduction to planning for progress
• Excellent teaching and learning
• Essential elements of lesson planning
• The four part lesson – what is it, and why is it useful?
• Rosenshine Principles of instruction
• Lesson plan pro forma
• Setting effective lesson objectives and outcomes
• Planning in Questions
• Planning for differentiation
• Planning for assessment
• Setting up your classroom
• Planning checklist.

Click here to take the course.

7. Strategies for Online Teaching and Learning (edX)

Access: Free

Level: Beginners

Duration: 3 weeks

Offered by the University of British Columbia, this course is structured to teach you how to create interactive and inspiring online learning sessions for your students.

You will have access to tips and case studies to make your online teaching delivery better and more effective.

As a teaching assistant, you will learn to conduct qualitative assessments for online courses. In addition to that, you will have access to an online community of educators from different parts of the world.

The instructor of this course, Donata Bonassisa, has been one of the most trusted course developers at the University of British Columbia. She has over 25 years’ experience as a teacher in both primary, secondary, adult and cultural education.

With the over 8,000 students who have taken this course, you are sure to come out well-equipped to handle online teaching sessions for your students.

Click here to take the course.

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8. Becoming a Student Assistant: Teaching and Mentoring (FutureLearn)

Access: Free

Level: Beginners (For GTAs)

Duration: 5 weeks

This course offered by the University of Groningen is designed to teach students to work as teaching assistants.

Students in the school are encouraged to take up teaching assistant jobs to help lower level students to understand their course works better. This in addition prepares them to be better lecturers in the future.

At the end of this course, you will learn to identify the basic principles for designing a course. You will also gain experience in teaching as you’d be assigned to teach small groups of students on some occasions.

You will also learn to pay attention to classroom management and contribute professionally in a higher education working environment.

Here are the course modules:

• More than just a student
• Principles of good education
• Teaching students
• Coaching and communicating in an academic environment
• Case studies

Click here to take the course.

9. Teaching Students who have suffered Complex Trauma (FutureLearn)

Access: Free

Level: Any Level

Duration: 2 Weeks

Students who have experienced complex trauma are treated differently from other students. This is because of the physical, emotional and social impact complex trauma can have on them.

In this course, you will get a better understanding of what complex trauma is and the level of impact it can have on the development of a child.

You will also understand why students who have experienced complex trauma behave the way they do and how you can manage them.

And most importantly, you’ll learn from this course the different practices that could reduce risks to students who have suffered complex trauma.

Here are the course topics:

• Attachments and trauma theories
• The neuroscience behind the behaviors presented by students who have experienced complex trauma
• The impact on those who support students who have experienced complex trauma
• Strategies for minimizing the risk to students in classrooms and schools
• The importance of applying trauma-informed practice and programs in schools

Click here to take the course.

10. The Role of Personal Assistants in Disability Support (FutureLearn)

Access: Free

Level: All Levels

Duration: 4 Weeks

Working as a personal assistant to a disabled person can come with lots of challenges if you’re not properly informed.

In this course, you will learn the roles of a personal assistant, and the risks and opportunities associated with it.

You will learn how you can resolve conflicts in a working relationship with a disabled person. You will also learn how to care for, motivate and inspire a disabled person and make the pains of the disability less severe for him or her.

As a disabled person, you can also take this course to learn how to hire a personal assistant that will work best for you.

Here are the course topics:

• Introduction to independent living and personal assistance
• Recruitment: finding the right fit
• What sort of personal assistance relationship works for you?
• Understanding potential difficulties in personal assistance relationships
• Understanding and managing personal difficulties
• Understanding and resolving conflict
• Moving forward with personal assistance relationships

Click here to take the course.

Conclusion

There is a special kind of joy and sense of fulfillment that comes with making an impact in people’s lives. Whether you’re a teacher or a teaching assistant, you’re making a difference in people’s lives, and you should be proud of that.

Finding detailed teaching assistant online courses can be a really daunting task. I do hope this article has simplified that task for you.

Cheers to making more impact!

Frequently Asked Questions on Teaching Assistant Online Courses

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