There are many aspects to teaching in general and teaching online. But let's cut to the chase
and talk specifically about teaching craft subjects online.
If you have taught traditional, face to face Needlecraft classes before, you have covered most
of the ground and you should be OK. However, it should be noted that Online media has its own
characteristics. Some of these characteristics make it easier to teach online and some others,
at surface, might seem more challenging.
On the plus side, the fact that you and your students are not physically at the same place
at the same time brings the freedom of scheduling. It also gives students more time to
practice and challenge the subject before they get to the point to ask questions.
It also gives you more time to think about their questions and provide better answers.
On the challenging side, the very fact that you and your students are not in the same place
at the same time, makes it more challenging to show techniques that require observation more
than reading/listening. To cover these areas, you need to emphasize on illustrations and photos,
and if possible, even video clips.
That makes it more important to prepare course materials and instructions that are
self-explained. In other words, compensate for lack of face to face talk with more
descriptive writing and images.
Although we emphasize on extensive and very descriptive written instructions and photos,
we should not forget about the capabilities that online media provides us.
That is why we encourage you, that if you can, provide video clips to enhance your classes and to better show a specific technique.
We host video clips on our servers and make them available only to students through password protected classes,
so your intellectual property is protected and is not open to public.
Also, we can help you in providing other visual effects such as slide shows, magnifying glass, and "On Mouse Over" objects.
Your class and Needlecraft University in general might be a repository of course materials and
Needlecraft projects and references. But we named it Needlecraft University and gave it the
functionality to be an interactive place, a community. In your class you should empower this
sense of community by creating interaction with your students and between students themselves.
Using the Class Discussion Board, you should encourage students to participate in
discussions and creative critiques.
A more community-oriented approach helps students to learn more from you and from each other.
It also results in more participation in future classes.
Contact us by email at
and let us know about your background and any teaching experience you may have.
Although not a requirement, having Instructor Certification from a credible institution is helpful.
Also, please send the idea for your class with a photo of your finished class project.
You are quite welcome to submit more that one proposal/class-idea.
If you have these information on a web space and have the permission to distribute its address,
you can send us the URL to that space.
We will contact you and let you know if your class idea matches with what we present at NU.
If it does, we will provide you with the password to the Sample e-Office.
Sample e-Office is a password protected area of NU's web site, dedicated to
prospective teachers. It contains the Terms & Conditions, as well as all the information
about course writing guidelines, templates, class format, and the mechanics of
communication between NU and its Faculty Members.
After you learned about these details, if you were interested in becoming a Faculty Member, you then need to send us your brief bio & personal photo. You will then proceed to prepare your class materials, and we will set your personal e-Office and add your bio and photo to our Faculty Members section. You are now officially a Faculty Member at Needlecraft University.