No- you need field experience. I suggest volunteering or being an adjunct professor/teacher while pursuing your degree.

none are taken seriously…

I would say no, its not a good way to get a teaching degree. You need field experience by your senior year and you just can’t get it there haha. And they aren’t taken seriously either. Sorry.

As you can see by the nature and tone of the replies you’ve already received, your question was answered in a rather traditional frame of reference with little to no regard to providing you i) hope, ii) encouragement, and iii) some advice on how to make your online experience successful.

I’ll give it a shot with my reply.

First, please know my bias (it’s my disclosure statement to the traditionalists). As a student I took classes online -at the graduate level. As an instructor, I’ve developed and delivered classes online -at both the undergrad and graduate level. As a fairly well-educated, well-read, and I like to believe, open-minded adult, there is no doubt in my moind that online education is bona fide ….

And, I may as well get my shot in here to try and provide some salve from the rather inconsiderate shots you’ve already taken … if those that claim online education is less than their “education”; that it’s as random and cheap as the prize in a Cracker Jack box ; that there’s only one way to get a “true” education: that somehow, online education is “less-than” education … than I pose this: Why in the **** is public education in america so dysfunctional?

It’s not the students.

For all the yahoos that completed the traditional gig of getting their degrees and then made their way into policy-making positions, what have you done for education lately?

For all the yahoos that completed the traditional gig of getting their degrees and then made their way into teaching -at any level- from Pre-K through PhD, what have you done -beside lecture- for education lately?

And for all the yahoo educators -at any level in any capacity, that trash online education at all costs … two questions, i) what exactly do you know [not theorize or ponder] about online education, and ii) what have you done for education lately?

Yes, online education -for that matter, teaching yourself- can and will prepare you properly for the teaching field. The content knowledge of teaching is mainly theory that certainly needs to be learned and then applied -as such, you need the opportunity to be in front of a classroom, or an audience (maybe you’re presently a corporate trainer and that certainly provides the opportunity). My point is, that online education cannot be blithely dismissed by anyone … for some people it is their ONLY opportunity to further their education -and in my book that’s a lot more importabt -and productive- than having to say I can’t complete my education because I can’t get to a classroom.

Good luck -and do it!