Education degree for college teaching? Good idea or not?

A lot of people with MSEds ask why they are having a difficult time finding an online teaching job. Unfortunately there's not much of a need for college instructors with Masters degrees in just education. Sure there are some lower level classes, but not many, and there are lots of people who want to teach them. So not much opportunity there.

My suggestion would be to get six graduate courses in one or more Gen Ed subject areas. This is where there is the highest demand since all college students must take several math and English classes. Many schools also offer Soc or Psych and some sort of science but students usually only need one course of those. In Eng and math, students need 2-3 of each course so there's more of a teaching opportunity there. However, there are not many Soc or Psych courses required for undergrads -- usually just one or the other.

I have my MSEd plus 18 graduate hours in three other subject areas so I have a wide variety of courses I can (and do) teach online. It's not difficult to find inexpensive online courses in various subject areas. Be sure when you take a class, that the prefix of the course begins with a subject and not EDU or EDUC. For example, MTH, ENG, WRT, LNG, etc.

I prefer independent study courses that I can complete in a short period of time (a couple of weeks). I have found several types of these courses at Fresno Pacific U -- these are for teachers however the prefixes are subjects not EDU. I can finish an independent study course in two weeks and these particular courses are relatively inexpensive. I got 24 hours of specialized courses in writing, comp, grammar, communications, etc.  in about three months.

I also have two graduate certificates that were regular online classes. I chose the school based on the length of the courses and the multiple start dates. By overlapping start dates of 8 week courses, I was able to complete 21 graduate hours in less than 6 months.

When looking at courses, make sure the prefix is in a subject area (NOT EDU) and it's low cost and FAST. Do the research, find 6 subject courses, and add more subject areas to your teaching qualifications in order to have more opportunities for online teaching.