At first glance, it seems like there are a lot of real estate schools out there offering an online classroom.  However, upon closer inspection, we believe that there’s not actually a lot of choice – at least not the right kind of choice.  Most schools out there are offering a product that actually doesn’t do a great job of preparing students for the real estate exam offered by the State of Florida.  We know that only half of students taking the Florida real estate prelicensing exam pass it – we believe that quality instruction makes a difference.

What should you look for in an online classroom?  We think that there are a few things that you should keep in mind.

Who’s teaching the class?

Taking a look at most real estate schools out there, you’ll notice that there’s actually nobody teaching them.  Should students be expected to learn simply from reading a wall of text and paying for this privilege?  We think that it should be clear to a student that they’ll be learning from an experienced instructor.

How does the class use technology to improve understanding?

When you’re in the classroom, students and instructors have the opportunity to get and give feedback to each other.  We think that great online classes can do the same thing by constantly engaging the student through doing short comprehension questions at regular times to gauge understanding regularly before students get to the final exam.  A great online classroom should give the student a chance to interact both with the instructor as well as with each other.

We’ll be coming back to this topic more in the future, but we believe that a great classroom starts with a great teacher who is focused on student understanding, and that that translates whether it’s on location or online.