To address a statewide demand for elementary teachers, a midsized Midwestern (U.S.A.) university created an undergraduate licensure program for para-educators, nontraditional students who are already working full-time in schools. Although fieldwork experiences and mentoring occur in the schools where they work, the para-educator preservice teachers (PSTs) completed all college coursework via online classes with course readings, writings, videos, discussion board, home activities, and videoconference class sessions. Their coursework included an inquiry-based science methods course, taught asynchronously over 8 weeks in the summer, emphasizing the 5E Learning Cycle Model (Bybee, 2002; Bybee et al., 2006; Contant et al., 2018) and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013). Pre- and posttest measures were collected from the participating PSTs (N = 57), including the STEBI-B (Enochs & Riggs, 1990) to analyze self-efficacy beliefs about teaching science. Findings between pre- and postassessments included statistically significant increases with large effect sizes in both STEBI-B subscales (Science Teaching Outcome Expectancy; Personal Science Teaching Efficacy Belief). Responding to open-ended follow-up questions, participants perceived writing lesson plans and doing at-home science activities as the most helpful course elements in their confidence about teaching science.