The world of education has changed dramatically in the past few years. The rise of digital content, increased access to online learning tools, and the emergence of blended learning models have brought about a shift from a classroom-centric model to an online teaching ecosystem. From YouTube videos to Google Hangouts and so much more, the digital world has accelerated the pace of learning for students.
This leaves us with one important question: what makes for effective online teaching?
In this blog post we’ll cover 7 Tips for Effective Online Teaching. So, keep reading if you want to improve your online skills.
Be Accountable
One challenge many teachers face is that they become so consumed by the learning process that they forget to enjoy the process itself. The pressure to reach certain outcomes and the resulting sense of urgency can make it seem like there is no time for fun, relaxation, or self-discovery.
This can lead to burnout, which is something you should avoid at all costs. When you reach the burn out stage it shows in the quality of your teaching and students can pick up your emotions very easily.
You can avoid the pressure of the profession by remembering that you are accountable to your students. Be sure to keep this in mind when planning your lesson, as well as while planning and delivering content. This will give you the opportunity to focus on the enjoyment and learning process, while still making sure that you set high expectations.
Be Flexible
Learning is an inherently individual process. This means that the same lessons or resources might be accessible to different learners in different ways.
Be flexible in your content – In order to be flexible with your content, you should include a variety of media, including images, audio, video, and more to create a more engaging environment and in the hopes that you may catch the attention of all of your students.
Be flexible in your teaching methods – Unfortunately, being a teacher sometimes means playing a role that is just not you. You will need to be flexible in the way you present your teaching methods. Some classes might reactive positively to a goofier way of teaching and others may not.
Be flexible in your emotions – you may be feeling frustrated with a student for a specific reason but this doesn’t mean you should be frustrated with everyone and for the remainder of your lesson.
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Conduct Research Before Teaching
Before you start designing your lessons, you should conduct research and try to gather information about your learners.
If you are unable to get information on the students you are teaching before your lessons then you can find a way to do it at the beginning of each lesson. For example, a ‘a warm up game’ where you can get to know the students a little bit before you start.
This will help you to understand your learners better, and it will also help you to form an idea on the level of the students education. You can either keep your lesson more simplified or go at it as you normally would.
Make your Content Consumable
When you are creating digital resources, like e-books, quizzes, and so on, you need to make sure that they are consumable.
When I say your content should be consumable, I mean consumable in two areas. Firstly, your content should be created in a way that students can digest the information that you are sharing with them. Sometimes, this means you need to think like the age group you are teaching and make sure they are able to relate and take it all in.
Secondly, the content should be consumable in the way that students are able to access the content from places like their phones, laptops, or desktops, as well as from other devices like an e-book reader or an online class platform. This makes it easy for your learners to consume the content.
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Have a Clear Learning Objective
With all the excitement surrounding the rise of online learning, it can also be easy to forget the importance of establishing clear learning objectives.
A learning objective can also help you to determine whether or not students are gaining the knowledge they need to move forward. When designing your online lessons, always keep in mind the learning objective.
One helpful tip is to mention at the beginning of your lessons what the students will learn for that specific lesson. At the end of the lesson, you can create a simple survey to figure out if they have understood and completed the learning objectives. This not only gives the students a way to evaluate their performance during the lesson but can also give you some hinds on how your efforts are planning out.
Don’t be Afraid to Ask Questions
During your lessons, don’t be afraid to ask learners questions. This is a great way to help learners get familiarized with the content and to create a discussion-based learning environment. By encouraging your learners to ask questions, you can help to build a deeper knowledge of the content by providing them with insights into the material.
Additionally, asking questions like “what else do you think we should cover?” or “do you have any other ideas for how we could cover this?” can help to maximize learning and engagement by providing your learners with new and fresh perspective of the content.
Stay With the Trends
Sometimes, being a good teacher means you need to stay on the trends. This means that depending on the age and where your students are from, they will all have different trends and “banter” if you will.
For example, if you are teaching ages 5-10 maybe a certain tv character is trending and you can use it as a way to get their attention. Include these characters in your slide shows and talk about it to get their interest.
Conclusion
Technology has changed the way education is delivered, and online teaching is the most effective way for students to learn. While the advantages of online teaching are clear, effective online teaching also requires a sound approach to learning. These 7 Tips for Effective Online Teaching will help you to become a better and more enjoyable teacher.
Effective online teaching requires that you must be accountable to your students. You need to be flexible in your lesson design and make your content consumable. You also need to conduct research and make your content consumable. You also need to have a clear learning objective. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. The most effective online teachers also know when to use technology and when to use traditional teaching methods.If you want to learn how to teach online you can read my other blogs here 🙂
