Tips for Teachers while Transitioning to Online Learning
The year 2020 started off with a jolt to the world. This year brought with it a pandemic that made the world come to a standstill. The lives of millions of people changed in a span of a few months. Almost all professional were affected and teachers were no exceptions. One of the world’s most influential professions saw a massive change in the world of teaching. In a lockdown situation where movement is restricted especially for the children, teachers now have to explore other options to impart knowledge to their students. This has motivated teachers around the world to turn to digital teaching and learning.
Many teachers are fairly new to the world of digitalization. The minimum use of technology in a classroom setup gave them very little exposure to digital means. Teachers who are new to this need to start getting used to the world of technology in order to avoid hassles. If you are new to this, the following tips will serve as a guide to conduct virtual classroom sessions:
Master technology
It is imperative to be comfortable with the various tools that will be used in digital teaching. A digital platform, like Google classrooms or an LMS setup would be required as a one stop solution to all the content, assessments, updates and other information that needs to be shared with the students. Explore and research before beginning your sessions. Use various online platforms to keep your students engaged.
Plan your session and your content well
Planning intuitively will make a great difference for the students. Thinking from their perspective while planning the curriculum or organizing a quiz would make it easier for the students. Look at the various learning styles while planning since everyone learns differently. Your sessions should benefit every student. Make it easy for them to access the content, take assessments or watch videos. Avoid multiple links and try to create files and folder for easy access. Avoid cluttering the files and folders, which will cause confusion. Keep it simple. Make your content visually appealing.
Communicate frequently
Try your best to not have gaps in communication. Compare the online time to the time students would engage with you when the sessions were conducted in person, there shouldn’t be too much of a gap; it causes the students to become disengaged. Engage them through updates, online discussions, video uploads, grading their work from time to time and conducting one on one online discussions.
Encourage your students
Be empathetic and understand their perspectives. Find ways to motivate your students especially the ones who get easily distracted or disengaged. Make them feel comfortable and let the sessions be inviting and interactive to motivate them to ask questions and enhance their learning process. Use positive terminology and avoid being harsh or curt.
Take feedback
Feedback from your students on your online classroom sessions will help you to improve your sessions to enhance the effectiveness of the sessions. Students who have already experienced online sessions can have valuable inputs to share. The feedback can be taken through online forms or discussions.
This is overall a great opportunity. It opens doors to a new level of interaction with students across the globe. This in turn will be a boon to your career development. So don’t fear that leap. Research well, plan ways that suit your and your student’s needs, you will be the best person to finally take a call.
