8 Tips for Teachers Who Want To Shift Towards Online Classes
8 Tips for Teachers Who Want To Shift Towards Online Classes
Numerous schools have been closed due to the coronavirus for an unknown period. Teachers are scrambling to figure out how to serve students who are far away through online and distance learning. You’re not the only one who may feel overwhelmed by this difficult work (Hasan and Khan, 2020).
Working students who have a hectic day schedule and cannot attend classes at a fixed time can benefit from the services of “Take My Class For Me,” thanks to advancements in digital technology because education is shifted towards online education.
Here are some tips to help your students provide a great and long-lasting distance learning experience.
8 Tips for Teachers Shifting to Teaching Online
1- The Key is Simplicity
Communicating new instructions to students is a familiar experience for all teachers. An entire group walk-through is typically the first phase, followed by a never-ending barrage of questions from students to clarify the next steps. Although this process can be challenging at times, students can always rely on each other and the teacher present for help when they’re stuck.
One of the learning challenges is that you and your students are no longer in the same room to tackle misconceptions. Instead, activities that demand a high level of self-direction will ultimately consume most learning time.
Therefore, simplicity is key. Designing online learning activities that use just one or two resources and have very clear instructions is important. It’s also advisable to offer readings and other resources to students as PDFs so they can access them whenever they want (USEssayWriter, 2020).
2- Establish a Digital Home Base
It’s important to provide your students with a digital base of operations to benefit from simplicity. This could be a class website the student made themselves or a learning management system the school offers, such as Canvas or Google Classrooms.
Your students should always access the most recent and accurate information on a single digital platform. It can be tempting to switch between all the modern tech tools available.
3- Prioritize Longer, Student-Driven Assignments
When creating experiences for online learning, efficiency is essential. It will take more time and require close attention to detail to prepare. You will not be able to correct mistakes on the fly or suddenly shift when students are disengaged.
Prioritize longer, student-driven assignments and chores that provide time to continue planning upcoming units and pull your students away from the internet to manage your time and sanity properly.
Concentrate on preparing students for lengthy projects with flexibility, a defined framework of milestones, and due dates. Create opportunities for students to share what they are learning with their families whenever you can and include a student-choice element to increase engagement.
4- Prepare your Next Course While Teaching This One
Once you’ve created an online course, repeating it in consecutive semesters will be relatively simple. Make a note of everything that needs to be changed throughout your class so that you can actively update those things in the LMS before presenting the course a second (or third, or fourth) time. Assuming you maintain track of any changes you want to make, you will need relatively little work each subsequent course run.
5- Ask Good Questions
It is easy to see how engaged students are and how they respond to discussion topics in a physical classroom. Unfortunately, monitoring their reactions in an online classroom is far more challenging. Because you must offer questions that are engaging and can spark complicated discussion, whether in a synchronous discussion or on a class discussion board. Vary the types of questions you ask and make them as engaging as possible. Intentionally provocative questions can also be effective because they spark genuine debate.
6- Upskill, Upskill, Upskill
You don’t want to overemphasize the role of technology in education, but you also don’t want to underplay it. Everyone (teachers, administrators, and students) needs to improve their knowledge of educational technology quickly. There are multiple free resources available to help you get started.
Explore LinkedIn to get brief videos on how to use an LMS. If your university’s IT department is overburdened, take matters into your own hands by utilizing open educational resources (OERs). OERs contain a variety of knowledge and resources (such as videos, articles, examples, case studies, and rubrics) that you and your students can use. Creative Commons is a great place to start, and YouTube has some excellent tutorials.
7- Motivate and Engage
Some teachers find it difficult to motivate their students outside of the classroom. Sometimes students are bored of taking long hours of lectures and prefer getting services from Take My Nursing Class Online for their nursing classes. Badges and certificates are likely more motivating, but they also stimulate self-motivation. Remind students of the program’s big picture, increasing their skills to prepare for a meaningful career, providing a springboard for additional study, or broadening general knowledge.
Present bite-sized chunks that focus on a single topic. Create assignments highlighting students’ digital skills as they move from content consumption to content creation.
8- Take Advantage of Asynchronous Time
One of the most significant advantages of online teaching is engaging students even when class is not “in session.” Most course components could be completed whenever suitable for the student’s daily schedules. Watching recorded lectures, reading a case, playing some simulations, and even responding to some discussion topics may not have to happen all at once for the group. Asynchronous learning requires strict and clear deadlines for certain things (such as discussion board participation), but it is a great tool for you and your students.
Conclusion
Online learning allows many students who would otherwise be unable to participate. The field is open to new ideas, and you may uncover methods of efficient online teaching that other teachers have not considered. Best of all, while it may seem like a lot of work at first, practically everything you build is reusable—even between courses—resulting in a very good and personal infrastructure for online teaching over time.
It is important to remember that building an engaging online learning experience is difficult. It takes time and a great deal of patience. If you’re fresh to the experience, you’ll probably feel like a first-year teacher. That’s fine! Take the problems one at a time, keep your students updated on your progress, and have a positive attitude. You’ve got this!
Reference
USEW, 2020. Effective Ways for Teachers to Manage Work on Contracted Hours. Online available at https://www.usessaywriter.com/effective-ways-for-teachers-to-manage-work-on-contracted-hours/>
Hasan, N. and Khan, N.H., 2020. Online teaching-learning during a covid-19 pandemic: students’ perspective. The Online Journal of Distance Education and e-Learning, 8(4), pp.202-213.