Easy Tips That Will Improve How You Teach Students Online

We are, as this article is being written, in the midst of one of the worst health crises for nearly a hundred years. The world over a virus is mercilessly taking lives. And not only are people dying, but lives are being irrevocably changed. A global recession is nigh, jobs are being lost, hundreds of thousands are being made homeless, and our educational systems are changing, with many students impacted. Classroom learning is seemingly a thing of the past in many countries, and for the foreseeable future, students will be learning online.

Learning online can seem very impersonal, and for teachers and students alike, can be difficult to adjust to. This page, for teachers, will hope to tell you how you can improve your online classes and the way that you teach your students online. It is essential that you [the teacher], adapt to online teaching, for it is due to remain for some time.

Here are some easy tips that will improve how you teach students online.

Webinar Software

Many of the currently used webinar software’s are not fit for classroom usage. The reason for this is that they lag, are hard to connect to, or are difficult to use, and according to the software specialists from ecosecretariat.org/best-webinar-software/, poor-quality webinar software can hinder your presentation and prevent you from delivering the best lecture that you can. It is essential that, first and foremost, you find the best webinar software that you can. There are a number of ways for you to find better webinar software, with one of them being reading reviews, or reading testimonials from other schools. You must give considerable time and research to finding good software for your webinars, as otherwise, your students will not be able to benefit from your lectures.

Recordings

Some academics suggest the best way to teach online is to record your lectures, rather than to live to stream them. The reason for this is that your students will be able to rewind and go back over your educational content. Additionally, there are many things that can go wrong when live streaming, for example, the student’s internet may cut out; they may be called by their parents; the door may go; their phone may ring; their computer may turn off. It is, for these reasons, that you should potentially consider recording your lectures as an alternative. You could also offer both recordings and live streams, which is what many teachers are doing at the moment.

Show Your Face

Some teachers prefer not to show their faces when they are teaching students online. This, however uncomfortable it may make you, is something you must do. If you do not show your face, it will appear very impersonal, and your students may find it very impersonal. They may become distracted and may not listen to you. Showing your face is very important, and despite how it makes you feel, you must do it. Showing your face has many psychological benefits, so always do it.

Short Classes

With your students at home, it is very easy for them to become distracted. You may not even know that they are not paying attention. For this reason, it is important that you condense your classes and keep them short. Long, drawn-out classes will become laborious to pay attention to [especially if your students are younger, for university students this may not be the case]. Keep your classes short and sweet and provide as much useful and helpful information as possible, as well as lots of resources. In short, keep your classes to the point.

Specific Instructions

It is very important that you provide your students with specific instructions. While they will still be able to contact you and ask for help, there may be a delay in your responses, which there wouldn’t be if they were in the classroom with you. Give your students specific, to the point instructions, and allow no room for interpretation. You must make sure that they know exactly what they have to do so that they cannot mess their grades up. It will be helpful to provide help sheets for them to download so they can go back over what their tasks are if they forget.

Interactivity

It is important to provide an interactive experience. There are a number of ways you can do this, but the most popular is through quizzes and group activities. You can still do this online, and it will keep your class enthusiastic and entertained.

With the help of this page, we hope you now know a few ways in which you can prove online lessons. Online lessons are here to stay, so adapting to them and mastering them is important. With this page, you should now be able to do just that.