Tips for transitioning teaching into online during covid19

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-Cov 2 virus has caused major disruptions all over the globe, across various industries. Practically all spheres of life have been affected by most countries being locked down.

Education was one of the very first industries to feel the impact as all educational institutions from schools to colleges were shut down.

This really had a negative impact on the academic calendar as it happened during a crucial time when teachers were struggling to complete the assigned portions.

However, thanks to the technology that helped educational institutions to maintain consistency and continuity in the education of their students and stick to their regular academic calendar. A new model of education delivery in real-time- online teaching has evolved.

Though it is still at a beginning stage, as with all other things, this too shall evolve with time. Online teaching has evolved as a new norm, be it for junior learners in school to higher education institutions and universities.

However, for teachers, especially independent educators who had never taught an online class, the transition from offline to online would require several hours of work and a great deal of patience.

If you are an educator who teaches many students at an institution, online teaching can present new challenges if you are teaching an online course for the first time. But a good thing is that with the right planning and the best tools, transitioning to online teaching can be relatively easy.

Here are some tips for teaching online courses to make it effortless when you are transitioning to online teaching.

Set your priorities

Before you plunge into online teaching, it is good to set your priorities and cover the basics. Take some time to go through your course materials. Make sure you have a good foundation set and take time to communicate this to students if they need reminding.

The best thing is to consider how you will utilize your class time. Is there some part of your course that is essential to deliver live? Are there some components of your online classes that can be pre-recorded for students to view on demand according to their convenience?

You can use live communication tools if there is an increased need to clarify issues and address any challenges your students might have. The key is to set your priorities and direct your online teaching in the right way.

Decide how you are going to deliver classes

When it comes to delivering classes to your students online, there are 2 main ways- Synchronous and asynchronous online course delivery. Synchronous delivery of classes refers to taking classes for all students at the same time.

This happens over a video call where teachers and learners can take part in the class together. Whereas asynchronous online classes facilitate every student to browse the course materials and resources at their own convenience and pace with pre-recorded classes.

Considering the current coronavirus and fluctuating situations for your learners, you can start with one style and then modify later if required. Each online class is different and it takes some trial and errors to have an effective transitioning of in-person classes to online classes.

Communicate with your students to ensure they remain engaged

Communicate with your students at frequent intervals to make sure they remain engaged throughout your online classes. Use the opportunity to understand any limitations that come with technology as well or the challenges of moving quickly to an online setup.

The key is to engage everyone in the class. It is important to make your learners feel supported and understand what is going on.

Make sure you have all your documents, supporting resources, and a calendar of your online classes. Record you explaining assignments as if you are in a real class. This allows students to hear and understand things clearly and adds human elements to your courses.

Furthermore, let your students’ know about different ways to reach you. It’s a great idea to connect with your students on free platforms like WhatsApp or slack and give an alternate email id besides your regular contact details. This helps your students to connect with you in case if one channel fails.

If you are looking for how to be an effective online instructor focusing on facilitating effective communication is the key to success. Adding a discussion forum is another way to help students connect with each other which facilitates meaningful participation.

Keep students actively working

Learners have to actively participate in the quality and depth of their learning. As a teacher, you need to help students by disciplining them in their own research.

One way to achieve this is to hook course evaluation into different stages. Like in a real classroom setting, attach grades to your online courses and they will put in the same effort or more as in traditional courses.

Make online learning simpler for your students

Instead of making online teaching harder for your students, make it simpler so it’s easier for you as well. Simplifying online learning can be achieved by adopting simple technology and user-friendly navigation etc.

You can also consider making assignments simpler but engaging at the same time so that it is interesting for them and easier for you to grade, too.

Learn to manage your time wisely

With the transition to online teaching, students will have to interact with your online courses outside the comforts of the traditional classroom. This means they will have a lot of questions and you might need to find different ways outside your normal class hours to assuage their doubts.

Depending on the size of your class, you might be inundated with emails which can become a serious time management issue. Manage your time properly to reduce students’ confusion and offer the right support they require.

Ask for student feedback

Students mostly see issues and challenges that you don’t see. If you want to run online classes successfully, understand how your students are performing and what affects their bad performance.

To find out the challenges and issues faced by your students, assign a designated feedback loop to collect the feedback of your students. This can be done by asking your students to take a common survey on your eLearning management system, or asking for responses through emails, or can be solved by setting up a google form as well.

If you find a common question keeps popping up in email exchanges, it might be worth sending out a group mail or posting an announcement that clears off further confusion.

Following this approach comes with the added advantage of helping out your learner base before they get confused this also helps in reducing the number of emails you get. When you modify your courses and teaching strategy based on student feedback, your courses will continue to improve over time.

Make feedback a regular activity so that your students will become comfortable in providing feedback so that you can improve things before they get really bad.

Identify and support struggling students

It is important to identify and support struggling students who find it difficult to complete the course during the transition to online teaching or even under certain situations.

To identify such students, you need to interact with your students on a regular basis and understand the difficulties they face.

Embrace a learners’ mindset

If you are just starting out and looking for how to start teaching online, you need to embrace a learner’s mindset to deliver the best teaching experience to your students.

This is really important when you are moving quickly to online teaching. If you are not familiar with online teaching tools and technology, you will have to do some amount of self-directed learning.

Finding out what works and how to deal with technical challenges and engaging effectively with students is important. Be prepared for both successes and challenges. The key is to learn and make progress as you go and improve over time.

Leverage technology

Don’t confuse technology with teaching, the ultimate goal is to leverage technology to facilitate engaging teaching and learning. Be familiar with the common tools of engagement like journals, discussion boards, course creation tools itself. If you are in the transition to online teaching, take it slowly but don’t leave out student engagement.

Upskill yourself

As an online teacher, you need to upskill yourself in educational technology. There are many free resources out there to get started. The first step is to be familiar with your learning management system and then upskilling yourself in the area of technology you are new to.

Conclusion

While the Coronavirus pandemic may have wreaked havoc on your teaching at a critical time in the semester, having peace of mind knowing your learners and their requirements is significant. Ultimately, the more empathy that this pandemic is met with, the better.

While online teaching might not be your first choice, adopting the above-discussed advice can help you get the most out of your online courses. Above all, maintaining clear communication with your colleagues and students, and staying engaged with your students will go a long way in assuring success during this challenging time.

While online teaching was here long back, the evolving technologies make them more real and interactive to get as close to a real classroom feel as they can get in the future.

You can start your own online tutoring business with the help of Pinlearn’s eLearning platform who provides custom eLearning solutions as per your business requirements.