5 Tips for Teaching Online
If you are planning to start teaching online you might want to consider these 5 tips.
1. Consider how you will make lessons interactive
Whilst organizing activities such as ice-breakers and team-building activities are easy in a educational setting where everyone is in the same physical space, as an online teacher, you might well be wondering how you can replicate such activities in an online environment.
The answer, in fact, is that it is actually uncomplicated to replicate keeping the classes interactive when teaching online and the trick is to try using what is known as ‘Breakout Rooms’. These are side rooms that you can place participants into, in small or large groups, so that they can do these activities. You can also let them use a digital whiteboard for collaborating and it is surprisingly easy to use these features in Zoom and other web-conferencing packages.
2. Use some basic security considerations as an online teacher
There are many settings that you can normally adjust in web-conferencing platforms such as Zoom when teaching online and certainly, I would recommend to:
Set your classes online such that participants can only enter the educational setting once you are there also best acim podcast. So they sit in a waiting room unless you want to decide. This ensures that you have control over the class and can manage the classes in a professional manner.
Unless you really need to, protect the class by setting a password and providing each participant this password by email before-hand.
I recommend also disabling the ability for participants to be able to do screen-sharing if you can’t permit them to during the class. This will encourage you to avoid your lessons be hacked from outside bugs.
3. Prepare 2 Days or more Before.
I constantly come across the same issue over and over when talking with trainers about their online teaching experience and the key issues they have experienced. Many new online trainers try out their equipment the same day and there is often a problem. How do you get that web cam to work correctly? Why is the mic not working as you would expect? How do you set that password in a Zoom online educational setting?
These are all things that you really must and should plan and practice and ensure you know how to do, before-hand. Which i recommend doing this more than 2 days ahead of time in order that you have time, for example, to get hold of a friend to do a trial meeting online so they can buy a new mic if you need one.
4. Make sure you have a Decent Web-Cam
There is nothing more distracting when teaching online than students struggling to see you when you are expected to the onscreen in the video. You want their attention and focus to be on the lesson itself and not to me on stressing to see you onscreen or likewise, struggling to see you become of a poor mic.
The cost of an HARLEY-DAVIDSON web cam these days is very inexpensive and easily obtainable from major retails online. The equipment you need is very minimal in that a decent web cam and decent mic is about all you will need, apart from access to the teleconferencing software you’d like to use.
5. Realize that online learning can be more tiring
As a student online, staring at the screen can be more tiring compared to being in a educational setting in the same physical space. By this Come on, man that students will find it harder to concentrate for longer periods and so with online learning, make sure you provide a short break more often.
You will only have to adjust the teaching schedule slightly for online teaching, but these small changes makes it a significantly better experience for the students.