10 Essential Tips for Effective Online Teaching

Due to the higher adoption of technology in everything nowadays, online teaching at various education levels is inevitable.

Regardless of whether one is teaching at the college level, conducting an online workshop, or offering K-12 teaching, online teaching will enable one to teach from the comfort of one’s location.

Besides, it also promotes global reach and opportunities for innovative instructional methods. But it also has an array of issues that can only be solved with specific approaches.

To create a successful online learning environment, instructors need to adapt and adopt new approaches to ensure their students remain engaged and motivated.

In this blog, we will learn why online teaching is important and also give you 10 useful strategies to help you cultivate your online class.

Why Online Teaching?

Online teaching has revolutionised the traditional classroom setup, offering educators and learners unprecedented opportunities.

Here’s why online teaching is gaining widespread popularity:

• Flexibility: Teachers as well as students can discuss over from different locations, thus saving time on travelling, and learning at your convenience. Such flexibility is attracting people more towards online learning.
  
• Global Reach: Online education enables teachers to reach students across different geographic regions, expanding access to diverse knowledge and perspectives.
  
• Cost-Effective: Online teaching does not mean that only the educators will get benefit but also the students. It can reduce costs associated with transport, physical learning resources, accommodation, etc.
  
• Customised Learning: Digital tools allow educators to present the opportunity of delivering different approaches to teaching and learning to match the student’s preferences.
  
• Technological Skills: The practice shows that both teachers and students become more technologically savvy and ready for the future world.

Having outlined the most important factors contributing to the growth of online teaching, we will now focus on the best strategies for improving your approaches to online teaching.

Top 10 Tips for Effective Online Teaching

1. Designing a Comprehensive Syllabus

The process of creating a syllabus is the first process you need to follow if you are developing your course.

Make sure it contains expectations, the expected delivery date or time, the resources needed, and the grading policy.

A course outline enables the students to have an ample view of what they are expected to cover in their course.

2. Building Inclusive and Equitable Learning Environments

In the online teaching environment, it is very important to always make your classroom environment accessible for every student.

Provide a variety of resources that are acceptable for all views, and give a variety of opportunities for class contribution—such as discussions, video conferences, or journals.

Also, Read, Benefits of Inclusive Education | Empowering Equal Learning Opportunities for more details about inclusive & equitable learning. 

3. Developing Engaging Activities

In order to sustain student attention try to make the activities as hands-on as possible. It is recommended that such information is presented more engagingly by the use of tools such as polls, quizzes, and breakout sessions.

Also, provide assignments that will encourage students’ critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration among students.

4. Maintaining Consistent Communication

Many students might lose their direction while on an Learning Management System(LMS) because there is no consistent check-in during the learning process, and thus, a constant reminder of what they should do is important.

You should update the site daily/weekly depending on the activity and be contactable through email or discussion forums.

It is also important to note that frequent posting and weekly update messages can keep students connected and aware.

5. Providing Timely and Constructive Feedback

Students prefer feedback because it brings out their performance level in the courses they are taking online.

Offer meaningful criticism of assignments and assessments and be sure to do it within a reasonable time only to allow the students to learn better.

Abstract: Appropriate positive feedback combined with constructive suggestions can engage learners and promote growth mindsets.

6. Utilising Available Resources

Fortunately, teachers are not short of resources in the twenty-first century and there are rather many resources on the internet.

Regarding the LMS you are going to use, and the teaching aids, as well as the open educational resources (OER), explore what is relevant to your field.

Some of these resources make the intentions of the teachers easier to achieve and provide further assistance to the students.

Read 8 Trail Blazers Leading the Way in Online Education to understand what are the available resources to use. 

7. Incorporating Visual Elements

Since learners are more likely to pay attention to the slides, infographics, videos, and lessons used, try to effectively replace your educational material with visual elements to grab the attention of students. 

Research indicates that feeds that are rich in graphics aid memory retention; hence, where possible, the use of charts, graphs, or diagrams when presenting information.

Must Read, A Student Checklist for Online Classes to understand what you need to look for if planning for online classes or teaching as well.

8. Diversifying Teaching Methods

Flexible teaching methods are attainable in online learning. Try linear delivery of information, use audio and video presentations, discussions in groups, and individual assignments.

Synchronous and asynchronous teaching strategies can be used to provide for the students’ range of needs and their timetables.

9. Encouraging Collaboration

Encourage students to freely communicate with one another by using group assignments and project work.

Employ utilities that are available on the Internet, such as collaboration sections for documents, open discussions, and video calls to allow students to collaborate.

The collaborative process also tends to enshrine teamwork and enhance understanding of perspectives that other students have.

10. Motivating Your Students

Interacting with students face-to-face gives extra motivation while in an online environment, motivation can decrease.

Motivate the students to remain active by encouraging them to share their achievements, suggesting the goals that they should reach for, and rewarding them with badges/ certificates.

Give them credit and make certain that the course material remains relevant and interesting.

Conclusion

In  conclusion, if you follow the tips for online teaching that we have discussed above, you can easily create a positive and engaging environment for your students to learn.

Try to incorporate interactive tools, comprehensible language, and try to implement a possible variety of methods in your teaching in order to not let the students lose their interest. Happy Teaching!