Online Teaching : 3 ways to take control of this enigma
In my article “Make your journey towards E-learning effortless with these 3 awesome hacks” (https://medium.com/@maham.ahmad.8/make-your-journey-towards-e-learning-effortless-with-these-3-awesome-hacks-92a6e985028f) I talked about some ways that an online educational journey can be made easier for learners. As an educator myself, this got me thinking about the limitless hurdles an educator needs to overcome with online teaching.
Teaching online has suddenly come into the spotlight. It became an imperative need with the pandemic of 2019 shutting down schools and all other institutions. Old school teachers were actually forced to revamp their IT skills and come onboard the distance learning train. With the fast paced changeover to online teaching, I thought of a few tips and tricks that might remove the many apprehensions we have in our hearts about this daunting task.
- Work with a schedule
There is no way around it! In order to have a smooth exchange of knowledge amongst the teachers and the students, you need to build synchrony with your students around their individual routines. Here, I listed out a few apps that will be at your service to help with scheduling.
- Use this app to create timetables online in no time at all
Schedule my teachers
Have regular meetings with your students using these different platforms
Microsoft Teams
Zoom
- Conduct regular polls to see where most of your students stand
Mixmax Calendar
Calendly
2. Use video more than text
In a way, teaching online is similar to marketing. It has become less about the stuff you make and more about how to tell the story. Videos are more engaging, and they captivate your audience. A human brain translates videos into information so much faster than it can work via text.
Students are likely to lose focus in a virtual setting where they are surrounded by various distractions. As an educator, it is your duty to elicit a reaction from your students to ensure they understand the lecture. Videos are an efficient tool for doing just that and it also leads to an elevated chance of the students remembering what you taught them. I have listed a few video editing tools here.
Build and edit videos that can be streamed across multiple channels with these apps:
Magisto
Shotcut
3. Work with existing educational platforms
These are literal treasure chests for teachers. There is an endless list of platforms accessible at the click of a button online that can make the virtual education journey seem like paradise. These websites have been designed especially for educators and students. They cater as the bridge between these two parties, all the while sustaining the burden of smoothing out this process.
Only as a teacher can one understand what a blessing it is to have everything taken care of so that we can work on the content that we wish to teach.
Teach with a liberty that is boundless with these online services
Teachable:
Teachable’s take on online teaching is highly refreshing with their platform for tailoring and designing courses according to your preferences and style. Definitely a breakthrough for educators everywhere.
Village Square
With the ownership that Village Square partakes on behalf of its clients, it creates a nurturing environment for educators to grow and teach at their free will. One of the best ways to reach out to a willing audience and impart your knowledge with ease and finesse.
Thinkific
The features that Thinkific sets its grounds on are tremendously helpful in building an online profile as an educator. It enables you to create customization courses and supports tons of various content to upgrade your lessons. Surely worth a try.
Happy teaching!
