“Leadership and learning are
indispensable to each other.” – John F. Kennedy
Online Teaching is a mode of presenting or delivering lessons to students using modern technology. This approach has helped in studying remotely. But has posed some issues too.
In our previous article, we have highlighted the challenges in online teaching, here we wish to bring forward strategies to overcome its issues, which shall help students and instructors involved in virtual learning.
Strategies to Overcome challenges in online teaching
#1.
Collaborative Learning and Active Engagement
“Tell
me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” –
Benjamin Franklin
Collaborative learning is an
approach to let students learn in groups or teams, to facilitate effective
learning. A group generally consists of two or more students, which are assigned
a common task or problem to solve and learn new concepts.
It is a systematic and reflective approach
to make virtual-classroom learning compelling and engrossing. Teachers can use this
approach to deliver their lessons with students’ active participation in remote
learning.
This can be done by assigning some
topics to initiate team discussions among students. The Problem-solving method can be adopted to
develop reasoning and inquire mindset in learners.
They can be asked to add on to the
topics answered by their friends, indulging in activities such as think pair
share, jigsaws, group debates, short quizzes, storytelling, by presenting their
views on specific issues, etc.
This will keep them motivated to
attend e-classes, stay actively engaged, and learn with fun during the
e-sessions.
Collaborative learning also
contributes to the social learning and development of children. Here, students
will develop interpersonal relationships and language proficiency too. The
social and emotional aspects of their personality will also improve.
#2. Flipped
Learning
“Learn as though you would never be
able to master it; hold it as though you would be in fear of losing it.” –
Confucius
Flipped Learning is an instructional strategy and blended learning
model where traditional ideas about classroom activities and home tasks are
reversed or ‘flipped’. Here students’ active engagement and learning are of
prime importance.
In flipped learning, Students interact
or carry-out research with
new materials at their homes first to obtain new information. While in
classrooms they watch online lectures, collaborate in e-discussions, while
engaging in concepts in the lecture room with the guidance of the instructor to
put those ideas into practice.
It is a learner-centered model in which classroom time is used to explore topics in greater depth and create meaningful learning opportunities, while students are initially introduced to the new concepts outside of the classroom.
It is not about mere flipping of students’ homework. Flipped
learning in its true sense aims to have effective classroom learning by revolutionizing discussions into hands-on, differentiated, experiential, and even individualized learning experiences.
Hence, by adopting the concept of
flipped learning, online teaching can be made fun, interesting, and effective
for the students.
#3. Synchronous
Communication is the key
Communication is of great importance in the process of learning.
As teaching-learning is an interactive method so both the students and the
instructors should be actively involved.
Synchronous communication can be
defined as real-time communication between two
people. Examples include face-to-face or phone communication. Hence, it should be used effectively in e-education
to make it interesting.
In online teaching, learners don’t have a window to transmit
their queries and ideas. So, teachers should facilitate some ways that can help
students in interchanging their thoughts with the educator and their peers.
In the case of live sessions, students’ doubts and questions shall be
addressed by the instructor either at the beginning or at the end of it. Ten to
twelve minutes shall be devoted to solving the doubt. Learners can raise their
questions or concerns related to academic and other things from the educator in
doubts session.
If all the queries of the students can’t be addressed in these
slots, then the teacher can group students in small teams of five-six children. They
will collate their doubts on interacting with their respective group-mates. Which
they can discuss via call, chat, or using other e-platforms.
These concerns should then be presented to the instructor during
doubts solving sessions. Also, teachers can use a new technique of ‘Breakouts Rooms’
available on zoom and other e-platforms like Microsoft Teams, GoToMeeting, and
Ring Central. Breakout rooms allow the instructor to split their zoom meeting into up to 50 separate sessions that can be used for solving students’ queries in
groups.
This can be used to enhance e-classroom instructions as well. It
will motivate the learners to participate actively in the classes and in staying
self-motivated too.
In Recorded Lectures, the problem of communication can be
addressed by conducting weekly or monthly e-sessions by the instructor. Where
students can ask their queries through e-portals or live-sessions from the
teachers.
They can express their concerns either in writing (emails,
comments) or verbally in live sessions to the instructor. This way their
concerns will get resolved and students can enjoy their learning.
#4. Infrastructural
Issues to be targeted
Online Teaching is all about technology-driven Education.
So, it becomes really important to have high-speed internet connections and
modern devices.
Though we talk about the students as ‘digital natives’, but many
of them aren’t proficient in tackling the unfamiliar software, or operating it
in responsible ways. Thus, schools should conduct introductory e-sessions to familiarize children with online platforms. Parents shall also be given basic
orientation via email or recorded videos.
Also, schools should try to use software that is user-friendly and
doesn’t consume large data. This will help in cost-savings. With this, the
students and educators will experience an intensified web education.
Nearpod is a great online platform that helps in making
interactive lessons. It also allows the learners to view the content multiple
times and improve their learning and skills.
The problem of the dearth of electronic devices among students from a poor background is difficult to be solved as the numbers are very large. But
the educator can go for recording the lectures, to help students access the
e-sessions in the evening due to the non-availability of the smartphones at home
during day time.
Other students can also refer to the videos in case of any doubts
or issues faced during e-sessions.
#5. Constructive
and Practical Feedback to be given by Teachers
Feedback is an important tool in learning. It motivates both the
child and the teacher in achieving their learning goals. Hence, feedback should always be given constructively.
Providing individualized and constructive feedback in online
teaching can help in enhancing students’ performance. Also, instructors can go
for peer review for various evaluating activities as deems suitable. This will
reduce the weight of assessing students’ work.
A Duke University course allowed all grading to be done by peer review, which resulted in higher satisfaction of student achievement and lessened faculty stress on grading student’s work, has been mentioned by myViewBoard in its article.
Educators can use oral methods, objective assignments, listening
activities, etc. to grade students and then can share personalized feedback to
them. Students can be asked to narrate stories, solving in-class problems raised,
speaking skill activities, group projects, etc. to evaluate students on a broad
spectrum.
This way feedback will help both the students and the educators.
#6. Counseling
sessions to Self-Motivate Students
Teachers should conduct
online counseling sessions for students on ‘how to stay motivated in attending
e-classes regularly’. They should be educated about the various ways to keep themselves
engaged in good things, adopting healthy habits, utilization of their free time
efficiently.
They should be encouraged to watch lectures daily, to learn new
things that interest them like learning to play some musical instruments,
indulging in art and craftwork, sketching, drawing, yoga, meditation, Zumba,
aerobics, etc.
They shall be motivated to be involved in the above-mentioned
activities so that, the other distracting elements shall not disturb their learning
schedule.
#7. Create a
FAQs page
Teachers can create a FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) page for
the students regarding the basic details on how to register or login, how to
upload the holiday homework, how to download activities, assignment, and evaluative
papers, where and how to see the results, schedule of details about submission
of assignments and assessment tasks, last dates for the same, etc.
So, students can access this information from the FAQs page
easily. Also, this will lessen the number of queries as FAQs are self-explanatory.
Students and parents can reach out to teachers and school
administration in case of any confusion or issues.
#8. Friendly
and Engrossing Lectures
Virtual Classroom engagement is a big challenge in online
teaching. The in-person feel of the educator and the peers is missing in
e-learning mode.
Though it is difficult to provide so, an attempt to make e-classes
friendly and interesting can help to solve the problem of disengagement and ineffectiveness.
Teachers can initiate activities to make e-learning engrossing. The
body language and gestures shall be used by the teachers to the extent possible
for students’ active involvement in e-setups.
Students’ participation and engagement through group discussions,
problem-based learning, collaborative learning, etc. shall be encouraged. Use
of activities like giving topics to the students to share their views, letting
other children give their inputs in addition to what others said, etc.
Also, instructors can incorporate humor, use play-way methods and
gaming theories, brainstorming exercises, thought of the day, art-craft work,
demonstration methods, etc. to make the e-learning effective and interesting.
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