8 Virtual Teaching Tips for Successful Online Learning
8 Virtual Teaching Tips for Successful Online Learning
Did you know that since 2020, 98 percent of universities have moved their classes online? Online learning is becoming more and more prevalent, no matter your age.
When you’re teaching, one of your goals is to get your students to engage and succeed. However, doing so online can feel like a challenge.
So, how do you engage your students when you have an online classroom? Keep reading for virtual teaching tips that will help you get your students to engage.
One: Choose the Right Teaching Tools
Teaching tools are just as important in online learning as in-person learning. Using a whiteboard in the classroom has been shown to have many benefits.
So, how do you take that same concept and move it to an online classroom? Utilizing a digital whiteboard allows you to present information in unique ways while still getting the benefits of a whiteboard.
You’re also not limited by special symbols when you’re using the right digital whiteboard.
If you’re teaching math or chemistry, there are programs available that have the special symbols you’ll need during your course.
Two: Know How to Use the Tools You Choose
Having the right teaching tools is a significant first step. However, you need to know how to use the tools you have.
Find a good digital whiteboard and spend time learning how to use it. In addition, make sure your students know how to use the tools as well.
Three: Engage Your Students
Don’t just sit back and lecture during your class. Find ways to engage your students.
If you’re teaching Math, you can’t have your students go to a traditional whiteboard and work problems. However, you can give them access to your digital whiteboard and have them work problems there.
You can also use the digital whiteboard to run polls and engage your students that way.
Four: Communication Is Key
Communicate, communicate, communicate; we can’t say it enough. Make sure that your students know what expectations are and what due dates are.
A few things you will want to consider when setting up expectations include:
- Intended course outcomes
- Assignments
- Discussion post requirements
- Student collaborations required
- How assignments get submitted
- Grading rubric and scale
Inevitably, no matter how much you communicate, one student will submit a document via email instead of a dropbox. However, it’s important that you continue to communicate and let students know expectations.
Some students respond better to hearing and seeing requirements at the same time. You can communicate tasks and such as you teach your class and have a presentation on your digital whiteboard at the same time to reinforce the information you’re giving.
Five: Encourage Collaboration
For students, it can be difficult to stay motivated in digital classes. There’s not a physical classroom you need to be in, and there is no one monitoring how much attention you are paying.
However, you can engage your students through collaboration. You can have your students engage in group work and give them access to parts of your digital whiteboard to aid collaboration.
Try assigning group projects. And, encourage your students to use the digital whiteboard for tracking tasks and brainstorming. There are even templates your students can use to aid their brainstorming process.
Group work has many benefits for your students including building communication skills, sharing diverse perspectives, planning and managing time, holding each other accountable, and more.
As students begin to talk to each other and hold each other accountable, it can help increase their motivation to participate.
Six: Enhance Your Lessons With Templates
Choosing the right templates for your class can really help enhance your students’ education. Our digital whiteboard has great templates for education.
Are you teaching literature classes? Use a template for mapping characters and character conflicts. This will allow your students to see the concepts they are learning laid out in a unique way as you teach.
You can even further engage your students by having them give you things to put on the board or allowing them to add things to the board during the discussion.
Seven: Use Audio and Visuals
Don’t be afraid to use audio, videos, and other visuals in your teaching. Even if you’re in an in-person classroom, you’re likely to introduce audio and visuals to engage your students.
Utilize these tools in your online learning as well. This can help your students to engage, and it breaks up all the text.
It also helps students who learn differently. You want to ensure that you account for the fact that each of your students will learn differently, even in a virtual classroom.
Our digital whiteboard can allow you to add visuals and more into a presentation format for your students. This will help engage your students as they are learning.
They will be less focused on taking notes and more focused on seeing the big picture that you present on the whiteboard.
Eight: Take Breaks
As a teacher, you need breaks too. Staring at a computer screen all day is difficult.
Every 30 to 45 minutes, take a break. If you’re teaching your students via video, have them take a break too.
Get up, stretch, drink some water, and take care of other necessities for about five to ten minutes. When you return to the task at hand, you’ll be refreshed and ready to dive in for more.
Get the Right Tools for Virtual Teaching
There are many methods you can utilize to engage your online classroom. However, one of the most important things you can do when virtual teaching is to ensure that you have the right tools.
Huddle IQ provides tools for educators to help you be successful in an online classroom. Start using our online whiteboard today with a plan that works for you.