It is no secret that the world of online learning is changing the way we teach and learn. As a teacher, you may be wondering if this means you need to update your teaching practices to keep up with the times. Maybe you’ll even be tempted to completely revamp the way you teach your course. But, before you do, you need to consider the following:
1. The Demographics of Your Online Student Body
As we’ve already discussed, more and more people are turning to online learning. According to the most recent data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2016, 71.2 million American students took a college-level course online. That’s approximately one out of every three students. And the demand for online learning is expected to increase by 2023.
This places an enormous amount of pressure on your school’s IT department, which must maintain a high-quality experience for all of your students. From ensuring all devices are connected to the internet to providing fast and reliable connections, to upgrading software applications as necessary, your IT department is constantly striving to ensure each student has an excellent experience.
2. Motivation and Engagement Tips for Your Online Students
Another important consideration is how to motivate your students to learn. To achieve excellence in an online course, you must find ways to engage your students and encourage them to log on, engage with the content, and complete the assignments. Here are some tips:
Maintain Frequent Communications
The first step in keeping your students motivated is to ensure they remain engaged with the material. This can be accomplished by consistently communicating with them through email, chat, or some other form of electronic communication. Maintaining frequent communications with your students will help you identify their needs and teach them what you know they will find most valuable.
Provide Many Learning Options
Even highly motivated students may find some tasks more effortful than others. To retain their attention and encourage them to learn, offer multiple learning options. Provide a variety of methods for your students to learn, such as:
- E-learning, in which they can access the course content online
- Lectures, where you meet with the class in person and discuss the material
- Takeaways, short questions and answers to guide them as they study
- Assignments, such as essays or blog posts, that they can complete
- Labs, where they can practice using tools or resources you have provided
- Videos, where they can watch informative videos related to the course
- Assignments, where they can complete practice tasks to demonstrate what they have learned
Review Material Often
Another important consideration is how frequently you should review the material. The key is finding the right balance between sufficient review and diminishing memory fatigue. Too much review and your students will lose interest, but not enough and they may not have enough new material to retain what they already know. It’s a delicate matter and requires careful planning and execution.
3. Distributed Learning Is the Future of Online Education
Thanks to the internet and the various online learning platforms, it’s now possible to teach courses entirely online. While this affords you greater control over the learning experience, it also means your students can access the content from anywhere. This provides you with greater challenges in terms of maintaining student engagement. One of the biggest factors is ensuring everyone has the same understanding of the class material. This can be challenging when teaching online, but it’s essential if you want your students to retain what they’ve learned.
4. Digital Textbooks & Tools Are Essential
Another important factor in keeping your students engaged is providing easy access to class materials and course-related tools. One way to do this is by developing a digital textbook. A digital textbook is essentially a collection of scanned or photographed pages that can be accessed by the student through the use of a specialized tool. It is often times an electronic version of a traditional printed textbook. The benefit of a digital textbook is that it can be updated more frequently and more easily than a traditional printed textbook. It also contains hyperlinks to other pertinent material that may help the student learn more efficiently.
Additionally, use tools like Quizzes, HotLinks, and Memes to encourage your students to interact with the material and one another. Quizzes, for example, can be a helpful tool for reviewing concepts and making sure everyone is on the same page. A hotlink is a pointer to external material that may be useful to the student in understanding or completing the material. A meme is an icon or image that, when clicked on, may display an illustration, quote, or some other type of caption.
5. Assessment Is Critical
The final, but not least, piece of advice I have for you as a teacher in an online course is to assess your students regularly. It is extremely valuable to you, as the teacher, to determine your students’ strengths and weaknesses, as well as how much they have mastered of the material. A common misconception among teachers is that testing is punitive and something you do only at the end of the course. The truth is, testing is an essential part of any pedagogy and must be integrated into the course design and implementation. Additionally, testing must be frequent and administered at multiple levels, to ensure you are providing your students with the appropriate challenge and they are not becoming bored or overwhelmed.
To help you determine your students’ skill levels and how much material they have mastered, you should develop a course assessment plan, which should include, but not be limited to, the items listed below.
- Quizzes
- Projects
- Presentations
- Designing a Course Workbook
- Final Presentation
- In-class Participation
- Writing assignments
- Midterm Exam
- Final Exam
Once you’ve considered these five tips for teaching an online course, you may find yourself wondering how to make the most of this new mode of learning. But, before you jump in with half-baked ideas, take some time to think it through. Revising your approach to teaching a course, no matter the platform, may require some trial and error, but it will be worth it in the end.