With online teaching becoming more common practice in Further Education these days, here are our top tips for teaching online and engaging your students.
Choose your platform carefully
Your institute may already have a preference for what platform you use. However, if you do need to choose a platform, the market leaders include:
Google Hang Out
WebEx
Zoom
Adobe Hangout
All of these platforms have walk-throughs and/or guides on the features of the platform so you can make full use of the features available.
Once you’ve got to grips with the platform, make sure you have a practice before hosting a lesson.
Send clear instructions to your students
Be sure to send instructions to your students ahead of the lesson with details of how to load the platform. Be sure to include details of when the class will take place and let the student know if you require them to have a camera and/or a microphone to take part in discussions so they can make sure they have this available on their device.
Be engaging
Teaching online is not nearly as engaging as teaching in person. So, you need to make extra effort to keep your class engaged. To do this, make sure your camera is on, and that you talk directly to the camera.
Don’t sit too close to the camera or too far away and make sure the acoustics in the room do not cause any echoes. It is definitely worth having a practice so you can be sure that your lesson is being received as you want it to be.
Record your session
One of the benefits of teaching online is that you can often record your session so your students can play it back later. This can be useful for when students are revising or if they want to go over something after the class.
To record your session, you will need to turn on ‘record’ and share the link after the session. Every platform works differently but this should be covered in the platform guidance.
Set the ground rules
To reduce noise disruption, it is worth asking your students to mute their microphones when you are talking. So, you will need to let your students know at the beginning of the lesson how they can ask questions. You may want them to raise a hand to indicate that they would like to speak or direct their questions to the chat function that most platforms have.
We hope these online teaching tips are useful. For further tips, tricks, and information on the latest goings-on in the Education sector, follow our social pages.
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