With the COVID-19 pandemic, most schools have made the shift towards virtual education. This type of learning environment definitely has its own different set of pros and cons. There is a wide range of challenges that are common for both students and teachers, but there are countless advantages that come with this kind of setup as well. Aside from convenience, learners have more flexibility in developing skills and supplementing their education.
When it comes to online learning in an international school, innovation may be needed in order to boost overall participation. Students may each have their own learning style and preferences, but at the very core of any successful virtual class is personal engagement.
There are many ways to make the online learning process more interactive and engaging. In this guide, we will explore each main point and how you can apply it to your classes. Continue reading to learn more!
Try Different Communication Tools
First and foremost, moving from a physical place to having classes at home can leave both students and faculty feeling isolated and disconnected. This can have serious implications on each individual and compromise their performance.
At this point, most of us are already familiar with widely-used communication platforms such as Google Meets and Zoom. But what a lot of people don’t know is that these apps also come equipped with additional features that you can utilize to further enhance your teaching techniques.
In Zoom and Google Meets, for example, you can try and enable ‘breakout rooms’ to encourage student participation. These breakout rooms will essentially allow you to split your meeting into separate simultaneous sessions. Each person in the class can bounce in and out of each session and have more intimate discussions based on the lecture.
For the most part, trying different communication tools simply means exploring more of the features on the platforms that you are already using.
Emphasize Real-Time Interaction
Online classes can often impose limits on how each student can interact. In many cases, this has led many teachers to resort to recording video lectures and spoon-feeding modules by bombarding the class with assignments. In order to boost interaction, this needs to be avoided because students that are facilitated with this kind of setup often find themselves completely out-of-sync with the class and the actual learning materials.
Failure to effectively integrate real-time interaction can lead to poor response time and a slew of misunderstandings for both lecturers and students. This is what typically destroys the overall learning momentum of the class.
Face-to-face discussions are crucial for online learning because it makes up for the human element that comes with learning in a physical space.
Whether formal or informal, getting into the groove of having more personal conversations in the class can significantly spark more thoughts and ideas that resonate.
A simple but effective way to encourage more personal discussion is to ask more questions that are relevant while lecturing. In whatever class setup it may be, students typically ask more questions to the teacher. But switching it up the other way around can tremendously enhance the online learning process.
Create More Group Collaboration
Group activities and projects have always been utilized in any learning environment. But in the case of online learning, this approach has become more meaningful than ever. Creating more avenues for group collaboration can incite a strong sense of community between each student and the facilitator. It wards off the feeling of being isolated at home and allows for a better means to learn from each other
As a teacher, you can moderate the lecture by coming up with groupings where students can solve problems by sharing insights and brainstorming together. Try and base your curriculum or lesson plan around peer discussions to give students more opportunity to bounce ideas off each other.
Aside from group activities, you can get creative by implementing more social functions in the class dynamic. With a vast array of easy-to-use programs online, you can create a class survey system where students can share their honest feedback on how the class is going. Not only does this give you a better perspective on your teaching strategies, it provides more data on individual student performance as well.
Key Takeaway
With COVID-19 forcing schools to switch to online avenues for safety purposes, virtual classes definitely pose many challenges for educational institutions. But the transition process to online learning in an international school doesn’t have to be difficult. The most important factor is to adapt and innovate by making online classes more interactive.
In this article, we explored some of the most significant ways to boost engagement for virtual learning. From creating feedback surveys to exploring more features on your main communication platforms, making online learning more interactive is all about finding ways to synchronize the class as a whole.
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