As a teacher, you may face the challenge of adapting your courses to new modalities, such as online or hybrid. These modalities require different strategies and skills than traditional face-to-face teaching. How can you plan for them effectively and efficiently? Here are some tips to help you prepare for new teaching modalities.
Before you design your course for a new modality, you need to clarify your learning objectives and outcomes. What do you want your students to know, do, and value by the end of the course? How will you measure their progress and achievement? Then, you need to evaluate your available resources and constraints. What tools and platforms can you use to deliver your content and activities? What are the technical and pedagogical support options? What are the limitations and challenges of the modality, such as bandwidth, accessibility, engagement, and feedback?
When effectively planning and creating digital content for new teaching modalities, such as online or hybrid classes—especially in my case as I teach primary and secondary school students, I begin by defining learning objectives and outcomes, guiding content creation based on what I want students to know, do, and value. Then, I assess resources, considering tools, platforms, technical support, and potential challenges like bandwidth and accessibility. Tailoring engaging activities and incorporating feedback is crucial. Regularly measuring progress through assessments and discussions ensures ongoing evaluation. Flexibility is key for adapting to evolving needs and technological advancements, creating an effective learning environment.
Based on your goals and resources, you can select the most appropriate instructional methods and activities for your course. For example, you can use synchronous or asynchronous methods, or a combination of both, depending on the level of interaction and flexibility you want to offer. You can also use different types of activities, such as lectures, discussions, simulations, games, quizzes, projects, or portfolios, depending on the content and skills you want to teach and assess. You should align your methods and activities with your objectives and outcomes, and ensure that they are relevant, engaging, and meaningful for your students.
Our brains, ... and our learners' brains, crave novelty. In the past this has worked against our learning goals, but today we can turn this to our advantage. New teaching and learning models, resources and platforms supercharge our practice, and give a wider and deeper canvas for learning. This can be overwhelming or unfamiliar at first, for us and for learners, but with some simple direction, guided exploration and exploratory exercises, learners quickly embrace this new modality, and the possibilities it offers. So dive in, experiment, and test and learn, deploying a wide variety of styles and approaches, to see what works best for your and your learners.
Once you have decided on your methods and activities, you need to organize your course structure and schedule. You need to consider how to divide your course into units, modules, or sessions, and how to sequence and pace them. You also need to determine how much time and effort you and your students will spend on each component of the course, and how to balance the workload and expectations. You should create a clear and consistent course outline or syllabus that outlines the objectives, outcomes, methods, activities, assessments, and policies of your course. You should also communicate your schedule and deadlines to your students and remind them regularly.
Next, you need to develop your course materials and assessments. You need to select or create the content that you will deliver or share with your students, such as slides, videos, podcasts, readings, or handouts. You need to ensure that your materials are accurate, relevant, accessible, and engaging. You also need to design or adapt the assessments that you will use to measure your students' learning, such as tests, assignments, or rubrics. You need to ensure that your assessments are valid, reliable, aligned, and fair. You should also provide clear and detailed instructions and criteria for your materials and assessments.
Finally, you need to implement your course and monitor your progress. You need to deliver or facilitate your course according to your plan, but also be ready to adjust or modify it if needed. You need to use various strategies to engage and motivate your students, such as feedback, communication, collaboration, personalization, and gamification. You also need to use various tools to monitor and evaluate your students' performance, such as analytics, surveys, reflections, or peer reviews. You should also collect and analyze data and feedback to assess your own effectiveness and satisfaction as a teacher.