13 Effective Online Teaching Techniques and bonus tips

In the era where technology evolves every second, the future of digital classes or online learning will soon to be a new normal for everyone. Online teaching is a challenge as compared to traditional classroom setup. But once planned properly with appropriate courses lined-up, there’s no reason to doubt its effectiveness of online learning, the experience may turn-out more interesting than what traditional classroom has to offer.

Teaching online requires an entirely different level of communication. We have compiled some strategies here to make online teaching experience effective and simple at all levels.

1)     Ensure your Presence

Make your presence ‘felt ‘not little but very frequent during the respective hours. Be prompt and regular in terms of communication as this is the key to effective learning in digital setup. At the very beginning of the course, be very clear about your availability and set clear guidelines for the students. Emails, newsletters, announcements, forums, and discussion boards can be utilized to communicate often; you can have them scheduled or do it on a need basis.

2)  Outline Course content with Clarity - Communicate clearly what particular course has to offer (detailed syllabus) along with its learning objectives, assignments timelines, and benefits. So that students can understand what level of understanding is required to be eligible for the respective session.

3)   Master the Technology - Be clear on the use of technology that is applicable while you teach. You must be aware of basics and able to trouble-shoot to assist your students. Spend time to explore the applications or the set-up and get more familiar with technical aspects.

4)   Simplify basic guidelines - Online classes will be the first time for many. Walk them through the grading criteria, response time, and the official channel of correspondence and relevant sources they can use to gain familiarity with the course.

5)  Let students explore - Allow students to research extensively on course topics from reliable sources. Question them to gauge their understanding and explain again wherever you feel there is a need. Give your students space to question when they are unclear about something.

6)   Establish an immediate sense of comfort - Demonstrate excitement and enthusiasm about teaching the course to alleviate anxiety and fear. Welcome them, introduce yourself by posting a welcome video and your biography. Similarly ask them to introduce themselves through a video link highlighting their interests, strengths, weaknesses and all other important aspects to know them better. Make use of instant messaging, video sessions and blogs.

7)  Incorporate communication and reflection using asynchronous discussion

Give a recap of content that has not been fully discussed to encourage contribution and reflection. Monitor participation of every individual and contact the ones who were not active during the activity, later discuss their understanding and identify where clarity is needed.

8) Be prompt on Feedback - Communicate often and be prompt about feedback on the assignments. Reinforce, repeat important concepts and skills.

9)   Engage and work in Groups - Let the students socialize and get familiar with each other. Introduce group activities, this way they will be able to learn and enhance their skills also enrich their academic abilities.

10)  Welcome the Feedback - Ask students at the end of every week as to how is it going. Be sure they are honest about it. Initiate a feedback form on the discussion board, covering all important aspects of the class from teaching methodology to content clarity.

11)  Foster Relationship at Individual Level - The learning curve is not the same for everyone so is the level of understanding. To make sure everyone is on the same page, one on one discussion is important and effective. Students in the digital setup can sometimes feel left out and alone in the classroom, identify the need and reach out.

12) Keep a frequent check on content resources and applications - All resources, activities, and modules must be checked frequently. Any unexpected change in online content can lead to disengagement. Assist participants and demonstrate the navigation process to avoid any inconvenience.

13) Summarize the session in closing - Whether you are ending the session or a course, summarize it. It will help students to recall what the learned and pick on something important they might miss earlier. Experiences make learning effective. Initiate discussion and allow students to share their experiences so that everyone is made aware of what they’re taking away from that session.

 14) Bonus Tips

•  Encourage creative notes development.
• Create Youtube channel for future learning reference using recorded sessions.
• A single session should last for maximum 60 to 90 minutes, if need to continue give minimum 20 minutes break before next session.
• Use 90-20-5 timing-model, where total time of a session is 90 Minutes with 20 minutes sub-sessions and 5 mins for QA discussion after sub sessions. Total 90 to be utilized in this pattern.
• Use gamification where appropriate e.g. quizzes, riddles, short case studies.
• Refer online content from various learning sites to engage participants during a long session e.g. self-learning content, video link, webinar link, ted-talk.
• Learn using Breakout rooms for small groups on various topics e.g. Zoom application provide this feature.
• Recommend Ergonomics to participants and presenter for comfortable posture specifically during long sessions.
• Use bright colors in presentation, cool virtual backgrounds and light music will create cool online learning environment during long teaching sessions.

Online learning is still in the phase of marking its worth as compared to traditional teaching methods but the ease that digital classroom offers is changing the dynamics of modern learning where time is the prime focus and so is the flexibility. We hope the above strategies will help you in designing an efficient and effective program to support students and encourage e-learning.

Feel free to share feedback and contact us for "Online Train the Trainer program" for capacity building for teachers, trainers and facilitator.

Best Regards,

Muhammad Farhan - Executive Coach, Master Trainer, Visiting Faculty.