Things to keep in mind while teaching online

The corona virus outbreak has made huge changes in everyone's life. But the major change has occurred in the education industry. The change from traditional teaching to online teaching has made a tremendous effect on the life of the students as well as the teachers.

The rural children and teachers are not able to keep up the pace with online teaching. The older generation professors are having a difficult time taking online classes. The teachers are still in the process of getting the hold of online teaching.

Though there are various dilemmas occurring in online teaching, education for students should not be halted. The education industry must move forward for the betterment of the students of our nation. To ease things up, here are few things to keep in mind while teaching online:

1. Know your timetable and plan accordingly

Plan your schedule a night before you doze off so that you do not have to stress about it the next day online teaching session. Share your timetable and links with your students well in hand before time on the common group to avoid confusion. Do not surprise them with your lecture, which will be held within 5 min after sending the schedule. Make them aware of the online lecture at least an hour before it takes place.

2. Keep your front camera switched on

Make equal use of the front camera and PowerPoint while explaining doubts or concepts. This will make online teaching less boring and students will be more interested. Showing the face while teaching will have more impact on the students, rather than keeping the camera off or randomly reading from the slides.

3. Interact and engage discussion with students

It is very important to engage students in a two-way conversation. This will make students be more attentive and interested in your online teaching session. Ask them questions in the middle of the lecture to see if they are really paying attention. Tell them to give inputs on the topic that you will be teaching online.

4. Give them breaks

It is very important to give breaks to the student in the middle of the online lecture. I'm not telling them to give them recurring breaks, but when you feel that the lecture is going to be stretched or if it is a long lecture. Give them a break of 10-15 minutes, just to be more focused for the remaining time.

5. Mute the audio of the students

This is a very essential tip in online teaching, this will prevent you from unwanted chaos. Muting the student's audio will make them hear only your voice on any application. This will prevent the echoing of other students' voices, making the lecture take place without any distraction. You can unmute the audio of the students only when you want them to say something or if they have any doubts.

6. Practice a demo online video session with your friends or family

If you are teaching an online course for the first time, make sure you conduct a demo session either with your friends or family. This can be very helpful as it can prevent from wasting time during the lecture and conduct the online lecture smoothly. Try and get familiar with the tools and keys of the online teaching application like video sharing, mute, unmute, pinning notes, etc.

7. Adjust your laptop or computer in space of a good amount of network

In most online teaching sessions, the network is always the barrier. Due to the low network, online teaching might get discontinued resulting in the distraction of students or low quality of audio and video. Therefore to avoid such occurring, find a place in your house where there is a good network and low distraction.

8. Conduct quiz after every online teaching session

Conducting a quiz session after every online teaching will help students to be more interactive in class. This will make them more attentive during online teaching, resulting in a good understanding of the concepts. This will also create a competition among the students making them more interested in your online lecture.

9. Don't forget to take feedback

Feedback are very essential after any meeting or even an online lecture. Ask your students about your teaching techniques and if there is anything that you need to improvise. Take the feedback positively and make changes in the next lecture. This will make you a good teacher for them as well as for yourself.

Teaching students online is almost the same as teaching in the classroom, what really matters is how you teach them. Some people take time to adopt online teaching which is very normal. It is the practice of taking online lectures that makes them perfect. I hope these tips will help you conduct online teaching sessions with ease. Good Luck!

Also, take a look at the following article -

Getting started with Online Teaching? Here’s what you should know

Common mistakes teachers make while teaching online and how to avoid them

Steps to create an engaging course on Study24x7

Getting started with Online Teaching? Here’s what you should know