Remote learning continues to grow but how can you ensure students learn the most?

Schools across the world have had to get creative and develop solutions to keep the students learning during the lockdown. The closure of institutions amidst the pandemic has caused significant disruptions in student’s learning.  Most of the answers to this problem involve the use of technology, such as remote learning.

Remote learning encompasses the entire virtual classroom environment, including the challenges for teachers and students, which can be many. Online educators have adopted unique teaching methods that include compassion, creativity, and motivation for the students. If you are a remote teacher, here is how you can help students extract the most out of their learning experience.

Want more live video tools for remote teaching? Download ManyCam for free today and connect it to any teaching platform, streaming channel or video conferencing app. 

Remote learning – How to help your students learn the most

Make your lessons interesting

Remote learning requires an immense focus on the students’ part mainly because they tend to get easily distracted. If you start your lessons without any effort to make them enjoyable, your students will get bored. They won’t retain anything from the classes, and when it is time for exams, they will struggle.

Begin your lesson with a mini-story to pique your students’ interest. Add a few lessons in the story. Ask them for their stories about the subject; it will help inspire them. It is a great way for the students to share their ideas and thoughts. Tell them you will ask them questions about the story you told and pair them up in groups. Collaborating virtually is a novel approach to learning, and your students will thoroughly enjoy it. Not only will the students have fun, but they will also be ready and alert for the actual lesson to start.

Interactive learning

Not utilizing interactive learning strategies is a missed opportunity. There are many ways you can present the information to the students that will help them stay motivated. A few online platforms allow educators to formulate small quizzes. You can ask the children to take the quiz. They will get the results immediately, and you’d be able to discuss it on the spot. It will help students remember the material.

Record yourself while giving lectures to help your students access it whenever they want. They won’t have to note down everything you said frantically.

Dynamic and interactive slides

Make use of technology and make your slides interactive.  In face-to-face classes, it is relatively easy to help your students refocus when they get distracted. However, in remote learning, maintaining the integrity of the classroom is difficult. Keeping students interested in generic PowerPoint slides is a recipe for disaster. So, introduce interactive slides in your lessons. Most interactive slides come with short quizzes, fill-in-the-blanks, drawings, and polls. You will find a soar in student participation. One-sided lessons are monotonous and not fun for teachers and students alike.  

To make things more interesting, send students podcasts and videos to watch instead of asking them to refer to the textbooks all the time. They can apply the information they gained from such resources in the lessons and during one-on-one discussions with their peers. There are many different platforms you can find educational resources such as TeacherTube, Khan Academy, BrainPop, Smithsonian Learning Lab, Newsela, and so on.

Encourage engagement

You don’t want your classroom to be dull. As mentioned earlier, one-sided lessons don’t add any value to a student’s learning. Talking to them for a long-time without any interaction from them will make you tired, and they will feel demotivated.  Use Mentimeter to prepare different quizzes and polls for your students to answer. 

Remote learning classes should be similar to regular classes. It is the only way of giving your students a sense of normalcy. Promote dialogue between students. Staying locked inside the house has probably made them miss the social interaction. Use social media to connect with your students. Make a FaceBook where they can informally interact with each other and discuss different topics. Ask them to share their viewpoints at the end of the week.

There is a platform used by many teachers called Flip Grid. It is free and has different features that allow teachers to create short educational videos. Incorporating FlipGrid into your online lessons will help students reflect on what they learned and keep them engaged.

The Takeaway

Switching to remote learning is not an easy task. However, just as everything around us has changed due to COVID-19, the same holds true for teaching philosophy. It had to evolve to benefit the youth of today that is the future of tomorrow.

To ensure your students get the most out of your online lessons, download ManyCam.