The Covid-19 pandemic has left more than 990 million students globally affected by school closures. As a result, the education system has dramatically changed from the traditional classroom to eLearning. The sudden transition has found teachers and schools at different preparedness levels. While others provide students with WIFI, computers, and other remote learning facilities, others are still struggling to find new ways to facilitate students’ learning.
If your students have expressed interest in remote learning and you would like to help them, this guide is for you. It will help you know how you can teach your students to succeed amidst the pandemic, irrespective of the available resources.
Read on for tips on how to help your students succeed.
Establish a Good Structure
Students need a good structure which they can follow for the online learning classes. At school, the learners were used to a particular class timetable. The same structure must continue at home to maintain some discipline.
The timetable may not be easy to follow, given the freedom that the students have at home. However, you should still create it and make your students aware.
For instance, you may inform all the learners that you will be starting the day’s activities at 9 am and ending them at 4 pm. The timetable should include break times for lunch and rest.
For the best results, make sure that the learning structure you create for your students is realistic and easy to follow.
Encourage Your Students to Join an Online Group
Technology advancements have made it easier for students to create groups and hold live forums. Facebook and Instagram, for instance, have live features that allow students to hold live sessions.
Other video conferencing sites such as Zoom and Skype allow students to connect and hold meaningful discussions. You can help your students join the relevant communities and have meaningful conversations, share thoughts, send attachments, and so on.
As the teacher, you can either choose to be present during the online group’s presentations or allow the learners to be alone. Just ensure that the students are conversant with social media and have access to online presentation platforms.
Keep It Simple
Simplicity is the key to remote learning. Most students are not well versed with online learning, online procedures, and so on. Complex assignments that require complicated procedures to log in to the websites will only demotivate the students.
That’s why experts from this online education site advise teachers to choose their study websites very carefully. The ideal site should be easy to log in to and to use for children of all levels.
If you are dealing with young students who don’t know how to login into the websites, encourage them to take pictures and post them instead of the complicated submission processes.
The simple online learning process will encourage the students who use smartphones to join too, and you will have better learning sessions.
Be Friendly and Familiar
Remote learning can be overwhelming to students who have never tried it before. Even when they are used to digital tools, the process can be entirely challenging because they were never used to learning online full time.
The best way to capture their attention and interest is to be familiar. Before you start the classes, conduct a poll to know if the students are familiar with Google and the other remote learning resources.
Also, ask them to suggest the tools they think are the best for the online classes. The same applies to examinations. Don’t just issue long-form assignments without considering the familiarity of those assignments to the students.
Simply put, encourage a transparent relationship between you and your students. Listen to the concerns of your students and let them be free to talk to you. In this way, your students will get the motivation they need to keep up with the remote learning.
Be Concise but Flexible
Be concise about what you want your students to do. Remember that other personal activities still overload them. Clear but simple instructions would reduce the learning inconveniences and also help the students save time.
At the same time, your instructions should be flexible. For instance, maybe you wanted the students to send the assignments via Google docs. If a student cannot manage to submit through it, be flexible to allow other submission methods.
Improve Your Communication Skills
Communication is vital for remote learning success. It keeps the bond between you and the students healthier.
One excellent way to improve communication between you and the learners is to provide timely feedback. For instance, you can reply to your students’ posts and give feedback on their assignments.
You can also promote communication by talking to the parents or guardians of the students. Let the parents know that you appreciate teaching their students online. And if possible, tell them of the areas in which the students must improve.
Motivate the Students
The remote learning transition might not be easy for every student. Sometimes, some students will be struggling to keep up with online learning amidst their disruptive home environments.
You can improve their learning morale by motivating them orally or through written words. You may also appreciate their hard work by offering virtual certificates and awards to the students who excel well.
Be Patient
The last important tip for helping children succeed in remote learning is patience. Don’t expect to cover every detail that you would have covered in the classroom. Also, don’t get agitated if some students are taking too long to make the digital shift.
Set realistic goals, understand the skills of your children, and be patient. Talk to other teachers, too, to know the strategies they are using to teach their students online. Maybe, those strategies can be helpful to you and your learners.
Make Your Remote Learning Successful
The coronavirus has brought a negative impact on the global schooling system. The best way forward will only be to accept the current situation and embrace the applicable learning method, which is remote learning.
Hopefully, the above tips will help you start a remote teaching program to help your students excel well.
Find other education-related articles like this one from our blog. We write well-researched articles on education, including education facts, types, and technology used in the education sector. Feel free to contact us with any questions and opinions.
