Online Teaching Strategies and Methods PDF

Facilitating an engaging online course requires educators to develop strategies that enhance student participation and build a sense of community. This leads to collaborative learning and developing relationships and fosters educator feedback while facilitating independent networking and self direct...

Facilitating an engaging online course requires educators to develop strategies that enhance student participation and build a sense of community. This leads to collaborative learning and developing relationships and fosters educator feedback while facilitating independent networking and self directed proactive learning. The 3 Keys to Teaching Online Classes Effectively ------------------------------------------------- ### 1. Clear communication with your students' families. Clear, respectful communication is the key to building relationships and classroom community. Families want to hear from the teacher often and regularly. It can be easy for students and parents to start to feel disconnected. So, the teacher should reassure them that "virtual door" is always open, and share his/her email and phone number early and often in multiple places. ### 2. Vary your types of lessons. Teacher\`s teaching should be a blend of both synchronous (happening in real-time) and asynchronous (unscheduled and self-paced). Synchronous teaching through phone calls, video lessons, or live chats allows students to ask questions and build relationships with the teacher and each other. Asynchronous activities, like discussion boards or recorded lectures, allow your students to complete assignments at their own time and pace. Both styles have their benefits and are necessary in their own ways. ### 3. Select the right tools for your class. Your school's Learning Management System or LMS will most likely be the primary tool you use for your direct communication and posting assignments. Familiarize yourself with it early, and don't hesitate to reach out to your more tech-savvy coworkers with questions. You'll also need a separate tool like [Google Voice](https://voice.google.com/) or [Zoom](https://zoom.us/) or phone calls, live lessons, and video chatting. Beyond these basics, there are a huge variety of educational technology tools to transform your teaching and engage your students. Most Common Strategies of Distance Education: --------------------------------------------- Encouraging student engagement while ensuring they master their course content can be challenging in any setting. The Albert Team( 2022) presented five most common strategies in online teaching that help teachers on how to make lessons more interactive and foster active learning as it follows: **1. Adapt your lessons to work online.** Revamp your in-person lessons to the online environment with engaging discussions, screen recordings, and interactive tech tools. ### 2. Set clear expectations with students and families. Share your expectations and due dates early and often to prepare students and families for a successful year. ### 3. Build a strong online classroom community. Classroom community is just as essential in the virtual environment and can be fostered with video chats, purposeful free time, and class message boards. ### 4. Connect with parents and keep them involved. Keep parents involved consistently with frequent and engaging communications like weekly newsletters and personal phone calls throughout the school year. ### 5. Find and utilize the right EdTech for your needs. Collaborate with fellow educators and identify specific needs to find and implement the best tools for your classroom. How to Adapt Your Lesson Plans to Different Types of Learners ------------------------------------------------------------- There are a bunch of different online learning strategies to adapt your in-person lesson plans to fit the virtual environment. It just takes a little creativity and the right tools. ### 1. Add discussions to increase engagement and comprehension. An unbeatable tool for asynchronous discussions is [Flipgrid](https://info.flipgrid.com/). Instead of typing, students record themselves answering your posted questions. They can view and respond to each other's videos, as well. This is a great option for reluctant writers, a strong way to boost engagement, and promote active learning. For written discussions, [Google Classroom](https://classroom.google.com/) is a great tool. You simply post the assignment instructions, let students post their answer, and then they can read and respond to others. Check out [How to Teach From Home](https://www.albert.io/blog/how-to-teach-from-home-with-google-classroom/) with Google Classroom and Albert for more tips.For synchronous discussions, chat rooms like [YO Teach](https://yoteachapp.com/) allow students to message back and forth in real-time. Fair warning- these chatrooms require active monitoring from the teacher side.  ### 2. Utilize screen recordings to pre-record yourself and your lessons. For the Powerpoints you've already created, screen recording software like [Loom](https://www.loom.com/) or [Screencastify](https://www.screencastify.com/) allows you to record your presentation on-screen as you speak and click through your slides. It even has the option to include a little window with your face on the screen, so your students can still see you. These videos can be downloaded or shared via web link.  Beyond just lessons, you can also record yourself explaining assignment directions, for those students who do better when verbally told what to do. ### 3. Make your lessons interactive and engaging. [Nearpod](https://nearpod.com/) is one way to make online classes more interactive. It's a dynamic tool that allows students to follow along and participate in your lessons on their own devices. First, you import your pre-existing lessons pdfs or Powerpoints. You then can add in places for student interaction: written responses, drawings, quizzes, polls, collaborate boards, and more. You can differentiate the type and difficulty of assignments for different student needs. Strategies for Teaching Online: How to Set Clear Expectations with Students --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Strong classroom management is as essential in the online environment as it is in the traditional one. Even though you won't be physically seeing your students every day, read on for 5 effective online teaching strategies to hold them accountable. ### 1. Post behavior expectations in every live discussion. Make your rules/expectations crystal clear from the outset, especially in live discussions. You'll probably find even the quieter students feel more bold typing in the chat- which is great when it's positive conversations, but not-so-great when it gets off-topic or inappropriate.  In your first synchronous lesson, spend time discussing with your students what you as a class want your "Online Classroom Norms" to be. Create a list of around 8-10 norms, including specific rules like "stay on topic," "always be kind and respectful," "raise your hand and wait to be called on before turning on your microphone." After you create the norms, review and share the document before every live lesson. ### 2. Set and enforce consequences in live discussions. The same in any classroom, it's just as important to enforce your expectations as it is to create and share them. If a student is negatively participating, you can easily mute or remove him or her from the lesson. Then, follow up afterward with a phone call home to discuss the situation. ### 3. Find your positive reinforcement. My students used to love cleaning the whiteboard, or getting small pieces of candy. But online, these rewards don't translate. However, it's still just as important to reward students to reinforce their positive behavior. Some ideas include: - **Public shoutouts**: Recognize star students in your emails to the class, during synchronous lessons, or post them on a public board. A board like [padlet](https://padlet.com/) can even let students post shoutouts recognizing each other. - **Private shoutouts**: Send students and their families individual messages when they've done a great job. - **Student choice**: Allowing students to make even seemingly small choices can be motivating. Let a student choose which song to play before the lesson starts or choose a fun image for your virtual Zoom background. ### 4. Set clear due dates. Many students struggle with time management. Without a rigid school day schedule, it's easy for students to lose track of time and fall behind on their work. Set due dates for everything, and send frequent reminders. By the way, [check out our free teaching strategy discovery tool](https://plan.albert.io/). Where possible, chunk large assignments into smaller ones to help students keep on pace. For example, if assigning an essay, set a due date for the outline, the rough draft, and the final essay. This helps force the "wait till the last minute" folks to move forward at a steady pace. ### 5. Use acknowledgement forms. In this online environment, you'll find yourself inevitably wondering, "Does anyone even read my emails?" To guarantee your students read and understand any especially important communications, add a link to a quick [Google Form](https://www.google.com/forms/about/) where a student and/or parent will type their name to acknowledge they read and understood it. Strategies for Teaching Online: How to Build Rapport and Community with Students -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Without the natural opportunities to make connections in a traditional classroom, it's important to create these spaces in the online setting. We share easy best practices in online teaching to build your classroom community: ### Use interactive [Flipgrid](https://info.flipgrid.com/) discussions. With Flipgrid, you and your students can respond to topics you've posted with a selfie video. Students can view everyone's responses and then post a video reply. Though these aren't synchronous discussions, seeing and hearing you and their classmates helps to form a community bond. ### Incorporate purposeful free time. Allowing 10 minutes before a live lesson for students to enter early to chat with you and each other, is a great way to foster important, informal connections. If possible, host a half hour recess once a week, where students can log into a live meeting room just to hang out. If conversation lags or needs direction, you can facilitate topics with fun icebreakers and "would you rather" questions. ### Have a regular show and tell. The virtual classroom makes show and tell easier than ever! You set the topic (their pet, their favorite outfit, something from a fun vacation), and students can turn on their video cameras and microphones to share in a lesson. Alternatively, you can include your show and tell in the bottom of a weekly email update. Students can share videos or just pictures and a caption- whatever works best for you. ### 4. Utilize a class message board. [Padlet](https://padlet.com/) is a great tool for creating a collaborative class message board. Students can wish each other happy birthdays, share exciting events in their lives, or post shoutouts and encouragements to each other. You can adjust Padlet's settings so that all messages have to be approved by you before posting. ### 5. Remember the value of a personal phone call. Just reaching out and speaking with your student one-on-one builds an essential bond. It can be overwhelming if you have a large class, so set a goal to speak with a certain number of students each week to ensure you're reaching everyone. If you don't have a work phone, create a free [Google Voice](https://voice.google.com/u/0/signup) account so families don't have access to your personal number. Strategies for Teaching Online: How to Find the Right EdTech Tools and Curricula Supports ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- With so many different tools out there, it can be overwhelming to find the one that's best for you and your students. Our [distance learning hub](https://www.albert.io/resources-distance-learning?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=online-teaching-strategies) is a great place to start. You can also use these simple strategies to make your selection process easy and effective. ### Utilize these [100+ Distance Learning Tools](https://www.albert.io/blog/tools-for-distance-learning/). We provide a comprehensive guide of 100+ distance learning tools and strategies for effective student engagement. If you're unsure where to begin, or just want to explore new technology, start with this list. It's organized by both instructional need and content area. ### 2. Collaborate with colleagues. Even though you're not seeing your coworkers in the hallway every day, they're still one of the most valuable resources you can find. It can be easy to feel isolated working home alone, but remember to reach out and ask what your fellow teachers are doing in their virtual classrooms. They're all researching and testing out new strategies and tools just like you are, and sharing your mutual findings benefits everyone. ### 3. Supplement your Curricula Needs. When you need to supplement your curriculum with ready-made online activities, [Albert](https://www.albert.io/?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=online-teaching-strategies) has engaging, standards-aligned resources across grade levels and subjects. While many resources are free, educators are encouraged to [try Albert for free](https://albert-licenses.typeform.com/to/c0B01094#source=online-teaching-strategies). Tips for teaching English online using Albert include varying our leveled readings in STEM and across topics to generate interest among different students. ### [Ed Tech Digital Promise Framework](https://edtech.digitalpromise.org/). This process helps educational leaders select and run successful educational technology pilots in their schools. The steps include how to identify a need, discover and select a product, train staff, and much more. ### 5. Always do a test run before using a new tool in class. After you've selected the new tool to try, create a mock class to assign work to. Log in and test out your activity as a student, so you can truly see if this will work for your class. Also, you'll be able to help troubleshoot common problems that you might not have noticed from just your teacher log-in. Common Mistakes Teachers Make When First Teaching Online -------------------------------------------------------- There's a few common mistakes even the best veteran teachers make when first switching to the online environment. Keep in mind these strategies for teaching online when you get started: ### 1. Not setting boundaries with students and parents. Working from home, it can be tough to disconnect from your work. It's even tougher when you have students and families reaching out to you at all hours of the evening. It can be tempting to answer the phone or send a quick reply, but resist.  Share the hours you're available with your families, and stick to them. Mimic your normal school day, like 7:30am to 3:30pm Monday to Friday. It's important you give yourself the time to disconnect, and anything your student needs can wait until the next morning. Teacher burnout is real. ### 2. Not testing new tools a few times before rolling them out to your students. We all know- technology is great... when it works. Inevitably, something won't always go as planned. But, that's okay! Just like in the traditional classroom, teachers adapt and move on if something goes wrong. It can be intimidating to try out a new tool for the first time, so we suggest setting up a mock class and using some willing colleagues or family members as your guinea pigs before rolling it out with students. ### 3. Rolling out too much too soon. Be wary of assigning complex tasks and assignments without training your students on how to use the technology first. Families and students will be capable of handling this complexity at some point, if you build them up to it. You don't want your student spending more time trying to decipher the instructions than learning the actual content. When assigning a learning task using a new tech tool, consider that it may take your families an extra 30min to one hour to get the hang of using it. Provide clear instructions with common troubleshooting tips. Better yet, assign a "mock assignment" of something simple, before actually assigning a lesson. For example, if it's a discussion board, have students' first posts be about their family pet or what they did for fun that weekend. Wrapping Things Up: Things to Remember When Teaching Online ----------------------------------------------------------- We've covered a lot of online teaching ideas and strategies. To wrap things up, here are 3 key takeaways to carry into your virtual classroom: ### 1. Stay communicative: Share your expectations for behavior early and often. Keep lines of communication open, using different tools like emails, Remind 101, phone calls, and class message boards. Weekly newsletters are a great way to build community with families. ### 2. Continuously adapt your classroom: Use the lessons you've already created, and adapt them to the online environment with different ed tech tools. There's no need to reinvent the wheel- take advantage of the great resources already out there. [Albert](https://www.albert.io/?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=online-teaching-strategies) has a huge library of standards aligned lessons and activities for all ages and subjects. ### 3. Keep activities interesting with students: Use a variety of asynchronous and synchronous activities to keep your students engaged, and meet different learner needs. Build in purposeful community-building activities like Show and Tell and time for free chat to foster strong student relationships. We hope you found this Ultimate Guide for Educators helpful. Remember, one of the strong resources educators have is each other! What are you doing in your online classroom? Share your favorite tips for teaching and online learning strategies for students in the comments below. The technological advancements in the past few years have revolutionized how methods of teaching are conducted around the world. Even in traditional classrooms, technology has played a more prominent role in new methods of teaching and [online learning](http://edneed.com/). There are many teaching methods, and they can all be applied equally effectively to online teaching. However, the teaching method varies depending on your teaching philosophy, your objectives, your subject area, and the demographics of your classroom. The pandemic has forced all educational institutions worldwide to adopt online educational methods to catch up with lost time and complete the academic requirements of students. Although it may have come as a boon, it has its own set of problems. The result of this sudden and extreme disciplinary change, it requires ad hoc planning and execution of changes at all levels, starting from the very first day. It takes a fresh start at every stage, from teaching methods to implementing technology and other elements that contribute to the success of virtual classroom sessions. Although certain methods and rules might work well for the majority of students and teachers, it isn't a hard and fast rule that whatever works for one must work for another. It all depends on the subject you are teaching and of course on your students. Processes and methods have their own advantages and disadvantages. When everything is going online and teachers too have adopted online platforms to teach students, then they should know effective** online teaching methods and pedagogy** to facilitate communication and understanding.  **Online Teaching Methods and Pedagogy** ---------------------------------------- Following are the most effective **pedagogical strategies**: ### Presentations Presenting the content for study is used both in classroom teaching and in types of online education. Proper presentation affects students in a great way whether they are learning offline or online. Teachers just need to present information of the related subject and book in a form of presentation. this technique is particularly beneficial for visual learners who will be far more influenced by the presentation than if the instructor simply relays information from a textbook. In making a good presentation, teachers can incorporate visuals such as images, GIFs, videos, etc. to make it watchable and this way is comparatively easy to pass on information to students. Students will be able to use the presentation for later purposes like studying and revising syllabus. There are a few presentation tools available to make presentation: - Google Slides - Microsoft PowerPoint - Prezi - SlideShare. ### Online Whiteboard: Teachers can use online whiteboards for [best practices in teaching](https://www.digitalclassworld.com/blog/how-to-improve-online-teaching/) online. In virtual classroom setup, an online whiteboard helps them to convey information and make a better connection between teachers and students. Online whiteboard is a canvas on which teachers can make diagrams, share pre-made templates and charts, make sketches, write, etc. It works just like the classroom blackboard but it can digitize what teachers teach. It allows them to re-share the content too. Teachers and students can connect on the same canvas too in real-time and use it for different purposes as it follows: 1. Mind mapping, 2. Doing interactive exercises, 3. Carrying out assignments, 4. Reviewing homework, 5. Brainstorming around lessons, 6. Giving feedback etc. ### Live Online Classes With Online classes, teachers need not to collect students in the classroom to teach them. Instead they can deliver lectures in real time through live online classes. Live online classes allow teachers and students to interact face-to-face and give the same classroom-like environment for learning. Teachers can use video conferencing apps and tools which are available online and create a connection with students for running regular classes. Live online classes break the barriers of reach and teachers can even connect to students who are staying abroad. Online whiteboard in live online classes works more engaging. Teachers will need to use **different methods of teaching to** engage students throughout the live online class and for that, they should be prepared with what they are going to teach. To not let students feel passive during the class, teachers should ask questions during and after the class and allow students to answer. They should arrange a discussion group for allowing them to take an active part. To make it more engaging and interesting, teachers should use posters, videos, visuals, graphic organizers, images, etc. Educators should make sure to not deliver the entire topic in one go. Instead, break down the topic into smaller chunks to make it digestible. ### Pre-Recorded Video Lectures In the concept of Pre-Recorded Video Lectures which is one of the suitable **online teaching methods and pedagogy,** the lectures are already recorded and shared by the students instead of taking live lectures. Some students find this **online teaching methods and pedagogy **better than live online classes as it gives them flexibility to attend the lecture at their time. Teachers should be little aware of following points while recording lectures: - Be prepared with your script. - In case you are not confident to record, rehearse it once. - Videos should be recorded for a short period. Lengthy videos take time to upload and also makes it boring. Students often skip them. While recording, sit in a comfortable space and avoid distraction. ### Flipped Classroom Flipped Classroom has gained popularity during the past few years. It has emerged as one of the **best practices in teaching.** Flipped Classroom concept is totally opposite to the traditional classroom concept. In this concept, students need to read and review the study material before their teacher teaches them. It is actually a reserving concept of actual in-class where teachers teach and students study later. Following are the effective techniques for the flipped classroom concept: - Online quizzes - Polls - Infographics - Mind maps or word clouds ### Game-Based Teaching Students love games and they do not feel bored while playing games. Game-based teaching helps to engage students to teach them using games. The concept does not stress students, instead increase their involvement in learning. Students who are not quite good at studying can find this way of teaching helpful to learn and memorize.  To launch game-based teaching, teachers should ensure that students have access to the same type of data. With video conferencing tools, teachers start teaching including gaming sessions. Also, the chat option should be opened where students can ask questions. ### Class Blog Class blog is an innovative concept to let students explore self-learning by creating a blog individually or in a group about what they have learnt. This blog can be shared with other students for sharing the knowledge. On the other hand, teachers can also share their learning material on blogs. Conclusion ---------- Due to the effect of pandemic all around the globe, online education has become a necessity for students to learn and teachers to teach**. Online teaching methods and pedagogy **are a saviour for the education field. Teachers need to adopt **different teaching methods **when they are teaching online to make students take active participation in studies and do not feel passive.