How do I teach online classes effectively? Follow these 7 tips

Did you teach in-person classes and now have to do it online due to the COVID-19 pandemic? Don’t know how to? Want to improve?

Beatriz Palacios, Director of Educational Innovation at Tec de Monterrey, shares 7 recommendations with CONECTA so you can succeed and shine as a teacher in your online classes.

KNOW THE PLATFORM AND PLAN YOUR CLASSES 

First, you must know about the platforms and/or applications you will use for your online classes, their scope, and their advantages and disadvantages, so you can plan how you will use them.

“Structure all your instructional activities in the different platforms and applications that you are going to use” said our expert.

For example, Canvas and Blackboard are two platforms that are used in online classes at Tec de Monterrey. They facilitate the delivery of activities, the scheduling of exams, grading, and student progress.

HOW CAN YOU MAKE YOUR CLASS INTERACTIVE?

Our expert recommends thinking of dynamic activities that keep the students learning actively.

There are many options to generate student interest, such as asking questions, showing videos or texts that invite reflection, or doing exercises with videos or simulations.

Some of the tools you can use are:

• Questions that generate reflection: Menti, TedTalks
• Discussion of cases and dilemmas: CIC, Ruleta
• Mind Maps and infographics: Canva, Kahoot, Jeopardy, Quizizz
• Sharing and collaborating: Google Drive, Padlet, FlipGrid
• Exercises and simulations: Powtoons

STRENGTHEN COMMUNICATION THROUGH OTHER MEANS

Maintaining communication between teachers and students is essential, so our expert recommends finding an extra means of communication, apart from video calls

WhatsApp, Slack and Remind are some of the platforms that you could use.

“You have to have a continuous feedback process, so students don’t get anxious,” added Palacios.

REDESIGNING CLASSES

It is not just about putting previous content online, but consciously rethinking the class and being aware that it will now be done through distance learning.

“Think about how you present content, how you are going to ask students to do their activities, how you are going to evaluate them,” said Palacios.

This implies new forms of evaluation as well as time to adapt to the new online education paradigm.

CLEAR AND PRECISE GUIDELINES

Focus on making everything clear, so there is no confusion or misunderstanding: from submission dates, review processes, to when the exams are, and more. Explaining everything to students will improve their experience.

“We must not avoid this; we must be very precise when giving instructions to students,” said our expert.

This also involves new ways of giving feedback to students while they are adapting to online classes.

PREPARE YOUR EQUIPMENT AND SPACE

Make sure you have a stable connection and preferably connect to the Internet using a cable, use headphones, try to be in a quiet environment and have good lighting.

You can also practice using platforms to make video calls and record your own videos if necessary.

DON’T FORGET TO EMPATHIZE

To ensure academic continuity, follow the indications and guidelines of the programs provided by your educational institution. However, remember that there are people with little or no access to some tools.

Given this, you can generate both synchronous content which is viewed in real-time and in which there is an instantaneous interaction, or asynchronous content such as videos or tutorials that students can review outside of class.

DO YOU NEED MORE HELP?

Remember that Tecnológico de Monterrey has created some websites with resources, tutorials, videos, courses, and more information for online classes.

There is one especially for members of the Tec de Monterrey community and another for teachers in general which includes a webinar given by Beatriz Palacios for teachers from Chile and other countries.

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