Feb 20, 2016 · How To Improve Your Next Online Training Course: 7 Tips For eLearning Professionals Clarify expectations from day one. We’ve all encountered an online training course at one time or another that’s had one... Enlist the aid of a Subject Matter Expert. Even if you know a great deal about the topic, it ...
Aug 11, 2020 · 8 Ways to Improve Your Online Course 1. Build a personal connection with your students.. Instead of simply introducing yourself, consider conducting a... 2. Motivate your students.. Motivation is a key to effective learning, and perhaps the single most important contributor... 3. Help students ...
Aug 20, 2020 · Try to break down your class into some parts that students can do anytime they want, and a lesser number of times that they have to be there at the time the course meets. That seems to work well. You use the interaction time wisely, but it also gives students some flexibility.
Mar 26, 2020 · By being organized, proactive, and self-aware, you can get the most from your online class even when life outside of school becomes chaotic. 3. Practice time management. The flexibility to create your own schedule is often one of …
For those of us who will teach large online classes in the fall, the challenge is clear: We must design and deliver courses that are engaging, interactive, well supported, and responsive to the times.
1. Build a personal connection with your students. Instead of simply introducing yourself, consider conducting a student survey.
Be flexible about how students participate in the class, for example, by including both asynchronous and synchronous learning opportunities. Allow students to access course resources in multiple ways -- allowing them to download PowerPoint presentations or view videos at a time of their convenience or take quizzes on their cellphones. Provide chances for students to earn extra-credit points. Shift your assessment strategies to include more authentic and project-based assessments.
Here are some strategies that work: Brainstorming sessions, where students present a variety of ways of approaching a topic or a problem; comprehension exercises, where students help one another understand a complex topic; critiques, where students challenge a particular argument or interpretation; diagnoses, where students deconstruct a problem; and sharing activities, where students reveal their own experiences or perceptions.
What can you do? You can monitor their engagement. You can undertake regular check-ins and checkups. You can reach out proactively or send alerts whenever there are signs that a student is falling behind. You can send out alerts.
Encourage your students. Provide them with scaffolding: rubrics, check lists, sample responses to test questions, background information, glossaries. Offer some flexibility on deadlines and opportunities to re-do assignments. And provide prompt feedback.
During individual sessions, check on student comprehension; conduct polls; and pose questions. Give students opportunities to actively participate during the class session, for example, by asking them to pose a question in the chat, or respond to a question.
Learners prefer online courses to avoid hectic traveling or moving experiences to the physical establishment of the educational institutes for perusing higher educations.
The online courses are nothing but a set of learning materials designed using texts, multimedia, and navigational flow. It actively involves the analytics that tracks assessment and consumption of the knowledge material by the learning party.
Moreover, with 300% lesser time, you can create microlearning courses more speedily. In fact, microlearning can boost the course engagement by over 50% more than what you have been getting already. To utilize eLearning at its best, make use of micromodules and avoid creating huge topics in a single segment.
Learning is tremendously affected by the architecture of the courses. One must comprehend the ways to organize different topics in a comprehensible structure. The course structure must keep a continuous flow of the information being imparted. You cannot just jump from one topic to another in any random order.
With this growth rate, eLearning industry will become a $37.6 billion market by the end of 2020.
An absence of efficient course analytics. Online teaching is incomplete without assessing the progress of learners. It is a complicated implementation, and even some of the best eLearning platforms lack analytics. Most of them depend on additional Learning Management Systems to analyze teaching and learning progress.
The concept of eLearning and online learning platforms came with the evolution of web technology and enhancement in two-way communication channels. The strategy was to offer a platform where involved parties can do more than just reading or writing in the HTML tags. The innovators aimed for building an interactive environment where one party can design an experience and another party can consume in the same manner as set by the designer.
Initially, it was probably because you wanted to leverage your expertise to help others — and create a new source of revenue, of course. To ensure that this happens, organize your course materials.
Course facilitators work for course creators, but directly with students. If you have the budget, hire one. Facilitators provide one-on-one support, as well as observe how students are progressing. They really work wonders for enhancing the overall student experience and can hold students accountable, as well.
For massive open online courses (MOOCs), the dropout rate can be extreme. A 2019 M.I.T. study found that 96 percent of students drop out of MOOCs over a five-year period. A different study in 2015 found the completion rate at a mere 5 to 15 percent.
And novices won’t learn as much as they could have if you would’ve properly prepared. If you truly want to help others, be more effective with your course’s preparation. And I mean it — prepare your material weeks in advance.
Furthermore, depending on your course’s format, it may be possible to hire a virtual assistant to help with engagement, such as answering emails and responding to students’ questions or comments on social media .
John Mitchell: There are several parts of a course. The first is presenting content — that we kind of know how to do in video. The second part, the interactive, question-and-answer classroom model, has to be done live and Zoom can work for that.
The syllabus is not written in stone. In that regard, students have a lot more influence on course structure than in the past. Some professors we talked to had success with short feedback surveys throughout the term where students answer some open-ended questions to explain how they think things are going.
One of the easiest ways to ensure follow through is to remember that you are paying to take this online course, just as you would for a traditional, in-person class. You must “show up” if you’re going to get real value out of your class. Treat your online classes the same way you would a face-to-face class—or, better yet, a job—and you’ll be off to the right start.
If you’re having trouble holding yourself responsible, pair up with a fellow classmate, or enlist the help of a spouse or friend to check in as an accountability partner. By being organized, proactive, and self-aware, you can get the most from your online class even when life outside of school becomes chaotic.
From Netflix to social media to dishes piling up in the skink, you’ll be faced with many distractions that can easily derail your studies. The best online students know how to lessen these distractions and set aside time to focus.
Build relationships with other students by introducing yourself and engaging in online discussion boards. Your peers can be a valuable resource when preparing for exams or asking for feedback on assignments. Don’t be afraid to turn to them to create a virtual study group. Chances are good that they will appreciate it just as much as you will.
Most online courses are built around the concept of collaboration, with professors and instructors actively encouraging that students work together to complete assignments and discuss lessons.
Using applications like Cold Turkey and Freedom can help eliminate distractions by blocking the apps or websites that tend to compete for your attention, such as Facebook and Twitter.
When working on your assignments, try time-blocking, allotting yourself a certain amount of time for each task before moving on to the next one and setting a timer to keep you accountable.
Instructing students online is different from being face-to-face. As students move to this method of learning, teachers can discuss with them the norms that support effective learning. This might include discussing topics such as appropriate attire, when to mute/unmute, when to use chat, raising your hand to contribute, using backgrounds, how to clap, and what to do when classes are recorded.
Teachers across the globe made a rapid transition to online learning in 2020. In many cases this happened with little advance support or guidance, and as a result, not everyone made a smooth transition to teaching this way.
Start class a bit early to give students the opportunity to socialize.
Technology allows us to move beyond substitution and actually redefine learning. As we move into a new school year, we have an opportunity to reflect and consider incorporating some of the following effective online learning practices.
Technology provides a great way for students and teachers to connect, interact, and have some fun.
When students are learning online, you can teach as if there are no walls, because there aren’t! Rethink how learning can be customized. Maybe a student is interested in a class or subject that they were not originally scheduled for, or maybe they want to try learning from a different teacher.
Create a workbook or checklist to help students stay on track during class and let them know what they should be documenting.
It’s easier to recall information if you’re in the same place where you first learned it, so having a dedicated space at home to take online courses can make your learning more effective. Remove any distractions from the space, and if possible, make it separate from your bed or sofa.
If you find yourself working on a challenging problem without much progress for an hour, take a break. Walking outside, taking a shower, or talking with a friend can re-energize you and even give you new ideas on how to tackle that project.
Ask yourself what you hope to accomplish in your course each day. Setting a clear goal can help you stay motivated and beat procrastination. The goal should be specific and easy to measure, such as “I’ll watch all the videos in Module 2 and complete the first programming assignment.” And don’t forget to reward yourself when you make progress towards your goal!
Multitasking is less productive than focusing on a single task at a time. Researchers from Stanford University found that “People who are regularly bombarded with several streams of electronic information cannot pay attention, recall information, or switch from one job to another as well as those who complete one task at a time.” Stay focused on one thing at a time. You’ll absorb more information and complete assignments with greater productivity and ease than if you were trying to do many things at once.
Tip: You can add deadlines for a Coursera course to your Google calendar, Apple calendar, or another calendar app