Online classes have made their way to the daily lives of people. The shift to online education has been well accepted and more and more teachers have shifted to online teaching. There’s no doubt that online classes are different from traditional face-to-face teaching. While a lot of teachers are apprehensive about teaching online and think that online classes are not as effective as traditional teaching, the brilliant tools and apps that are available, make online classes efficient and easy.
When the shift happened, not all teachers had the breadth and depth of knowledge about online teaching and online classes. However, the scenario has changed and teachers have started to love the online teaching experience. This blog will help you with aspects like the major steps to keep in mind when you teach online, how to find students for online classes, and likewise.
Without further ado, let’s take a better look at the topic:
1.Ensure a Decent Internet Connection
When you are setting forth to teach online, this is one of the basic steps that you need to take care of. A decent connection is essential to ensure that the classes happen without any havoc. Having an uninterrupted network connection is of paramount importance when you are an online teacher. As an online teacher, you need to be in constant touch with your students, you don’t want the screen to be stuck when you are taking an important lesson and a good internet connection is essential.
2. Choose a Good Online Teaching App
One of the most important things to keep in mind when you teach online is to choose an easy-to-use and secure platform for taking your classes. Juggling multiple platforms can be taxing and difficult. A one-stop teaching app that helps with everything from live classes, live class recording, online whiteboard, fees management and likewise would be ideal for teachers. Teachmint is one such unique, all-in-one online teaching app. Choosing such an app would help teachers to be ahead of the game. Teachers have to be proactive and foresee things. It is one of the skills that make a teacher stand out.
3. Research
Online classes are a relatively new realm and it is not necessary that teachers are well informed about the same. It is important to gather information about your audience and in this case, it is the parents and students. Research and get a proper understanding of them. The research will help you get an idea about the best time to schedule your classes. It will also help you get an understanding of the expectations of students and parents. It is important to bear in mind that researching and understanding is a continuous process and as time goes, there’s a chance of situations and people changing and the initial research might stand useless. You will learn a lot of things on the go and it is important to make changes and alter your methods based on your learning and development.
4. Plan and Organize
Regardless of what subject you teach, you should be well prepared and organized in advance. It should be the crux of your concern to schedule your classes and to organize all the data and materials. As mentioned in the previous point, your research will help you come up with effective schedules and teaching models. A good teaching platform will be able to equip you with all that you need. Schedule your batches, create an effective timetable, engage with students through activities and assessments and you are good to go. You can do all this with ease using Teachmint.
5. Communicate and Engage
The key to an effective teaching-learning process is good communication. Teachers often think that it is difficult to engage with students online. However, this is not true. All you need is the right platform and the right strategies. If you incorporate enough classroom activities and innovative teaching methods, student engagement can be higher than the level of engagement in a traditional classroom. The feedback has to be timely and prompt and you have to incorporate assignments and activities on a regular basis. Make sure not to overburden your students with work.
A lot of independent tutors and teachers who are new are doubtful fo how to find students for online classes and here are some tips:
- A lot of steps that we discussed above are applicable here as well, for instance, research is essential to get students.
- Use social media to spread the word.
- Advertise.
- Your teaching is what attracts new students and parents and hence, word of mouth plays a huge role in getting students for online classes.
- Make sure to update your ads regularly.
- As mentioned before, choose a good online teaching platform that will help you conduct the classes smoothly.
Another question that teachers have is how to collect fees from students online. There are a lot of online payment apps, but managing the fees from different students and keeping a tab on all of them can be difficult. With Teachmint, teachers can set a date for fee collection on the app. Students will be sent notifications and reminders about the fees on the selected date. Students can pay via the app using their UPI Id and teachers can view details about payments received, can collect fees without any hassle, and thus, keeping track of fees and managing fees becomes easier than ever!
Online teaching can be made fun and effective with the right tools and strategies. Teachers are resourceful. They make the best out of the things that they have and play a huge role in shaping future generations. It seems like online education is going to be a reality for a long time. Teachers should upskill themselves and be ready to conduct online classes effectively and effortlessly.
