The biggest impact that the coronavirus pandemic has had is on educational institutes. Even though most of the industries have been on a downward trend since the pandemic, the educational institutes are also trying to survive by the skin of their teeth. As a result, we are seeing teachers trying to help their students via online teaching. If you are finding this new way of life difficult as a teacher, you are not the only one with this opinion.
Since the emergence of the pandemic, we have seen many professor websites come to fruition. If the students are unable to access the online classes, teachers tend to provide their handouts and lectures on their own platforms. By creating these websites, the teachers keep their students aware of their curriculum and planning going forward. Most importantly, teachers also become aware of all the ways to implement digital instructions and self-paced learning. In this article, we will provide you with all the features of remote teaching and the way in which you can integrate them into your own working panel.
Features of Remote Teaching
1. Branding
Branding is a term that is usually associated with marketing. However, in education and teaching, branding tactics are also important. Through branding, you can draw a line between the new and sustainable educational programs and the old-school learning programs. During online teaching, you must always focus on delivering lectures regarding the new educational programs that will help your students evolve in learning and development.
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For example, if you are poised to give six hours a day to your online classes, you can brand your platform with the words “teaching with heart” (as shown above). This will tell the parents of those students that you care deeply about their children and will always want the best for them. Hence, it will improve your status as an online teacher.
2. Staffing
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One of the benefits of online teaching, especially if you are a beginner, is that you have a staff that makes you understand the fundamental things of this way of teaching. Apart from your own understanding, staffing is an essential component of ensuring online collaboration with students. This may require specialists, such as mentors, counselors, administrators, and further education services. All of these people associated with your staff play an important role in the evolution of a student. Your staff must have all the appropriate virtual learning opportunities at their disposal to ensure that students collaborate effectively with the teachers.
3. Enrollment/Admission
Like your brand management strategies, enrollment is one of the most important online teaching features to consider. This feature will enable your students to understand what they will learn from your programs, especially if they are different from what you have delivered previously.
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If the parents and students choose onboarding, it sets them up for success. It will teach the students how to use the learning management system and communicate the policies and logistics of a class. Once the students learn about using the learning management system, it will make life easy for the online teacher. The more investment it is done for the onboarding of parents or students initially, the less likely it will be for the students to have interfered with the challenges during their progress.
4. Attendance
You simply won’t know how online teaching works if you do not know the significance of your attendance record. Even though its importance and strictness have changed since the pandemic, it is still a valuable asset for your daily record. For example, certain states have given the option of submitting flexible attendances. However, some states have created a policy to calculate the online attendance of students.
Some teachers take attendance in the first 15 minutes of the class, whereas some tend to make things easy for their students by taking attendance at the end of the class. If you have a low attendance record, it may also be about how you are delivering your lectures. Some students would find your teaching method extremely passive and wouldn’t bother turning up. Hence, you can change your ways and deliver some inspirational quotes for them to reach their targets.
Tips for Remote Teaching
1. Simplicity
Every experienced teacher knows how online teaching works. The most fundamental talking point, in this case, is how they explain to the students. It usually starts with the teacher being the focal point of all the delivered lectures. In the end, they give the authority to the students to ask any questions regarding the lecture. Even though this process can be quite tricky at times, it requires the collaboration of teachers and students.
One of the challenging things about this online job is that you cannot have eye contact with your students all the time. As you and your students do not belong to the same room as we see in physical classes, it is quite challenging to know whether your students are paying attention to the lecture that you are delivering or not. This is where simplicity is required by the teachers. To make things easy for their students, they should use one or two resources. For example, they can give handouts in PDF files, which the students can easily access.
2. Digital Home Base
It is all good to make things easy for the students, but it is also important to create a digital home base. You can consider it one of the ideal online teaching tips because it makes it easy for both students and teachers. For example, you can use Canvas or Google Classrooms for this matter. If not, you can also create a class website. Strikingly will provide you with all the credentials to ensure that. By relying on us, you can establish your platform in no time and get to know its importance. If you are a middle school teacher, you can rely on us and create a middle school website straight away for your ease.
By having a digital platform, your students will always be able to check on it for all the up-to-date information and the daily happenings. Students must feel secure when they use the same set of tools repeatedly. The farther away you are from the students, the more important it is to establish a digital home base for your class. If your students find it difficult to register their attendance, they need a digital platform to ensure that they don’t get out of the loop. Your objective is to establish a framework that gives them the authority to do that.
3. Assignments
If we talk about online teaching, efficiency is one of the most significant qualities that your digital system must contain. Planning may require more time and attention. As compared to the physical classes, you cannot pay attention to all of your online students one by one. After all, you don’t even know whether they are paying attention to your lectures or not.
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To make things easier for yourself as an online teacher, you can carry out assignments and tasks that enable you to keep your students off their system. You must always focus on long-term planning where the students will establish their own series of checkpoints or deadlines to achieve their target. If possible, you can also create possibilities for students to discuss what they have learned with their families. Make sure that you add an element of the student’s perspective for building engagement.
4. Individual Touchpoints
It won’t be a surprise if your students miss the human connection with their classmates and the class teachers in online classes. Unlike online teaching, the connections you have with your students before and after classes in the hall are irreplaceable. Even though the most fundamental things in distance learning are the handouts (notes) and the instructional videos, it is even more important to create customized touchpoints with your students.
These touchpoints can be in many forms, such as videos, emails, voice notes, phone calls, etc. You must have a professional email address to maintain your integrity. As an online teacher, you can leave your comments on the handouts that you are giving out in PDF or doc form. You can create a structure for your students that they will easily recognize. The students will be aware of the time you have invested in creating that structure and know that you care deeply about them.
Conclusion
Now, as you know how to become an online teacher, you need to put things into perspective. There may come a time when you feel that you are starting your teaching career all over again. Even though the process of remote teaching can be quite tricky for people new to the internet, it will only be a matter of time before you feel comfortable with it.
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Strikingly will provide you with all the credentials to ensure that you get your feet under the table with online teaching. You don’t require the biggest programming degrees in the world to establish a teaching website on Strikingly. All you need is a creative brain, and the rest will follow. Make sure that you check out all the educational website templates in our locker and customize them as per what you want in your teaching environment. Rely on Strikingly and embrace the world of online education.
