Methods for Saving Remote Classes
Schools began using the emergency remote teaching style earlier this year due to COVID-19, and many are still using it today. The quick remote solution allowed instruction and live online class to continue uninterrupted in time. Still, it also annoyed many aspects, including the sense of disconnect felt by students, a decrease in their level of class participation, and growing concerns about equity, accessibility, and diversity. Teachers also questioned if remote instruction was detrimental to online learning, often well-planned by specialists in instructional design.
Three Essential Elements for Effective Remote Classrooms
It’s not merely a matter of “turning on a camera and lecturing” when switching from in-person training to online instruction; it may be difficult and fraught with difficulties. What has to be thought about is how to keep students interested and involved in a distant setting. Three essential elements are present in all effective remote learning environments: collaboration, interaction, and communication.
As more institutions move their instruction online, the demand for online education has increased. The online learning environment is not, however, as immersing for students as being in a classroom with their classmates and professors. What therefore can teachers do to guarantee that their pupils continue to have an immersed learning experience at home?
With the correct technology, teachers may set up a virtual classroom environment that facilitates interaction, teamwork, and education similar to that found in a traditional classroom.
1. Interaction in a Remote Setting
The absence of opportunity for in-person connection during remote teaching and learning is one of the factors that contribute to students feeling disengaged. In a remote setting, communication is crucial. It involves much more than just sending and receiving emails; it also serves as a tool for fostering a vibrant learning community. It promotes prompt and efficient information transmission and provides students with many supports by constructing a dynamic communication system in remote classrooms. The next 4 strategies provide reliable communication in a distant setting.
To keep students informed and expand their horizons, use announcements and emails often and judiciously to disseminate classroom updates, provide extra reading and media materials, and give alerts about conferences and subject-related event possibilities.
Establish frequent online office hours to provide remote learners the opportunity to ask about issues not covered in class, thoroughly evaluate their learning progress, and get emotional support.
Provide a fair timeline for email answers and assignment feedback to clarify response expectations and reduce learning anxiety.
To carefully monitor students’ learning progress, encourage them by resolving any corresponding problems, and provide timely and constructive feedback on activities and assignments.
2. Interaction Is Important
You should include suitable and acceptable interactions in remote education to enhance learning. Interaction [4] increases student involvement and aids in information retention by designing various activities, integrating technology, and offering a range of evaluation options. The following relationships may serve as a foundation for the interactions:
By including them in the educational process, the interaction between the students and the teacher promotes active learning. For instance, crowdsourcing allows students to participate actively in the learning process rather than only receiving information.
Students might get strongly attached to the learning material by interacting with it. Discussion boards have been extensively employed in the process development. online kids classes may direct dialogues more flexibly and contribute thoughts with a detailed reflection of the learned information and abilities when given explicit instructions and rubrics. Themed scavenger hunts, virtual field excursions to clinical locations, museums, zoos, interactive movies (in-video quizzes), question-guided lectures, etc., are other typical engagement activities.
Collaboration and group projects are part of the contact between students, which takes place in class and may continue outside. For instance, a video conferencing platform like Zoom enables breakout rooms where students may join smaller groups to discuss class work in more depth. Due to the shared accountability involved in peer evaluations and discussions, learning information may be more deeply considered.
3. Cooperation To Support A Community Of Lifelong Learners
Equity, diversity, and inclusion are encouraged when a remote class is built. Students who work together discover shared interests, develop close relationships, and eventually create lasting social networks.
By creating the most appropriate group projects, students will build their learning community around the topics that allow them to start on different learning paths. Think-pair-share (TPS), which stands for “answer a question, share an idea, and solve a problem,” is one approach for promoting collaboration and enabling everyone to take part in their learning. TPS aids in establishing a diverse learning environment.
Conclusion –
Collaboration in online classrooms is greatly enhanced by educational technology. Students may freely interact without regard to place or time thanks to properly chosen technology and resources. They may create study groups, project teams, or working groups to collaborate on learning and exchange ideas flexibly. Higher education has lately paid considerably greater attention to some group communication and collaboration technologies, such as Google Docs, Slack, and Nectar [8], indicating the increasing need for creating learning communities in remote teaching and learning.
