The decision to move education from the offline classroom to online software was sudden, but given the growing number of COVID-19 cases, this new setting could stick around for quite some time. As a result, kindergarten through high school teachers are trying to make online education meaningful, comfortable and effective.

Until now, online courses were only intended for working professionals who were taking correspondence courses or further training to hone their skills, leaving teachers with negligible pressure. But today it has become a main source of education in all institutions and all levels of education. Thus, the skills required to organize online courses have also evolved.

Here’s how teachers can make their online lessons more effective and efficient:

Create engaging content: The level of concentration of students is low and maintaining it is the biggest test of an online educator. So rolling out so much visually appealing content in the form of slides would help keep students together. Let your inner visual planner sprout!

Interact as often as possible: Frequent connection with students can help you complete your courses online. Keep students in touch with each other using verbal discussions or indoor exercises to keep them alert. The more energetic you are on screen, the better. Try not to keep your tone clear, make vocal adjustments with high and low pitch modulations as needed. This will ensure that the students do not get lost because of your monotonous voice.

Increase your technical expertise: As an online educator, you need to develop your technical skills. Here is what you need:

• Complete information on the prerequisites for teaching in an online setup.

• Ability to evaluate Internet tools.

• Understand some parts of the benefits and copyright infringement.

Schedule periodic evaluations: There are an assortment of free online tools available for designing before, in-class and after-class assessments. These should be used with caution, as each assessment has an effect on students’ mental self-image and their tendency to learn. If an assessment is overly simple, it can send an inappropriate message about their ability to learn and cause arrogance, and if it is very difficult, it can lead to a lack of encouragement towards learning and online courses. .

Anyway, introduce yourself: Basically, asynchronous education expects you to always be present in class with your students. Create a timeline for meaningful and dynamic inclusion in your online courses. Spend as much time as you would in a traditional classroom to be visibly present and occupied with your online lessons. You can use a variety of approaches to effectively engage with students, such as posting an ad week after week to outline the topic for the week ahead or recap what you have been teaching during the week, or even both; present a quick video to answer questions and concerns about a particular chapter or topic; while constantly grading students on the basis of their understanding.

Be empathetic: Sometimes the distance between a teacher and a student in an online course taints their communication. If this happens to you, practice compassion. For example, near the end of a chapter, you might reassure your students that it is okay for them to ask questions or that you quickly repeat the same explanation. Try to be in their shoes, as it is not easy for students to get used to the asynchronous way of learning. Use a friendlier, more attentive, and more empathetic approach than just asking them to write down their questions.

Strong conviction, good preparation and a joint effort between teachers and students in an online teaching setup make this type of learning experience more fruitful. Student academic achievements rely on talented and deeply energetic teachers in conventional study rooms and online. So, to make it even more meaningful, try to incorporate these skills into your methodologies.