A magnificent location of learning, inspiration, and encouragement is the classroom! The first job is to keep the atmosphere safe, enjoyable, and under control. In both virtual and in-person teaching situations, classroom management strategies can help keep the day on track and students engaged. Create a resource for you and your colleagues by collecting your favorite ideas and recommendations.
Effective classroom management is essential for a good learning environment, whether in a real classroom or online. Teachers must be diligent in managing student conduct and engagement in online learning, even though students are not contained in a single room. Teachers should be aware of some of the online learning environment problems, as well as online classroom management strategies for efficiently overcoming them.
Classroom Management Strategies In Virtual Learning
1. Routines should be established and repeated
Routines are essential in any classroom management strategies, particularly when you are unable to be physically there with your students on a daily basis. It’s a good idea to keep routines simple. For example, throughout the course, students should submit work and receive comments in the same manner, establish and keep office hours for students to reach you.
Maintaining some regularity with the tasks assigned each week can also assist pupils in developing their home habits. Finally, it is critical to repeat your routines frequently. It is one of the important classroom strategies.
2. Establish norms and expectations, and then stick to them
Students require consistency when creating standards in an online learning environment. As a result, make sure students understand the potential repercussions and punishments for breaking classroom rules and enforce them consistently. If one student is frequently allowed to disrupt while others are disciplined, students will notice. Students will wonder why some students do not turn on their video feature for the entire class, every class, while others are called out.
As a result, educators must determine what expectations they can and should impose on these classroom management strategies for all. It is unrealistic to expect teachers to be able to regulate every student’s virtual learning experience, and they should not try. It is more helpful to emphasize what kids should aspire for than all the things they should avoid.
3. Recognize students’ accomplishments
Make sure you recognize your students when they are engaged, productive, and learning well. It would be ideal if you took this into account in every course because they are not in a real classroom, and online students would not receive a high-five from their teachers. Consider instituting a ‘Student-of-the-Week’ award, which you and a co-teacher can decide on, or which students can vote for anonymously via a Google Form.
Create badges on sites like Canva to paste into a chat thread or add to a student’s online binder. These are great classroom strategies to motivate students and create a positive learning environment.
4. Keep distractions to a minimum
One of the most important classroom management strategies is to address distractions head-on at the start of class by naming them and giving students one minute to remove them before the lesson begins. Additional background noise, items in the area, and other digital applications that students might switch between during class are the most distracting factors in an online classroom.
Teachers should spend the first minute of class instructing children to close all unnecessary browser tabs or apps on their iPads or computers, walk to a quiet area in their house, acquire headphones if necessary, and put their phones and toys away. This helps to set expectations ahead of time, requiring less redirection and correction throughout the class management.
5. Plagiarism should be discussed with students
Plagiarism is more likely to occur when students learn online. Students work on technology gadgets that provide them with limitless resources, and the temptation to copy material can be overwhelming. Every online teacher, in my opinion, should begin combating plagiarism right away and provide a safe learning environment. Outline the ramifications of plagiarism and explain it with examples.
6. Make connections
Building rapport with your students is an important component of classroom strategies during virtual teaching. If you and your students connect, communicate, and positively understand one another, they will be inspired to not only participate in your class but also to behave well.
7. Encourage real-time interaction and collaboration
In a virtual classroom environment, you can’t improve the learning experience and student engagement without allowing contact and cooperation. Using interactive whiteboards, you can easily promote real-time collaboration and interaction in an online classroom. The online whiteboards enable you to share a wide range of material with students in a consistent manner.
Suggested – Online Teaching Tools to Enrich Your Virtual Classroom
You may also allow students to engage in classroom discussions by allowing them to view and update online whiteboards. Such classroom strategies are really helpful for teachers in order to encourage students.
8. Include students while setting norms
It is important to set up norms for an online class, but it is more important to involve students in the process. Including students makes it easier for them to follow the rules being set up. To do this, first, you can make the students understand why norms are important for the class and how this will be helpful to them.
One of the best ways to include students in the process is to divide them into groups to set up their rules, then gather all the list of rules made by the students and make up a final list, with upgrading wherever required. This will lead to students following the rules because they made them and make the class more disciplined.
Final Thoughts
In order to ensure optimal learning, it is critical to create the appropriate virtual classroom environment. Despite the problems posed by the pandemic, learning should not be put on hold. To solve the common obstacles in online learning, teachers might employ virtual classroom management strategies. They must, however, keep in mind that a virtual classroom management strategy is a continuous effort.
Classplus is one of the best ways to gain strategies in teaching and learning online. It helps in making teachers’ classroom strategy with their App and helps in making online learning easier and more smooth.
The Best Classroom Management Strategies In Online Learning FAQs
A1. The most effective five classroom management strategies are to write down rules, encourage group projects, let students lead, encourage questioning, and let students help.
A2. There are various ways to engage students in a virtual classroom, such as creating individual learning plans, forming a community, encouraging group projects, developing a curriculum around shorter content, adding flexibility to the curriculum, and many more.
A3. Classroom management strategies are important for managing students, especially in a virtual classroom. Strategies help students to grow and enhance their learning and grow in their academics.
A4. There are different classroom management styles, but the best one that focuses on students’ growth and behavior is the authoritative approach.
A5. Effective classroom management means creating a classroom culture that helps in the growth of both students and teachers. It means building strong relationships, encouraging them to take part in their own learning, and sharing a little about yourself.
