Soft Skills of Online Classes |Tips for Taking Online Classes

In this era where technology is tremendously attaining its peak, we can say that technology makes everything possible. The traditional method of teaching, where students and teachers have to gather around in schools and use physical books and notebooks has been gradually shifted to online learning. Online education enables the students and teachers to stay in their place and communicate through technology. Almost every one of us experienced online education in this pandemic. Thanks to teaching app technology, helped us a lot to resume our studies even when stepping out of our homes was terrifying. Nowadays, most schools are utilizing this online method of learning effectively with the help of soft skills and it is also highly useful for students who want to pursue education from abroad institutions. 

There are so many benefits of online learning. However, gathering all the students virtually and keeping them engaged throughout the learning period may seem difficult for teachers. It can be effective if we follow the right procedures. This blog will look at some of the netiquettes of online classes and also provide some useful tips for taking online classes

1. Preparation before anything!

If you are a teacher teaching in a traditional classroom, you would have had some preparation the day before you teach. You would have gathered some hints, collected materials, etc that can make your teaching successful. 

In a virtual classroom, you may need to have some more preparation to experience the effectiveness of online learning. You have to ensure that you have an appropriate ambiance around you to have hassle-free live sessions. Make sure to have a pleasant and noise-free environment around yourself before getting into the live session. Students will pay attention only to teaching if you have a distraction-free environment. Everything you need during the teaching should be kept ready before starting your live session.

You should be ready with some backup options (like mobile hotspot, other devices, or smartphones) to resume your teaching quickly, even if it is interrupted by internet or power failure issues. The materials provided to the students should be clear enough and the important dates such as assessment dates should be announced clearly to prevent students from missing such events.

2. Make use of diverse technology

In a classroom, the teachers would not always depend on textbooks to teach. They will use some other materials like notes, charts, projectors, and more. Likewise, in online teaching, the teacher should not only depend on one technology to teach. Even though we are making the students learn online, practical methods of learning should be encouraged. Instead of dumping them with textbook pdfs, we can provide live demo sessions and observe each student’s performance. It is one of the main benefits of online classes.

Some of the technology you can utilize for successful online teaching include:

• Live sessions: Like classroom teaching, you can also conduct live sessions for teaching using Google meets, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, etc.

• Classroom management: To have an organized way of learning, you can use classroom management apps. In that app, you can add your students, converse with them, upload relevant materials, and more. This makes learning more organized.

• Screen casting: Instead of simply showing everything to your students from the front camera, you can also screen share your computer or laptop to demonstrate a concept, project a video, and more. This method is especially helpful for problem-solving and coding classes.

• Presentation making: Students are more likely to be interested if we show them something creative. Instead of relying only on textbooks for teaching, you can also create PowerPoint presentations for every lesson, showing some interesting pictures related to the content on every slide. This prevents students from getting distracted easily and helps them to focus more.

3. Connect with the parents

Normally, parent-teacher meetups would be held after distributing the exam results to the students. However, in the online education system, parents are the ones who get to spend more time with the students than the teachers. So, it is important to connect often with their parents to know how the students are learning in their homes. 

Since online learning seems new to the parents, they may not be aware of how to make their children effectively utilize it. It is better to communicate with the parents first, making them aware of the technologies, how to prepare their children for this new way of learning, and how to make them utilize the most of it. 

Having weekly connections with the parents, asking how their children are progressing, and asking for suggestions and feedback, will help to improve this online learning to the next level. 

4. Individual interaction with students

Not every student would find it comfortable to interact with the teacher when everyone is watching him/her on the screen. If not provided a chance, they may never come in front to speak out and solve their queries. It is one of the major challenges of online learning. To avoid this, it is better to connect with every student separately for a few minutes and ask if they have any problems or queries to ask. 

In the traditional classroom, teachers can easily get to know every student within a few days. But it is difficult in the case of virtual classrooms. Teachers get to see their students only through the computer screen during their classes and it is difficult to analyze every student within that period. So having weekly meetups with their students for a few minutes would help the teachers to analyze every individual student and provide help if needed.

Individually connecting with the students also enables the teacher to evaluate their students easily and provide them suggestions to upgrade themselves.

5. Letting students collaborate

In the traditional classroom, students would get a chance to collaborate. They would speak out to their friends who are sitting next right to them and get any assistance if needed. How is that possible in this virtual classroom? – One of the problems faced by students in online classes.

Teachers should encourage their students to collaborate even in this virtual classroom by creating group projects, and team activities and motivating them to work as a team. 

Without having fun conversations with their friends, students would feel exhausted. Creating chat channels and groups only for the students to have funny conversations would help them feel stress-free. They would again feel the happy and exciting experience of being with their friends that they had in their traditional classrooms. And this would be one of the positive effects of online classes on students.

The Final Word

As online classes become a major part of education nowadays, it is important to follow some strategies to make them effective. These are some of the top netiquettes that will describe online learning’s meaning, and how to effectively utilize it for the betterment of students. By following these tips, teachers can help their students learn effectively online and guide them toward a successful future. Classplus helps you get your own app and get on with online classes.