IN these times of disruption of our daily activities, including life on campus, it is important to find new ways of delivering education to our students.
As someone whose work centres on teaching, I confess I’ve had to shake my head more than a few times in recent weeks – not in judgment, but out of concern and compassion for anyone who finds themselves suddenly thrown into the world of online teaching without preparation.
One of the biggest needs I see right now is a greater understanding of how educators can be most effective when teaching remotely. Here are some insights for those among us who are jumping into remote teaching:
Don’t wait. We all thought we were prepared for whatever may come our way, but in reality, who among us saw a pandemic that could close down institutions across the country and around the world for such a long period? Now is not the time to wait to see what resources or training will be recommended for educators. Students need us to be in our game now. Find the critical knowledge we need to help to continue to educate students.
Engage your students in the learning. One piece of advice for anyone new to online learning is that it is critical that you find ways to engage students in the learning process. Relying only on your synchronous lectures using a learning management system platform is not ideal. While you can do some learning in that way, make sure you supplement with other more engaging activities like discussions. Keep lectures short and make sure you record them for students to review later.
Teachers need to be engaged in the learning environment as well. If you are providing content to your students using a learning management system, make sure you are regularly in your online classroom to answer questions, engage in discussion forums, and provide timely and relevant feedback on assignments. Students in an online classroom can easily feel isolated, so it is critical that we are regularly interacting in a variety of ways. This can help create a virtual presence in the classroom.
Share resources. If you find great resources, you should definitely share them with your colleagues. Others may not know where to go and may be waiting for answers from administration. In the meantime, students are not getting what they need to learn and grow.
It will be important for institutions to carefully evaluate their remote teaching strategies across all courses after the Covid-19 crisis subsides. Institutions will need to use post-mortem feedback from both their students and faculty to improve their contingency plans to positively impact teaching and learning, in the event of a crisis in future.
R. Murali Rajaratenam is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of University Foundation Studies, HELP Matriculation Centre. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
