The coronavirus crisis has taught the world that there are many ways to teach classes online: online live teaching means students and teachers have many of the benefits of classroom learning.
Although senior leaders may be able to think of easy solutions to deliver live lectures, by taking a step back and thinking of all the tools at their disposal means they can implement an e-learning solution which benefits all learners.
This blog post explains why live teaching is a fundamental part of e-learning and how collaborating tools benefits all users.
What are the e-learning needs of students and teachers?
Students need to access reading and learning materials and need a way to submit assignments online. Pupil feedback is also essential for learning and development.
Pupils benefit from the opportunity to be able to ask questions and be responded to.
Teachers / instructors need to be able to communicate with pupils and deliver teaching content. Students need to know what to do, how you want them to do it, how to submit it to you and how to get your feedback on their work.
How can these needs be met?
By implementing an effective learning management system, you can meet the needs of both the school and the students.
You can communicate regularly with students to make sure they are aware you are thinking of them as well as supporting their expectations.
Qualitative feedback is essential to student growth – and can be forgotten should the wrong learning management platform be used. Students are looking to you to let them know how they are doing and their remote learning has a purpose.
Distance does not stop collaboration between the teacher and learner. Tools allow students to collaborate and communicate in real time to solve problems and discuss ideas.
Online learning also makes it easier to keep in touch with the community and involve parents in learning. Read this blog post about increasing parental involvement.
By speaking to other teachers and school staff mean you can interact with those who have also been going through the experience and learn from best practice.
By being consistent with your platform you are reducing the risk of stress and avoiding confusion. The consistency helps students to remain focused on learning new concepts.
How does live teaching help?
Live teaching also helps with consistency as it means the classroom experience is continued. Live teaching has been shown to have proven effectiveness for centuries, the infrastructure means you are in control of your students’ learning and this will come in handy when you resume face-to-face class.
According to InsideHighered:
If you are teaching face-to-face classes, your first impulse may be to think about your lectures. You may want to record lectures, narrated PowerPoint slides or live sessions to make them available online. It is not hard to create some videos or narrated slideshows with technology that is often readily available. Be aware that you need to make sure these materials are accessible to all students, so transcripts or captions will need to be included. Your institution may have specific solutions for these accessibility accommodations, but automatic captioning in YouTube works well with a little effort on your part to make sure it’s there. Yes, this may be a little confusing for you at first, but meeting the needs of all of your learners is paramount.
How EDClass’s live teaching is different
EDClass’s live teaching platform was designed to reduce barriers to learning.
We operate our platform so there are dedicated daily and weekly slots for live teaching in a virtual classroom – using either your own staff or from EDClass’ team of highly trained teachers.
Teachers and students can follow any of the following approaches:
- A timetabled approach where lessons are scheduled for their delivery
- Drop in sessions
- Live teaching
- Live support / tutoring on one-to-one or one-to-ten
- Ad-hoc sessions for students to have online support when requested
Online provision has created new learning opportunities for students all over the world. Using EDClass, distance learners can benefit from convenience, flexibility and importantly support just as many students that a brick and mortar school can.
Support is often a concern for the distance learner but with EDClass our teaching and mentor support system within our Virtual Classroom incorporates an in-house and face-to-face chat system. Here the teacher can view the exact lesson that a student is working on in real-time.
The student learning at distance can therefore access the help they need when required as they progress through their learning platform.
The platform also has a range of safeguarding resources built-in. These include alert mechanisms, opportunity to speak to teachers, questionnaires, access to charity details and a partnership in operation between EDClass and your school. All EDClass staff are enhanced DBS checked.
To find out more, call or 01909 568338 or click here.
