In this digital era, the demands for being an online teacher has expanded rapidly in the last decade. E-learning is transforming educational trends around the world. Due also to the Covid-19 pandemic, more and more teachers and students are increasingly realizing the advantages of learning online. Students and learners prefer to learn with an online teacher for safety, convenience, and flexibility. This has increased the number of professionals being tutors online, allowing them the ability to make their own schedule and offer their lessons online from anywhere in the world as long as there is strong and stable internet connectivity.
Online teaching definitely has its advantages, but it is a challenging job and there are a lot of uncontrollable circumstances that comes with it. If turning online teaching into a career is your ultimate goal, here are useful tips that you may follow.
Create a Conducive Online Teaching Environment
Online teaching can be affected by several factors. One of the factors that play an important role in the learning of students is the teaching environment. Like the classroom, online learners also feel more motivated to study in a visually appealing environment. Even if you’re sitting in front of a computer, you can still make learners feel like they’re in a real classroom. The white plain background behind you is one of the requirements in teaching online but you can make it more appealing to students by having a visually engaging online classroom set-up that shows your professionalism as an online teacher. Prepare a secure, conducive online teaching-learning environment by ensuring good lighting and having a clutter-free background.
Prepare and Plan Your Activities
Remember that online teaching is different from face-to-face teaching. Your students are not physically in front of you. Thus, you need to plan activities to make sure your students are active throughout the lesson. Preparing and planning for your activities are essential to ensure that your objectives will be achieved. Make sure that your lesson is clear, attainable, and flexible. Start by knowing your learner’s needs. Next, create clear, student-centered activities. Lastly, review and evaluate if your designed activities met your desired outcome.
Make Learning Fun and Interactive
One of the struggles of online teaching is keeping students engaged. Teaching in an online class takes creativity. Learning sessions should be interactive. As a teacher, you need to provide an enjoyable learning experience for them. Be charismatic by bringing your energy and enthusiasm in your tutoring session. Be as lively as you can and facilitate interactive activities. Some of the activities that kids love are games, songs, watching videos, and puppets. The use of props like colorful flashcards, reward system boards, and toys are appealing to them. On the other hand, if your students are adults, you can ask and integrate your lessons into their experiences in life. Always ask questions to engage them in your lesson.
Encourage Critical Thinking
Teaching online is not only learning facts by students but encouraging them to share their opinion, analyze a certain idea and, learning the steps in solving the problem. Instill in the student a sense of curiosity and confidence to discuss varied topics. As an online tutor, encourage their critical thinking to develop their personality in dealing with different situations in life. One way of pushing students to think critically is by facilitating questions in light of his or her experience and knowledge. You can ask open-ended questions where you ask them to identify the problem and provide potential solutions.
Give Your Full Attention
As an online teacher, are you tuned in to discuss your lesson? Is your student ready for your lesson, or maybe he is busy browsing on Facebook or Instagram? Then, how can your student learn if they are not listening to you? Always give your 100% attention to your student. If you notice that they are doing unrelated activities, remind your student nicely to focus on your lesson. .
Adjust to Your Student Needs
Learners have diverse learning styles and interests. Teaching online can be difficult if you don’t know your student’s learning abilities. The key is to identify what they want to learn, and their needs. Some of your students might be open-minded and fast learners, while others might be introverts and learn more easily using passive learning methods. You need to be creative to adjust to the needs of your student. Select the right method in teaching. If your student is a fast learner, you need to prepare challenging activities that are new to them. On the other hand, slow learners learn best using visual and audio presentations.
Track Your Student’s Progress
Great online teachers track student progress. Tracking the progress of students plays a key role in being an effective teacher. It guides you to review the growth of your student. A helpful tool to continually increase your effectiveness as a teacher. Having a tracking system, you can determine which particular topic your student learns better or having difficulty to grasp or master. When to re-teach or proceed and when to slow down on your lesson or to speed up. Track the progress of your student as often as possible to be more knowledgeable of their strengths and weaknesses.
To sum up, online education is a wonderful opportunity, especially in this current situation. With the help of technological advancement, online teaching is made possible. Though online-tutoring is a challenging job, it is one of the most rewarding. An exciting career path for educators. A win-win situation between tutor and learner amidst this pandemic.
