How to create effective digital lessons
With the sudden shift from a physical to a virtual classroom, teachers are left with no choice than preparing digital lessons for their students. Creating lessons, tutorials, and training modules is not an easy task and can be frustrating, especially if it's the first time you're trying to do so.
Author:Paolo ReynaReviewer:James PierceOct 02, 2022105.2K Shares1.4M Views
With the sudden shift from a physical to a virtual classroom, teachers are left with no choice than preparing digital lessons for their students. Creating lessons, tutorials, and training modules is not an easy task and can be frustrating, especially if it's the first time you're trying to do so.
But as online teaching is the need of the hour, you're supposed to simplify this transition for your students. There are plenty of challenges and obstacles you've got to tackle while designing immersive online classes. To make it a little easier for you, we've put together useful tips on creating effective digital lessons in this article.
9 Keys To Making Digital Lessons Effective
To make your online classes more engaging and impactful, you might need to see the bigger picture of each lesson. And this includes researching what others are doing for a similar goal as yours. You can then adapt and modify those techniques to add value to your lesson plans.
Define Your Learning Goals Clearly
You should specify the learning objective of each lesson to your students. They must know prior to the class what they should expect to gain after completing the topic. Pre-estimation of learning goals will help you and your students adhere to the agenda of the class.
Once the class is over, you may run a quick quiz to see how close your students have reached the objective. This will give you a fair idea of the improvements that you need to make in your lesson plans.
Make Required Material Available In Advance
If your students don't have any knowledge about what you are going to teach in the class, much of the time would be spent on the introduction of the topic. It is best to prepare and hand out the study material in advance before the scheduled class starts. Students can also use an online essay writing servicesto help them complete their assignments while studying for the upcoming class.
The study materials can be PDFs, digital textbooks, and e-books. You can also direct students to certain videos or ask them to research the topic on their own. This will improve their engagement and help them develop a better understanding of the topic.
Record Accessible Screencasts
Visual learning is the most helpful for retaining knowledge and recalling the information whenever needed. You can use this technique to improve the quality of your lesson. Your recorded screencasts should be organized and made easily accessible for students.
You can use the camera and the screen recorder to create coordinated sequences of visuals and explanations. You may also share your screen during the class and let the students see you explaining the topic live.
Keep Your Lessons Short
Long online lessons make your classes less productive as students lose interest after some time. You should keep the length of your classes short and interactive. This ensures maximum engagement and gives you time to create more effective lessons.
You must remember to focus on a single skill at a time when providing any type of direct instruction through video.
Teach Through Group Activities
Most students find straightforward learning approaches rather boring. They tend to run out of enthusiasm and energy within minutes at the initial stages of physical and virtual classes. Teaching through group activities is one of the best solutions to curb this problem.
Group activities allow students to encounter different perspectives and develop a deeper understanding of the topic. You can form groups of 3-4 students pairing less interactive students with those who are super-active during the class. This way, all students will have to participate in the activity or the discussion.
Be Flexible With Your Training Modules
The new lifestyle and education system have been startling for all of us. Like every person took their own time to adjust to these changes, students also require some help to adapt to the transition in the learning mode.
You should make your lessons flexible and incorporate active learning techniques to help students sit in front of computers with interest. It's your responsibility as a teacher to ensure a comfortable learning space for your students.
Mix Digital Activities With Physical Ones
Students are not accustomed to learning from online classes. Attending one class after another, staring at a screen, is not easy for anyone. You can give them a break from this screen-time and still help them achieve your learning objective through a thoughtful combination of digital and physical activities.
You may ask them to perform some tasks around the house and observe things. You may also ask them to experiment with leaves or flowers, or you can think of other creative ways depending upon the subject you are teaching.
Use Closed Captioning And Video Transcripts
Sometimes sentences on a video lesson can be misinterpreted due to variations in how people speak. Audio can not be properly audible for some people. Captions and transcripts come in handy in such scenarios.
Some apps have captioning as a built-in feature. If your conference platform does not provide this option, you can use any third-party captioner for the purpose.
Use Standard Fonts
Fancy fonts such as "Chopin Script" or "Cantoni" look pleasing to the eyes but may not be the best choice for your online sessions.
One - students log in from a range of devices, including smartphones, laptops, computers, or tablets. Every screen size is different, and your font should be clearly visible on all of them.
Two - Trying to read such curvy fonts from a blue screen is harmful to the eyes.
This is why you should always select fonts like Arial, Times New Roman, or Verdana
Takeaway
Remember - this advice is in no way limited to the schooling environment. As remote work options become more and more popular and normalized, managers are starting to use these principles to help connect with and educate their teams, be that on the importance of diversity, appropriate GDPR training, or simply going over productivity meetings.
When you are clear about the objectives of your online training modules, it will be easier for you to design and plan your digital lessons effectively. By implying the tips mentioned above, you can enhance the learning quality of your classes. So, put your fear aside and start creating effective digital lessons for your students.
Jump to
9 Keys To Making Digital Lessons Effective
Define Your Learning Goals Clearly
Make Required Material Available In Advance
Record Accessible Screencasts
Keep Your Lessons Short
Teach Through Group Activities
Be Flexible With Your Training Modules
Mix Digital Activities With Physical Ones
Use Closed Captioning And Video Transcripts
Use Standard Fonts
Takeaway
Paolo Reyna
Author
James Pierce
Reviewer
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