It is interesting that day by day nothing changes and when we look back, everything seems different. From a time when students used to stay at their teacher’s place(the Gurukul system) to virtual classrooms and online teaching, we have certainly come a long way.
With the rapid advancement in technology, the whole world is just a click away. The development of technology has redefined teaching and learning altogether. Online teaching, online classes, etc. have made their way into our daily vocabulary now. Virtual classrooms are yet another term that has become an urban slang.
Virtual classrooms are significantly different than normal classrooms and to ensure student engagement and effective learning, different approaches and methods have to be employed. One of the best techniques towards providing ease into the mathematics students’ life, when they supposed to do an algebraic math’s homework, they require scientific inverse function calculator. In order to solve the tough and complicated math’ problems students need to have a function inverse calculator. The purpose of the inverse function calculator is to get the reciprocal value. For example, the formulas to convert “meters into kilometers” inverse of a function calculator is the reciprocal formula “kilometers into meters”. Inverse functions are essential to solving because sometimes it requires the opposite function to be solved. Similarly!
This blog will give you 10 awesome ideas to take virtual classroom experience to the next level.
Here Are 10 Awesome Ideas to Take Virtual Classroom to the Next Level.
1. Discussions and Activities
In order to make sure that teaching is effective in virtual classrooms, you should ensure that there’s enough room for interacting with your students. Discussion boards and group activities are one way to ensure that there are enough opportunities for the students to interact with other students and with the tutor. Introduce an interesting topic for discussion and ask your students to analyze the topic and post their take on the same. Furthermore, you can select the best answers and present them in the class and reward them. This can be done as a routine task. This will also help in making the classes more interactive and engaging.
2. Novelty and Innovation
Virtual classrooms can get mundane and drab. Hence, make sure to add variety and innovation in your classroom. Incorporate different methods of teaching so as to ensure that your students don’t lose interest in the lessons. You can make use of various online teaching tools to add creativity to your lessons. Some tools help you animate videos, create quizzes, and more, take the help of these online teaching tools, and make your virtual classroom colorful. Another creative way to teach online is story-telling, incorporating narratives, and likewise. This will break the monotony and keep the students engaged.
3. Tick Tick, keep an eye on the clock
Research has shown that the ideal time for an online lesson is 40-60 minutes. The attention span of students must be taken into consideration. It might be even less when it comes to virtual classrooms. Make sure to wind up your session within the said time frame. If you are a primary school teacher or an elementary school teacher, consider shortening the duration of your classes further.
4. Games
This is one of the most creative ways to teach online. The games can be simple and easy. The idea is to be creative and to add life to the virtual classroom. You can take the help of various tools online to create these games. For instance, you can play Two truths and a lie about a famous personality or a specific portion from your lesson like plant cells. The students need to have an idea about the lesson to be able to play the game. This way, you are teaching and also adding a little fun.
5. Visual Aids
Unlike a traditional classroom setup, you have access to multiple online resources and materials in virtual classrooms. It is easy to incorporate PowerPoint presentations, videos, and other visual aids in a virtual classroom. This is yet another idea that falls under the list of online classroom ideas that will help you increase the efficiency of your teaching.
Content sharing is easy when you have the right online teaching platform. One of the important things to keep in mind while going online is to choose the best online teaching platform. It is advisable to use one with inbuilt LMS features. Teachmint is one such amazing platform. Optimized for India,with minimum internet data consumption, Teachmint has a wide range of features like automated attendance marking, automated grading, assignments, tests sharing, and more.
6. Polls and Surveys
Polls and surveys can be conducted in virtual classrooms to understand the ideas of students and what they would like to see in the classroom. Incorporating these ideas will be effective and ensure that there’s meaningful learning involved. The polls can be centered around what type of teaching they prefer, the surveys can talk about what they found most interesting and likewise. Surveys and polls have proven to be a great virtual classroom idea to increase involvement.
7. Invite contributions
Invite contributions from students and involve them in your classroom. By inviting contributions we mean to give them ownership and responsibility. You can make them lead the class for a day or an hour. You can also ask them to talk about something that they love. This need not necessarily be a part of the lesson. Keep in mind that by inviting students to participate in the classroom, you are creating a positive classroom environment and that in itself is one of the best creative ways to teach online.
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8. Rethink Assessments and Evaluation
Peer evaluations are yet another virtual classroom ideas to increase bonding and interest among the students. Unlike the traditional classroom, in a virtual set up, the students might be disconnected from each other, and peer evaluations will help in establishing a bond. This will also help students to understand the lessons better and they will feel a sense of responsibility and belongingness.
9. Motivate your students
Appreciate your students and acknowledge their efforts. Motivate them with rewards and praises. A pat on the back can go a long way. When your students feel that they are being valued and that their efforts are being noticed, this will motivate them to do better and encourage them more. Ensure to celebrate failures as well since you don’t want people to feel left out. Hit the right balance and practice daily affirmation with your students.
10. Feedback
The only way for you to understand whether the above strategies and virtual classroom ideas are working or not is to gather feedback from your students. Take prompt and timely feedback from your students and alter your strategies accordingly. Don’t be too rigid with the methodologies that you are using. Try and incorporate suggestions and ideas from your students.
Conclusion
These virtual classroom ideas are sure to help you with student engagement and interest . The only way to increase efficiency is to keep learning and growing. Let us know if these online classroom ideas helped you. If you have any questions for us, please do drop them in the comments section.
Happy Learning!
