Distance Learning or Remote Teaching: Useful Tips for Making it Work

I want to provide tips for distance learning or eLearning especially as we find that at the present moment a majority of schools in the United States and other places around the world are closed. This is definitely something that we as teachers have not been prepared for and there's a big learning curve here. I think it's also important to say that no one person has all the answers. There's so much variation between different school districts and States and the number of digital resources that your school or district has access to. I think that's also why it took me a little longer to make this content even though some schools have already been doing e-learning or distance learning for over a month. At this point, it's just because I wanted to make sure I was adding meaning and helpful content. There's also no shortage of free resources at this point but we have to be intentional about it. Hopefully, you'll be intentional about today's tips. 

Maintaining motivation 

Now it can be difficult working at home alone. So it really important for you to reach out with other teachers and form a community so you can talk, solve problems, and share successes. With you doing this you won't have to be lonely. 

Free of distractions

Find a dedicated workspace that's free from distractions. Also, make sure during class contact hours that nothing behind you is making such noise. This is going to interfere with contacting your students. The number one most distraction for most people is their phones. Make sure the sound is turned off and it's out of sight so it's not interrupting you.  

  

Office Hours

Unlike a regular school, in which you might have office hours. Students are sometimes uncertain of when they should contact you. Of course, they can always leave an email and encourage them to do so. By the same token also check in on your students regularly reaching out to them just to make sure everything is okay and that their studies are progressing. If your students are struggling Zoom with your students, so they can ask questions about their work and then go finish it.

Give meaningful feedback

In an online class, it's extremely important to give meaningful feedback. In this feedback, you should always try to say something very positive to help encourage students. Of course, you can also go through and correct all the errors and problems that students have, but giving them a hopeful tone is important. In my own classes, I always pick one good thing that each student has done, and then I shared with all the rest of the students. This helps to create a sense of community among the learners and it shows even the least able student that they can do something right.

Online etiquette

In their online classes, students should be practicing good online etiquette. Which is treating others and the teacher with respect. It's important for students to understand these rules and one way to create them is to ask the students themselves. Ask students to write a list of what is and is not acceptable online. This also fits in with a general idea that runs throughout the idea of online teaching and that is to shift responsibility to the students. Make them more involved in the everyday decisions about their online education.

Set Expectations

In general, students can work on their homework at home. However, this does not mean that you simply say yes do your assignments for this work. You have to set up your expectations. What are they supposed to be doing, how should they be doing it, what should they be looking for, what skills should they be applying, so you have to start off by giving them a briefing on what is expected of them and then follow up. Once they've done the work to see again what questions and problems they've had but also for them to demonstrate what they've learned.

Goals and Paths

Building on those expectations that we mentioned earlier our goals and paths to get them there. Use your textbook to explain the tasks that students have to complete and the deadlines by which they need to complete them. To give students a sense of achievements set short medium and long term goals. Short term goals can be things like learning new vocabulary every day. Medium-term goals should be something like completing a project over the course of a week. A longer-term goal could be reading a new book.

Personalize assignments

You can improve students' motivation by personalizing your assignments and personalizing their goals. Make it a more student-centered online classroom in which you encourage students to conduct their own research on personal projects rather than having every single student do the same assignment so this helps avoid plagiarism.

Scheduling

The quick answer is that your schedule should mirror the hours that you normally have with the students in class as well as any homework expectations that you have of them. But you may divide up this a little bit, for example, it's probably unusual for you to talk for an hour in a class rather you're more likely to talk for maybe 5-10 minutes and you could videotape that and share that with the students. Then have them go off and do their work before they watch the next video about the next step of what you expect them. 

Deliver instruction in different ways

A big advantage of dividing your lectures or your talks into smaller segments is they're easier to share, but also it's easier for students to watch them and watch them again and again so they get a lot more exposure to the idea.


Grading: avoid being overwhelmed!

Grading can be a challenge don't be overwhelmed. There are a few things that 

you can do. First of all, here's a simple grading solution! If a student completes an assignment give them 2 points. If a student partially completes an assignment give them 1 point. If a student doesn't do the assignment give them 0 points. Another strategy is to only mark the first ten errors in any essay. Now for some students, this may all come in their first paragraph in others you make it through the entire essay. In this way, you're rationing your time and because students often make the same errors over and over again just correcting a few of them will probably give them guidance as to what else they should fix on their own.

Give regular open-ended questions

Another way to engage students is to give them regular open-ended questions. Maybe a question of the day or a question of the week that they're expected to discuss with other students. For example, you might say what job would you love to have and what job would you not like to have and why, so students have to think of individual jobs and compare them and then discuss them with each other. Get them into a process of putting together their ideas discussing them reflecting on what they hear.

Get your students reading!

Finally, get your students reading. It's the most important lifelong learning skill for continuing to improve their English. They'll improve their vocabulary, grammar, and critical thinking skills all at the same time. Also, look for resources that are available in your community perhaps from libraries or digitally online.

Thanks for reading,