Keeping students active and engaged during class is a challenge for every teacher. With a limited attention span and a handful of distractions around, students can really have a hard time keeping their focus and participating actively during class. To win students’ attention and enthusiasm to learn, educators go the extra mile to be creative in teaching.
The challenge to provide interesting and engaging lessons for students became more difficult with the rapid transition to online schooling. Aside from having to develop online modules and re-align course contents for online classes, teachers need to be engaging during online class despite challenges such as students’ short attention span, distraction, intermittent internet connection, and lack of interaction online.
So how can you create engaging lessons for your virtual classes? Here are some tips for educators on creating good content that will make students fully reap the benefits of online schooling.
Be brief and concise
In developing modules or contents for your online classes, remember to KISS (Keep it short and simple)! Students’ attention span is much shorter online compared to face-to-face classes, especially now that they can access the web with just a single click.
Illinois-based Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning suggests chunking lectures into seven-minute segments to retain students’ focus and help them absorb necessary information during online classes. Likewise, it is also best to keep your videos as short as 3-5 minutes to make sure that the important concepts are absorbed by your students.
Try a variety of teaching methods
Sitting in front of the computer for a prolonged period of time can certainly bore any student. To keep your students’ interest up the entire online session, try mixing different teaching styles per session. Add variety to their e-schooling days by doing different activities as often as you can. Don’t just stick to the classic Powerpoint presentation discussion. If relevant to the topic, try to insert other activities such as group projects, simulation exercises, videos, games, and interactive tasks.
Communicate and adapt to the students
To enhance the learning experience, you need to develop content that can catch the interest of your students. It is, therefore, important to know the expectations and learning styles of the students. Since each learner has a different style, designing different activities that address multiple modes of learning is crucial for educators. This will help you adjust your content material per topic.
Develop connections
With fewer interactions brought by the pandemic, it is important to encourage networking among your students even outside the virtual classroom. Events such as seminars, lectures, and forums held online will not only help them practice the theories they learned but also encourage them to interact with other learners. Create a sense of community by increasing student engagement during lectures and dividing them into groups.
Make use of curated e-learning contents
Creating every online training content from scratch can be time-consuming for teachers who also dedicate most of their time to actual online teaching. One way to save time is to make use of curated e-learning content such as expert articles, online training tutorials, and educational videos that are readily available. The key is to find the right online learning content curated by credible sources and experts. A digital library of curated e-learning contents called Percipio offered by Informatics. The Percipio learning platform allows students to access 25,000 courses and 40,000 ebooks/audiobooks using any device wherever and whenever convenient.
While the students learn from educators, teachers can also learn a lot from their students in developing engaging content as they move along the academic year. As we adapt to the new normal, it is important to note that patience and perseverance is the best tool that teachers have to inculcate the love of learning to their students. With those tools, teachers will succeed regardless of the instructional material used.
Know more about Percipio learning platform at https://informatics.edu.ph/programs/short-courses-ict/.
For more information about Informatics’ digital library of curated e-learning contents, send an email to marketinghq@informatics.com.ph.
About Informatics:
Informatics is a Singapore-based training institution that provides education and training services to individuals, institutions, and corporations. It has been in the Philippines for over 25 years and has trained over 600,000 Filipinos and more than 500 top corporations.
Informatics offers various programs including Senior High School tracks, Bachelor’s Degree program, Diploma courses, and Corporate/short courses. Find out more about Informatics Online Schooling at www.informatics.edu.ph.
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