This blog is the second part of the review dedicated to e-learnign in emergencies during the coronavirus pandemic. The first blog was about platforms and content, while this one covers teacher and learner preparation, online teaching and assessment.
The massive turnaround caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has led many teachers and trainers to teach online.This article offers some helpful suggestions and tools to help them achieve that.
1 - Design courses specific to online education
The exhortation to "bring your
class online" sounds simple enough, but of course makes no sense. How
could you suddenly convert the multitude of complex cognitive, emotional and
behavioral interactions that face-to-face teaching and learning offers into an
online course? This is impossible.
What you can do, however, is design
your course specific to this new online medium, so that learners can continue
their training under these extraordinary circumstances. Some activities will
not be possible, and others will develop more easily in an online medium (for
example, students often think more online and are more inclined to
communicate). By taking a week or two to plan your new online course, you will
have fewer revisions to make throughout the course.
Just as you do in “offline” teaching,
design learning outcomes and communicate them clearly to your online learners.
Define precisely the educational activities and assessment exercises that will
help learners achieve these results. Where possible, design “one-size-fits-all”
activities that can be done online or offline, alone or with another person,
and that require low bandwidth.
Create activities that integrate
content, that are learner-centered as much as possible, that are achievable,
and that have clearly defined directions and deadlines. Determine what students
will learn from you, the content, the activities, and the other participants.
2 - Think of your course as a pilot
The bright spot that emerges from this
'dark cloud' that is COVID-19 is that the stakes are low right now and you can
feel free to experiment, fail and revise your course (you should do it anyway).
Ask your students to give you their comments and suggestions, which allows them
to invest in the course and reduce the stake for them as well as for you (see
this article on how to test an online course).
3 - Prepare the instructors
It is not easier to teach online than
in person. In many ways, it takes a lot longer and is a lot more complex.
Online instructors should become familiar with technology and foster
communication, collaboration and interaction among learners at a distance. In
order to implement the teaching and assessment methods, they need to acquire
skills of facilitating online courses and learn how to use telecommunication
tools.
There are a number of options for
learning to teach online. EDC’s Global Online Academy and EdTech Leaders Online
both offer online professional development on this topic, as well as online
course design (for a fee). The Organization of American States (in Spanish)
offers an online course on teaching in virtual classrooms with financial
assistance for educators in its Spanish-speaking member countries. For people
who can't afford any of these options, you could take a free online course and
study what the instructor does and doesn't do.
4 - Prepare the learners
Our students need preparation and
guidance for successful online learning because most of them don't know how to
do it. If you have not yet started online teaching (or even if it has already
started), be sure to provide learners with a general orientation on online
learning, on the particular course and their roles in it. As an online learner.
Show them how to navigate the Learning
Management System (LMS) or online conferencing system, how to upload
assignments, how to manage files, how to participate in a discussion board, and
how to get help. Above all, online learners, especially those new to this
technology, will need structured support to acquire self-regulatory strategies,
time management skills and to understand the rules of online communication. Adapted.
5 - Focus on the quality of teaching
E-learning raises many questions that
have an impact on teaching: is the course delivered in real time or not, what technology
is used - for example, teaching by videoconference only is very different from
teaching by LMS - and what are the educational outcomes of the e-learning
program.
However, remember that the quality of
education is paramount. Your role is exactly the same as in a face-to-face
class: to guide, inform, lead, facilitate, mentor, advise and show empathy. The
challenge now is to do it using technology and with minimal planning.
In the online courses, just like in
the classroom, you will focus on the following:
Management / organization: Define
expectations and ground rules; develop specific and achievable learning
outcomes for each unit of online study; manage the process and pace of
learning; offer differentiated teaching - allow the most advanced learners to
progress while providing more support to those who are lagging behind.
Community building: Learning has a
strong socio-emotional component. Learners will need each other, and you,
especially at this time. It is therefore important to get to know them and to
help them get to know each other. Taking 5 minutes at the start of each online
session for students to have fun and get to know each other through ice
breaking activities can go a long way in building friendships. At the start of
the class, have pairs of learners call each other to get to know each other,
then introduce their peer in an online video conference with the class. If you
are using an LMS, create a forum for non-academic topics. Organize the class
into small groups of 4 students. In each module, design an activity that
requires the students' collaboration to complete. This camaraderie,
collaboration and sense of community will increase learner engagement and
persistence throughout the course.
Teaching strategies: Most of the
training we provide face-to-face can also be done online, although it is much
less rich and spontaneous. To teach online, you should mainly focus on the
following aspects:
The variety of teaching methods. As in
face-to-face teaching, vary your online teaching methods depending on the
specific learning outcomes expected from an activity. Find a balance between
synchronous and asynchronous activities, between group and individual
activities, and between different types of teaching, for example:
Direct instruction: Transmission of
knowledge on concepts, skills and procedures through demonstrations, lectures,
screenshots or online presentations.
Cognitive learning models where
students learn by confronting themselves in a structured way with a content, a
subject, a problem. Examples include inductive reasoning, open questioning,
teaching by analogy, concept mapping techniques, problem solving.
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