The state of education is always changing. In one decade, it’s called No Child Left Behind, and in the next it’s called Every Student Succeeds. No matter what you do or how hard you work, some politician somewhere is going to impose his will on your students.
And now, to make matters even more difficult, our classrooms have evolved from the physical four-walled room to virtual classrooms. Kids are no longer greeted with bulletin boards boasting the month’s holidays. Now, students can get the education you want without leaving their home.
In fact, the number of students enrolling in virtual classrooms is on the rise. Studies show that about 5.5 million people in the US are enrolled in at least one online course. The fact is, students of all ages are taking courses online and teachers need to see these increasing numbers as an opportunity to reach more students.
The problem that many teachers are facing is they don’t know how to designing courses that actually reach students on a personal level. So many teachers fear online classes because they find themselves in a monotonous process using the same tools and procedures over and over
Educators fear monotony because it has a downturn on the students’ interest. Simply put, kids will eventually lose interest in the course. Establishing a strong connection with the students is the cornerstone of education. It’s important because how kids feel about what they are learning affects the performance of the student in the long-run.
And for a parents who have who has taken out loan with private lenders with the expectation of a learning experience, monotony is unacceptable.
In the absence of face-to-face interactions, teachers are looking for ways to develop their online courses relationship with their students.
Here are some simple tips to help you have a great connection with your online students.
Introduce Yourself
At the beginning of the course, you can write or say a short biography of yourself so that the students have an idea of who you are. Don’t deliver a resume. These are kids. Make your online presence like a professional social media page. Share stories, anecdotes, and things about you that turn you into a real person. Don’t be the person simply taking attendance and loading videos.
Also, many online courses platform have “Getting to Know Your Students” task in the orientation module. This is one the most effective ways to engage the students in a classroom environment and get to know their interests. To survey the students, you can make use of some online forms like Google Forms to get data from the students with respect to their interests, academic inclinations, personal goals, educational goals, and background information. This willhelp you to know how to treat a student and also, the students can make use of the opportunities to get to know their classmates.
Give the Students Options
Nothing could be more engaging than allowing a person to become a part of decision-making process. While this is a common practice in the business world to make employees feel engaged, the same is also effective in building a stronger connection when you teach kids online. So let your students participate in decision making.
Some instructors complain that some projects are inherently boring. The truth is that there is no project that is boring, you just need to give purpose to the task and show them the connection with the world around us. However, if the students don’t like to work on a particular project, you should give them the power to choose between different projects that can stimulate their thinking.
You can make as many other projects that they can choose from to achieve the same goal, the technique is just to make them feel important and see themselves as an actual part of the overall teaching platform. To execute this, you may use SurveyMonkey to know more about the students’ interests and opinion.
Reach Out to Your Students
If you notice a particular student who is not completing his or her assignments, don’t be afraid to reach out and send them an email asking if everything’s okay or if you can help them in any way. You can make a contact list from students’ data collected, go through the discussion board for students’ posts as much as possible so that students know you’re listening and interested in their thoughts. This will ensure that no one falls behind in the module.
Reward Your Students
Generally, people love to be rewarded and know that they are doing well. Online teachers should key into this concept since compensations are ideal ways to get students motivated. It helps them engage more with the course and helping their interest grow in the learning. A reward for completing the course or an activity will motivate students to put maximum effort into learning and they will always keep contact with you through course objectives.
Follow these simple tips and you are guaranteed to have positive feedback at the end of your course and also feel connected with the students.
