Setting Up an Online Classroom

Remote learning has become the new normal for most educational sectors across the globe. It has resulted from the breakout of the covid-19 global health pandemic and the subsequent social restrictions imposed by various governments. Currently, you will not only rely on the internet for the web-based ewritingservice.com to get tips on exciting ways to educate students but wholly base your teaching process virtually. It can have slight variation based on whether the system and approach entailed a hybrid approach or entirely virtual.

However, the process of migrating the classroom into the digital space proves arduous, especially to instructors not used to teaching virtually.  You have to abandon the well-decorated bulletin boards beside the planned seating arrangement to concentrate on how to offer students an engaging and evocative learning experience online effectively.  

So how can you go about establishing your virtual classroom?

The Online Classroom Setup Process

Most instructors have had to step out from their familiar surroundings and learn new strategies and tools to facilitate virtual learning. It includes understanding how to fashion an effective learning environment. So if you do not know how to go about the setup process, consider the following.

• Get your workspace ready at home. It becomes essential to create a designated spot for teaching online. It will ensure productivity on your part and enhance your focus by eliminating distractions that hamper student learning. As a teacher, you do not have to have an office at home or retrofit your spare bedroom into one. All you need entails headsets, professional cameras, and whiteboards to give students high quality asynchronous and synchronous instruction.  Further, make small adjustments to your teaching area to ensure a seamless teaching process.
• Test your technology before starting your class. It becomes crucial to understand the typical technical issues you and your students might encounter during the virtual learning session. It can include the microphone malfunctioning or sometimes the embedded videos refusing to play accordingly in your presentation. Testing your technology in advance and learning how to fix such issues can come in handy since the IT people can become busy and unavailable to fix such issues as the lesson continues.
• Establish the class routines, goals, and expectations. It becomes critical for the educator to set clear-cut expectations for students in their virtual classes.  When you set these class goals and norms, students learn to take responsibility for their learning, which natures a productive educative environment. Plenty of schools have guidelines and set expectations for learners who use their school-issued devices, digital tools, and videoconferencing platforms. Instructors have also developed presentations and posters that they share on Microsoft teams, Google classroom or their preferred education management system.
• Avail survey tools and communication. It becomes critical to have open communication lines in your virtual class, especially in the absence of physical conversations. Providing consistent and accessible communication will help you keep guardians and parents informed about school news and their kids’ progress. It also allows the instructor to check on the student’s progress.

Conclusion

Unusual circumstances require extraordinary efforts, and with classrooms moving into the digital space, you have to adapt your teaching techniques to ensure kids learn.