Teaching Online Efficiently

 Teaching online has become a new norm in todays education due to the pandemic wide spread. Teaching online is a lot more tedious since it requires more planning in making sure that students have access materials and the best technology tools available. Let's look at the various task that teachers should look into in preparing an online lesson.

Organizing Tasks.

• Create a list of task that will guide you through the whole week to come.
• Long Time Goals - is for things that are not immediately done but are optional.
• Do Now - are things that you need to do in the next 24 hours.
• Creating - Designing assignments, creating new Units or writing emails.
• Doing - is filled with items such as making copies, grading or entering grades in record books.

Plan for Breaks

• Set your time for a break.
• Use your break to allow you to be productive and reset
• Sometimes chatting and talking is what you need.

Say No and Trust

• Say NO when it is required especially in dealing with things that are not your obligations.
• Saying NO sometimes will give you the ability and time to do well.
• Trust your colleagues by sharing your task.

Grading Strategically

• Use online tools to grade  students assignment.
• Decide on which assignment that needs grading. Some assignments are for processing students learning and organsing ideas.

Make it a Group Effort

• Group teachers sitting together figuring out how to design and teach online courses.
• Laying technology on top of face-to-face classes does not work well.
• Keep the group small to about 10 to 20 in a group

Focus on 'Active Learning'

• Long lectures and traditional class method are not applicable in online classes.
• Activities such as discussions, collaborations, video and audio clips and hands on exercises is much better and effective.
• Create an active learning classroom environment.

Chunks the Lessons

• Engaged students in the lessons. 
• No pages of text and long video 
• Varying format in teaching by breaking the lessons into chunks. so that it much easier for students to absorb and understand.

Be Present

• Use video chat when interacting with students instead of messages.
• Get the students talking in all discussions.
• Use non-verbal communications such as Emojis.
• Make self present during every lesson is very important. It is critical to students' success. 
• Encourage students to be present in an online class. Social presence is important.
• Guide students in choosing books and reading materials for their research topics.

Parse your Time

• Online classes can consume you. Responding to every students discussion board will crush you.
• Don't be available 24/7 . Manage your time in a reasonable way.
• Pick and choose which students post to respond to.
• Online classes must not be left to run alone by itself. Make yourself present on selected times.

Know the Technology

• Know and familiarized yourself with the technology involved in your online classes.
• Be very clear to students on which apps to use.
• Guide students in getting technical support in using a particular technology.

Expect the Unexpected and remain Flexible

• At times the technology used may fail and not working properly.
• Have a backup plan for all assignment and assessments.
• Have a policy for your students to submit their assignments by other means in case of technology failures.

Set Clear Expectations for the Lessons.

• Make it clear to students how their assignments  grades are determined. Participation is very important in grading.
• Set expectations for response time, by doing so students know when to expect your responses.
• Set expectations for assignment submission.

Establish a Sense of Comfort

• Set the tone of the class. Demonstrate enthusiasm and excitement about the class.
• Encourage student to personalized their homepage and share their postings with other students.
• Incorporate instant messaging, web cams, Blogs and Instagram.
• Encourage students to engage in active rich discussions.

Promote Reflection and Communication

• Encourage reflection and contribution on posted assignments that are not fully discussed.
• Monitor students participations. Contact students who are not participating, or are taking over conversations and not letting others contribute, personally.
• Have a good balance of active leaders and active observers.

Regularly Request Feedback and Check Content Resources

• Check student to see how things are going with their lessons.
• Surveys maybe done to assess attitudes, workload and challenges of students. Make corrections when necessary.
• Ad hoc assessments can be done to assess students comprehension of topics discussed.
• Be careful of misinterpretations of resources and disengagements
• Assist students who are having difficulty in managing links and materials available in the web.

References:

Smith K.. Towards an Understanding of Training to Teach Online. Pearson Efficacy & Research.

Conrad, Beottcher and Elliot, Inside Digital Learning

Marjorie Vai, Essentials of Online Course Design

Routledge, Essentials of Online Learning

Edutopia, Strategies K12 Teachers Can Use to Work Efficiently When Teaching Online.