Online classes are thriving among schools as the pandemic continues to be daunting and unexpected. Students lose rhythm when the class hours are too long and tedious.
Sometimes the students can feel isolated, and they prefer the classes to be interactive. It is a real challenge to make students stay engaged throughout the class.
Teachers and instructors need to be more creative in finding ways on how to make online classes more interactive. When the online classes are conducted more interactive, students become more involved, and they stay active.
Also, while listening to online classes, students actively participate when new lessons are taught. Getting student’s attention for long periods is also quite tedious, so the learning process should be more fun and engaging.
Teaching students in lower grades is quite difficult because using laptops or tools might need technical expertise. Hence, parents have to be around to make sure their children listen to online classes seamlessly without any interruptions.
Let’s now dive into the topic and gain seven insights on how to make online classes more interactive.
1. Use The Right Set of Tools
Students and teachers need a video conferencing tool to interact with each other lively. Using the essential tools, online classes can be fun and engaging. Some tools are free, and there are premium tools that can enhance the learning experience.
Here are some tools to make online classes more interactive:
- Prezi – Prezi is cloud-based presentation software used to create and track appealing presentations and is not like traditional presentations. This software is pretty popular and has many positive reviews from people who have used it.
- Scratch – Scratch is made exclusively for 8-16-year-olds for an interactive and fun introduction to programming, and they teach only programming concepts. You can create engaging games by combining music, graphics, animation, and photos.
- Adobe Spark Video – Producing narrative, short, and explainer videos are possible with this tool, and students will be able to create professional soundtracks and cinematic motion graphics for videos. This tool makes students think out of the box and be creative.
- School Management Software – All-in-one school management software provides the abovementioned services in a single platform. GoSchooler, in particular, has a Live Classes feature that allows teachers to prepare visual presentations for their classes and lets them store the aids in the software’s large cloud capacity.
As seen in the screenshot above, GoSchooler has a distinct feature that allows teachers to store and manage all learning materials. This portal is available and easily accessible to the students as well.
2. Set Goals For Your Students
Set goals for your students and check how they are they can accomplish academic goals. Keep tracking their progress and teach them how they can finish a specific task quickly.
Setting short-term goals can be effective for students and help them plan strategically to keep up with deadlines. Setting goals and completing them can help students solve complex problems, and it will equip them necessary skills to accomplish any task.
Never fail to give your students feedback because feedback can help students improve, and it helps to push themselves more than their ability to do a task. Also, offering rewards to students for accomplishing goals can make the student feel good about themselves.
It is better to avoid long-term goals because thinking too futuristic can alter the progress of short-term goals. Giving monthly and quarterly goals can be effective and help students stay focused on current goals.
3. Break Down The Lessons
Online classes can sometimes be very time-consuming so that the teachers can break down the lessons and teach students in small chunks of every lesson to keep them attentive.
GoSchooler is an excellent tool to create weekly lesson plans. In this manner, you don’t need to print out countless learning materials. You can do them directly on the software. As a result, you have a more organized and timely lesson plan for your online classes.
The screenshot below shows how easy the Lesson Plan feature is to navigate. Even those with little to no experience with software planning before will find this interface easy to work with.
Moreover, teachers should make the online classes as engaging as possible by teaching the lessons more interactively. Ask exciting questions, tell unique facts about the lesson, and use appealing presentations to teach the lesson.
Planboard is a free lesson planner that teachers can use to write lesson plans for online classes. It is a digital plan book with a reliable and intuitive editor, and it is easy to add files, photos, and videos to make the lessons come to life.
4. Conducting Quizzes During Online Class
Teachers can conduct quizzes and online exams to make online classes more interactive, and students would become creative and stay engaged when quizzes have thought-provoking questions.
Also, the students who participate in the quizzes and answer most questions correctly should be rewarded, so more students tend to respond when a question arises during the quiz.
Using tools such as Quizlet and Socrative can enhance the experience of conducting quizzes. Both these tools help conduct mini-quizzes and post questions and receive answers from the concerned teachers.
5. Present Yourself Well During Online Classes
Present yourself well during online classes and make sure your background doesn’t create distractions for students. Your visual materials and slides should be very clear, so students need not zoom them every time.
It is highly essential to present yourself well because it creates a positive impression and good perception among your students. They can feel it like an online class, making them more interactive during online classes.
Teachers have to face the camera accurately and not sit too close to the camera. Find your comfort zone and make sure there are no background noises and low lighting issues. Students will be able to grasp things quickly if everything is set organized.
6. Record Your Lessons
Recording your lessons can help students watch them again if they have missed a class and need to learn the missed lessons. Students can catch up with lessons at their preferred time and take important notes while watching the recorded sessions.
It also helps students to go back to previous lessons and get some insights into a specific lesson. While recording, teachers should make sure that the lessons are not too complex to understand and it is not a long recording.
Recording lessons help students experience a more flexible way of learning lessons, and they can get their doubts solved outside the class hours. Students can also pause at a certain point of recordings and play them again to clarify specific lessons.
7. Conduct Interactive Activities
Conducting interactive activities can enhance the learning experience of students and make classes more interactive. You can conduct many activities, such as virtual field trips, games, quizzes, brainstorming sessions, peer reviews, and puzzles.
It should be mandatory for all students to participate in the interactive activities so they become active and engaged during online classes. Students who are introverts would be able to overcome shyness by conducting interactive activities.
Teachers should offer small rewards to students who perform well and answer all the questions promptly during interactive sessions. Giving rewards can motivate students and help them to push themselves to perform better during such interactive activities.
Final Thoughts
If you want to make online classes more interactive, you can try the methods mentioned in this article to help your students stay engaged and attentive during online classes. Students should also be made familiar with tools that are needed to join and interact with online classes.
Virtual classrooms should be more convenient for students to attend online classes, so they don’t skip essential lessons which need live interaction to clarify doubts. Teachers should help students with clear clarifications and instructions before proceeding with teaching lessons.
A happy and seamless online learning environment would help students achieve better results during examinations. Also, teachers should not always be result-oriented. They should value the student’s interests and co-curricular activities.
