20 Things to Add to Every Online Lesson to Maximize Learning
With the current situation, the scope for online lessons and e-learning is increasing. You’ll always find more than one compelling reason to consider education online, whether it’s the ability to choose from a wide and varied range of professional degrees and diplomas, the ability to attend lectures/classes from mobile devices at any time, or a comfortable learning environment.
Using online platforms only to conduct face-to-face teaching is incomplete because teaching requires much more than just a replacement for actual learning. It can not be restricted to just providing reading materials or scanned worksheets and demanding students to understand and make the material self-explanatory, it still has its challenges. There’s a dire need for the teachers to study and learn how to make this process as effective as possible, although E-learning is relatively new and takes time to adapt, it is currently thriving due to the situation we find ourselves in.
According to Reuben Puentedura’s SAMR model, these are methods that do not make full use of the technology integration. Utilizing only rudimentary education methods through online platforms will decrease the efficiency of the students, making them unable to deal with matters that require various skills that are generally acquired through conventional and methodical education.
To make up for the inability to follow the pattern of the conventional and systematic learning approach, teachers and various other online lessons, online courses should consider adapting methods that can increase the productivity of the students.
Advantages of the elearning process
By following certain innovative concepts, learning through e learning processes can be fruitful. More individuals should prefer teaching and also learning through online means. Some of the benefits of learning through online courses include:
Saving time and money:
Learners can utilize the content anytime and anywhere, as long as they have a good internet connection. If you are working and cannot take out extra time from the job, you can still attend elearning courses.
Many organizations that encourage their employees to up their skills can cut on accommodation, venue, travel, material, and many other expenses with the help of the elearning process.
Leading to better retention:
People learning from online courses expect the content to be descriptive but concise. Rather than reading scanned material, they would prefer listening to a podcast or watching a video. The more the learning material is, the better the learners can process and retain the information.
Consistent method:
Different teachers teaching through face-to-face means utilize their own methods, varied approaches in teaching style, making them susceptible to mistakes.
Through the elearning process, you can be stress-free of these problems and gain maximum knowledge and advantage due to standardized and consistent learning.
Allowing personalization:
Every learner accessing online courses has unique preferences and learning goals. Elearning process helps you to customize the personal needs in your learning path, and allows you to navigate it at your own pace.
Scalability:
Online courses are a one-time investment, allowing you to share them with as many people or employees as you wish. The money spent in obtaining the online course can be cut down a lot if there are more learners interested in utilizing it.
Challenges hindering the absolute utilization of the elearning process
The elearning industry is extending its catalog of online courses due to the increased profits and popularity. Though the method of learning online is convenient and cost-effective, it also faces equal growth in challenges. While improving the quality of the online course and its materials you might face problems such as:
- Due to learning happening through remote means, trying to gain the same level of attention from the students as you would receive in a traditional classroom.
- Lack of motivation and engagement in the students due to remote methods.
- Many online courses can be accessed only through desktop versions. This makes it difficult for the students to read the pages on their mobile devices.
- Learning is most effective when it is learned in a particular manner. It is difficult to structure a flow that is understandable by learners of all levels.
Ways to Improve Online Lessons to Maximize Learning
An online course can be made beneficial by improving it from time to time, enabling students to be comfortable with all its features while using it. Here are some tips on how to maximize learning:
1- Using a good authoring tool:
Study materials in the form of documents, presentations, or PDFs are very common, but educational material can be much more than that. You can make use of an authoring tool that will enable you to design and edit online courses, produce content in an audio or video format, etc.
2- Using project collaboration:
To create the thorough course material, you need to work in synchronization with various professionals including, subject matter experts, animators, video editors, photoshop designers, typists, website admins, and more.
To ensure that the content is well-ordered, you must use a good authoring tool containing built-in collaboration tools.
3- Employing micro-modules:
Modules help students in understanding the matter without putting in much effort. With the help of micro modules, students can understand and transfer information 17% more efficiently compared to the conventional method of learning. Furthermore, you can create microlearning courses in 300% less time.
4- Elucidate the course goal and result:
Students should be aware of the course objective and the outcome they will get from it. At the start of the online course, you should enlist the topics to cover, essential knowledge required, and in the end the skills the students will instill.
5- Asynchronous structured course:
Modules in microlearning should be designed separately so that the students are easily able to perceive the content of the modules without having to watch them.
For instance, if the module contains content about HTML5, hyperlinking a website or video containing the difference between HTML and HTML5 will be helpful.
6- Providing easy course navigation:
Like we read a book, turning the pages, trying to comprehend the relevant topics, create shortcuts and indexes for students in the micro-modules since they often navigate between pages.
7-Utilizing media:
Through images, videos, animations, and more, students will grasp the matter in the content clearly, and efficiently. It is because visualization helps to understand and relate it to the concept well, thus helping them retain the information.
8- Receive and state the inputs from expert educationists:
Taking inputs from a veteran might seem implausible, as many online course providers and course creators want to prepare original curated content.
By mentioning their content or methods in your modules, students can have the right to the online lessons taught in the modules.
9-Improving on the engagement aspects:
Since remote learning does not let you keep a check on the student throughout the elearning process, you have to make the online course as engaging as possible.
To improve the engagement aspect you can quip your modules with a post-course summary, hold group discussions, conduct quizzes, etc.
10-Using push notifications:
In the current scenario, push notifications have emerged as a highly effective marketing tool. They enable website and app publishers to contact their prospects without knowing their contact information. This channel can be used to advertise your courses and even engage them in learning activities.
11- Being thorough with the subject:
If you want to create an in-depth course or study material, firstly, you should do complete research before presenting it to your learners.
12- Varied learning styles:
Some students prefer learning through visual multimedia of lessons and coursework, while others might prefer it in text form. You should consider creating different learning styles.
13- Facilitating contact:
The online course you provide your students should contain a reachable IT support team, so if any student has trouble with the online lessons, they will receive assistance.
14- Easily functional platform:
While creating the elearning platform and the website, ensure that the students can easily navigate the online lessons and other educational material. Provide a systematic and inherent learning platform so the students do not have to face troublesome technical issues.
15- Availability of study material:
The student should be aware of the topics that need to be covered and also a plan to guide him throughout the online course. Make the syllabus available at the start of the online course.
16- Setting clear goals:
Ensure that the students are clear of the goals. Once the curriculum is done, set and communicate the objectives so that the students understand them.
17- Availability of mobile learning:
Making bite-sized information for students will help them understand the online lessons easily and quickly. To maximize your teaching methods, ensure that your elearning content is easily accessible via smartphones, laptops, and tablets.
18- Providing continuous feedback:
You should give honest feedback to your learners since they must learn the online lessons in an informative and engaging manner. Through collaborative exercises, you can promote group feedback while also encouraging peer engagement.
19- Mixing learning tools:
With the help of the latest technology, you can create a collaborative and engaging learning environment for students. This will help in making the elearning process exciting and interesting.
20- Communicating with the learners:
You should actively interact with the students right from the beginning of the elearning process, to build a healthy professional relationship with them. Doing so will help you in creating an effective learning community for your students.
If you want to create invaluable online courses, you must look for any shortcomings or hurdles, hindering you from producing effective course content. You must thoroughly consider the syllabus, carefully curate the modules and micro-modules, and other learning materials, communicate with your students and get them to actively participate in the activities performed during the elearning process.
