Online Classroom Management
India is facing the second wave of the pandemic Covid-19. With more than 20.65 lakh cases in the first half of April itself, it is the fastest rate of Covid-19.
Several state governments in India are being forced to shut down schools. Schools are left with no other option than to shut down schools and conduct classes online.
Online classroom management is however a different ball game when compared to a traditional classroom with 4 walls.
Not only based on the age of students or the teacher but there are also several other considerations to be taken care of for effectively managing the online classroom and workload.
Care has also to be exercised on the digital class platform standards, such that students are eligible to learn advanced concepts, along with their present syllabus for getting promoted to the next grade.
Here are a few proven strategies for planning an effective Online Classroom Management strategy:
- Well Defined Routine:
Whether it is a classroom or a mobile in the hand, students can flourish only with the routines being implemented in the classroom. A well-designed routine planned for online classroom sessions makes it fruitful for both students and teachers as well.
Creating such a routine can help teachers for:
* Skillset improvement for teachers.
* Prepare the learning materials
*Smart monitoring of student’s learning in real-time
* Student categorization based on skill-set
* To build smarter and better student engagement ideas.
On the other hand, students can also focus more on their class, as the lesson and presentation are more engaging.
Deal with Distractions:
Teachers can effectively handle distractions at the beginning of class itself by mentioning the type of distractions, and allocating a few minutes of time, for clearing them, and settling down.. A few of the common distractions in an online classroom are
* Unnecessary background noises, objects
* Students using apps like games, switching the windows
These distractions can be handled by teachers before the beginning of the class itself. Teachers can alert students to close all browser tabs other than the online classrooms, maintain silence in the room, and keep away any gadgets or toys.
These types of instructions can help students to focus only on the lesson instead of unnecessary distractions
Behavioural Expectations:
Behaviour expectations are broad goals for behaviour or the general ways that teachers would like children to act. They serve as guidelines for behaviour and apply to all children across all settings. Teachers can create a set of behavioural expectations in the virtual classroom and can review them at the beginning of each class.
In order to strengthen behavioural expectations, teachers can adopt engaging narration and incentives. Students on the other hand are expected to listen, engage in conversation, and respect their teachers, and learning environment.
Academic Expectations:
Students should be provided with academic expectations, teachers should also understand the students who are performing better.
Teachers can also ask their students to raise their hands virtually during the session. Various gestures include finger gestures for answering, type in the chatbox, as a symbol of engaging with the content.
“Breakout Rooms” from Zoom allow the teacher to split Zoom meetings into up to 50 separate sessions. The host(teacher) can choose to split the participants of the meeting into these separate sessions automatically or manually. They can also allow participants to select and enter breakout sessions as they please.
The teacher can switch between sessions at any time. This is indeed a great feature for conversations and enabling discussions among them for improvising their thinking.
Incentives can be a Boost:
Teachers can provide incentives, Based on the student’s ages, and interests. These incentives can be fun, and useful rewards, that can inspire student participation and engagement. The rewards should be provided with both for the behavioural and academic performance of the student.
The beauty of an incentive-based system is that it doesn’t require a big budget towards material rewards, but can motivate and encourage positive behaviour in your classrooms. A few of the examples for incentives include virtual lunches with the teacher, Class mascot, Choose Teacher’s Hair Style.
Review:
Analyzing and reviewing a student’s performance in an online classroom is not that simple. Teachers can use Office hours for checking the student’s grasping, and other issues, such that the students can reach out for help in the case.
Office hours either in person or online provides teacher’s valuable time to better understand your class content. This can help in meeting the teacher’s expectations and can have a big impact on your academic success. They can also be an opportunity to get to know your instructor or teaching assistant better, especially in online courses and in larger courses.
Maintain the Balance:
Interestingly Digital learning experience is not the same for all the participant students. While some students can quickly adapt to digital learning, few may feel it as challenging.
The teacher should structure the lesson such that it caters for the needs of all the students, and is engaging. Reserved students need more time to grasp, a chance to share their thoughts, and a better environment for expressing their thoughts. On the other hand, enthusiastic students also require time for representing their voices, and excitement in the class.
Teachers can use their discretion for muting or blocking few students if they feel that they are disturbing the class. Features like Chatbox, and commenting can allow the student voices to be heard equally. They can also allow hand gestures and other features for sharing their answers.
Edecofy the state-of-the-art Educational management system is supporting online classrooms for our clients, powered by Zoom. Looking for more details? Please visit https://www.edecofy.com or sales@edecofy.com for more details
