Developing Innovation in Distance learning
Online learning has become a very popular way for students and working people to pursue higher education and upgrade their careers. Teaching an online course is very different from the traditional classroom courses, hence it’s imperative for students and teachers to engage themselves into the learning process for better understanding. Teachers must make effective teaching such that the students take interest and make the learning more interesting. This is called developing innovation in distance learning. Following are some strategies for making innovations in online learning to make it a successful experience for both students and teachers:
- Using a blend of learning tools for better understanding:
Due to technological advancements it has become possible to create a virtual learning environment for students to make them comfortable to engage themselves just like if they were in the classroom. There are a variety of activities possible today to make the learning experience for students more effective. Online teaching should involve a part of traditional teaching as well as collaborative audio and visual effects. The teaching content should be made more interesting with live pictures and videos to make the whole learning experience more exciting and should involve student interaction and engagement.
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- Engage with the students:
It’s the teacher’s responsibility to ensure that he creates a very strong virtual presence at the very beginning of the online session. Teachers should keep supporting and motivating the students throughout the session so that they become open and let their thoughts out and interact with the others. There should be a healthy peer-to-peer interaction as well as a student-teacher interaction.
- Quality of video conferencing should be good:
To enhance the learning-teaching experience, both the students as well as the course site should have good network and video-calling devices. The online course website should ensure that their site runs fast and their video and audio devices are of the best quality and give good performances. And students should have webcam devices and good internet connection to make their experience better.
- Students should keep giving their feedback/opinions:
Getting frequent feedback from students helps the online teaching institute to realize their strong and weak points at their end. This helps improving the learning experience. Opinions about the teaching methods, site issues or anything else should be conveyed to the institute. This helps to sort student queries and win their confidence.
- Allow learning through mobile phones:
The online teaching should not just be confined to tablets, computers or laptops. They should also be accessed via mobile phones since carrying laptops or computers may not be convenient always. While mobile phones let the students go through the study matter at any time and at any place.
- Periodic student-performance analysis should be done:
The online teaching institute should make it a point to send regular student- performance analysis reports to the students. The institute should evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the students and help them improve on them. This builds confidence in students and makes the learning process more interesting.
