How to be a better online teacher

The coronavirus pandemic has forced all educational institutions to look for an alternative to regular classroom teaching and are therefore resorting to online teaching-learning process. It can be quite challenging for teachers to adopt to a new process within such a short span of time. Here are a few best practices for creating and sharing online lectures.

If you are going to create slides, consider creating one slide about learning outcomes in the beginning. This will help the students get tuned to what to expect. This is an excellent primer to reduce your anxiety as well.

If possible, giving a glossary of terms or jargons at the beginning of each lecture helps students focus on these terms during the lecture. You can also give emphasis to these terms while delivering your lecture. At the end of the video, the contents discussed in that lecture can be summarised.

Keeping students engaged

Planning is another important aspect which is easy to follow but mostly overlooked. Regular classrooms allow you to keep students engaged through face-to-face interaction. Online lectures, mainly those that follow the asynchronous mode, lack this aspect. So, planning is essential to keep a lively flow.

Though it is always better to explain the topics in simple terms, it could be time- consuming both with respect to preparation as well as explanation. So, given the paucity of time, judicial choice should be made. As far as possible, try explaining through story-telling approach or using analogies to help students learn the concepts in an easy way.

It is always preferable to jot down points or have a ready script while delivering online lectures. This helps reduce fumbling and unnecessary pauses.

It is a better option to upload your video to YouTube or similar sites than live streaming. The advantages are many. You can reuse it later any number of times. You can edit, modify, improve your videos. Another biggest advantage is, you can even share the lecture when someone cannot join the live streaming class. Students can pause or fast forward the video based on their needs.

When you are uploading your lectures to YouTube, there is an option to share with limited people. You can include the list of students who can access it.

For a one-hour lecture, a well-organised 20-30 slides can be a good start. Using animation helps in teaching the concepts easily. Making them, however, takes a lot of resources. Some simpler approaches include using pointer, highlighter, underlining etc. This helps in keeping the students focused on what is being discussed or taught.

For every new lecture, a recap of the important points discussed in the previous lecture helps students retain more information.

Other aspects include acknowledging the sources of images, tables, figures, if used from online sources, journal articles or books. Although there is an exemption to using copyright material for classroom lectures, there is no clarity on what can be used for online classes. So, a cautious approach may be a better choice.

(The author is Associate Professor, School of Biotechnology, Jawaharlal Nehru University)