The Era of Online Learning is Here
Read this if you have been influenced by COVID-19.
Hi. I believe 100% of you continued reading.
But here’s the thing: not only you, but also other people, even the world economy, business markets, and public or private sectors have been greatly affected by COVID-19. And the education sector is not an exception to this.
The education sector was hit hard by COVID-19, and it is still suffering from the aftereffects following the virus. One of the critical consequences of COVID-19 has been the impossibility of face to face classes. Because governments ban schools from opening and having normal classes, schools have sought for alternatives, and online classes have been one effective way of replacing the normal classes or complementing the learning.
Hence, online classes have become a very common practice in our world. Besides, there are online educational platforms other than those provided by schools- for instance, there are MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course), which are courses made available over the Internet without charge for anyone to enroll in, and E-Learning sites such as Khan Academy, which focus on providing a diverse range of different online courses taught by a range of different teachers.
Yet I have a question for you: are these courses absolutely effective?
If you have experienced online learning, have you ever completely finished any of the online courses?
I believe that almost none of you have completed a course before.
This is not a weird thing, because many experience this. It’s hard to focus as nobody keeps you accountable, and consequently, there is no motivation since there are no incentives or strict deadlines. You don’t get to ask questions to teachers or discuss problems with peers as much, so it’s harder to push yourself to the extreme end of learning.
I have been trying to address these problems of online learning, and through research, I’ve found some fruitful insights to share. For the rest of the article, I will share the fruits of my research in hopes to help you create better online learning platforms. If you wish to build a helpful online learning platform, then get your note and pencil ready.
First of all, online learning should include quality content. Having quality content is very important because it allows you and your website to gain credibility and trust, which causes more students to enroll.
Second, the content should be simple and straightforward. For instance, the aim of the lesson and the purpose of the online course should be clearly indicated.
Third, you should aim for the user’s best experience. The primary step in this is to have a clearly organized and arranged website that is easy to follow. There should also be managers or instructors that take care of the website; this way, students can ask questions directly to the instructors if there is anything they’re unsure of.
Next, you should fulfill students’ curiosity and motivate them with different activities such as projects, quizzes, and interactive sessions. Also, letting them maintain correct pacing is significant. One way is to achieve this is to break the content down into feasible lesson sizes to make students not stressed.
In addition, you should make good use of multimedia. Do not limit your material to boring textbooks. Instead, include videos, podcasts, interactive web pages, or even mobile apps to truly target and engage diverse types of students who learn in different ways. Moreover, know who your students are — know the age range of students to know how to best approach them and how to motivate them to keep working.
Lastly, it’s important to have regular check-ups. Let the instructors send check-up feedbacks or messages and measure the progress of learning by having quizzes, tests, and short discussions. Don’t forget to show the student’s overall progress rate by percentages on the website privately, because this way, students would not miss due dates for assignments and stay on track.
You should feel ready to go make a useful online learning website, now that you’re given the needed background information. Are you excited to create one? If you are, go make one now!
