Creating a successful virtual learning environment can be difficult. From a lack of professionalism to sorting through countless online resources, there are many challenges teachers face with virtual classes. Read on to discover successful virtual learning strategies to help you tackle these challenges in your own virtual classroom.
1. Set Expectations for Virtual Professionalism
Professionalism is an important soft skill to teach students. With so many companies offering remote work, this is just as important in a virtual learning environment as it is in the physical classroom. Every day, make sure your students know they’re expected to:
- Dress appropriately (if using a video conferencing tool)
- Speak clearly
- Maintain good manners (no interruptions)
- Pay attention (including physical cues like sitting up and looking at the screen)
- Arrive on time
- Be prepared
- Use proper spelling and punctuation on all written assignments, and even when using a video conferencing tool’s “chat” feature
Professionals across the country are expected to do all these things; it’s no different for students preparing for their future careers.
Tip: Start your virtual learning experience by sharing a list of your expectations for professionalism in a document. You can even encourage students to return it signed so you know they read and understood everything.
2. Use Technology to Your Advantage
Using new technology can be scary and overwhelming. A great LMS system can be easy to use, but boring. Teachers today have a variety of technology at their fingertips. Don’t be afraid to try something new and leverage it to create a more engaging and fun virtual learning environment. For instance, you could try incorporating social media into your virtual lessons. Your students are already familiar with Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, and other applications, after all.
Look to these tools to engage your students by:
- Assigning a demo video. Ask that the video they post to YouTube or TikTok includes them describing what they are doing.
- Sharing pre-made video demonstrations with your students to capture their attention and prepare them for future lessons.
- Having students create a digital portfolio of their work using an app like Seesaw. This type of activity can help your students feel like they’re getting personalized attention, even in a virtual learning environment.
- Creating a Bitmoji classroom. You can personalize your space and share messages in an engaging way, while students can move virtually through your classroom, clicking on handouts, reading assignments, etc.
Read more about how teachers use Bitmoji classrooms here.
3. Get to Know Your Students
Getting to know your students in virtual learning environments can be challenging. It’s often difficult to get a good sense of who they are through a screen. You can solve this problem with a little bit of creativity and some online tools, such as:
- Pinterest. Create a class Pinterest page with various boards that include information on your lessons. Ask each of your students to create a board that reflects themselves, using 10-15 pins of things that interest them. Then, have students present their boards via a written assignment or virtual presentation.
- PowerPoint. Have each student create one slide full of information all about them. They can include quotes, extracurricular activities, foods they like, favorite books, etc. Then, create one large presentation with all the slides and share with the class to review.
As a bonus, if you have students present their board or slide, you’ll help build their self-confidence and presentation skills. These are both important soft skills for students to develop.
You can find more ideas for online icebreakers here.
4. Incorporate Plus-Delta Questions into Your Reflection Activities
Reflection plays an important role in student mastery and critical thinking. By incorporating plus-delta questions into your virtual learning environment’s reflection activities, you can help focus students and their learning. Plus and delta comments take the place of pros and cons, which can point out strengths and weaknesses in a way that can be hurtful to young people.
Plus and delta comments keep the focus on things a student did well and things that need to change. For example, “you didn’t speak well” isn’t productive. However, “you could speak louder next time because I missed some of the facts you shared” is more constructive. Consider asking your students to complete the sentences below:
- (Plus) Today I learned:
- (Delta) Tomorrow I need to:
- Or, have each student offer one plus and one delta comment following a virtual presentation or demonstration.
5. Create Opportunities for Engagement
Virtual learning environments can be difficult to navigate, so we need to look at ways that our students can engage in the content we teach. Looking for different avenues of engagement can help your lessons hit home for all your students. You can achieve this by:
- Inviting guest speakers to weigh in on a topic. Guest speakers might be reluctant to leave work, come to your school, and spend time in your classroom. Thanks to technology, guest speakers can spend time “in” your classroom with a single click. They could even pre-record a presentation for you to share on a future date.
- Tip: Have your students submit questions on the topic and then have them view the video as part of your instruction.
- Conducting group work via video conferencing apps or social media. With these tools, students can collaborate without meeting in person. It might be as simple as having a “buddy system” in which each student spends five minutes per week asking another student how they are. Or, you can assign entire group projects for them to work on.
- Use demonstrations. Considering that 65% percent of people are visual learners, demonstrations can help make your lessons “sticky.” Take the opportunity to demonstrate projects, models, and activities in videos. You can have students review these videos as part of the lesson.
- Tip: YouTube can be a useful tool. When all else fails, you can have students watch a YouTube video on the topic, and you can foster teamwork skills by having students report on a video together.
More Virtual Learning Resources
Looking for more information? We recommend the following:
- Check out our blogs on “10 Engaging Learning Aids Your Students Can Use for At-Home Learning” and “10 MORE Engaging Learning Aids Your Students Can Use for At-Home Learning”
- Watch our webinar, “Successful Remote Learning Strategies for the CTE Classroom” below
