Yet it’s important to remember we can acknowledge problems and want to give our students increased opportunities without causing them shame. Telling our students they can “escape” their community or experiences in their entirety, without giving them the tools and knowledge to help mediate some of the things they are struggling with, doesn’t fix their problems. Instead, it teaches kids that their experiences—the difficult and the beautiful—are something to be ashamed of and suppressed. We only make them believe that their silence and ours will somehow save them. Unfortunately, it will not. Speaking “properly” will not save them. Dressing “properly” will not save them. Even going to the best schools in the world will not fully “save” them.

Advice students to maintain decorum in a virtual class, with a proper place to sit, away from all distractions. Choose a virtual platform that offers a structured classroom environment with two-way communication. Students should be able to mute/unmute themselves, raise a query or initiate a chat during a class. The audio and video should be of high quality.

Language of interaction should not be rude and discouraging. It should give opportunities to all students alike, to ask questions and verify their understanding. 

If some individuals have missed or not understood a concept, plan a separate session for them. 

2. Use the right tech platform

Using the right platform helps improve student participation through real time communication and access to information. Select a platform that is feature packed for better communication, interaction and engagement. In today’s fast paced world, students expect to be constantly connected and want immediate reactions and responses. Online learning should be active learning with features like raise-hand, surveys, Q&As, and reactions through emojis.

As a teacher, if you can leverage the features of the virtual platform, you can improve the communication and engagement multifold. Share links of online study materials in the chat box and include articles, PPTs, videos, etc. to help students understand and grasp concepts better.

3. Communicate in several formats

Explore and utilise multiple options for online teaching and learning. You can arrange discussion forums, share recorded audios or videos, attach large documents in emails, etc. 

Explanatory screencast videos are simple to create and can be accessed easily by students at a convenient time. Formats should not be complicated for users to understand. 

4. Interactive learning

Online classes should not mean that students just sit around and attend a class passively. It should be more interactive. Therefore design a course to engage online learners, to get them speaking, raising hands and actively participating and learning. 

University students can be given various tasks for active learning or “hands-on learning,” where they perform a survey after gathering data, do a group discussion, conduct interviews, case study, analyse data etc. 

5. Gamify with badges and rewards

Gamification is a way to add game elements to add some fun to an online classroom through digital design techniques. The simplest one can be to add badges to recognise student accomplishments and certify them as a student of the week. It is a great way to provide encouragement and improve student performance and engagement. 

6. Give timely feedback

Along with studies, feedback should also be ongoing, consistent, and timely. Feedback is an opportunity for students to know where they are lacking and improve over time. When the feedback is not timely, students tend to get disengaged and unmotivated. 

Make it a practice to build regular and accurate feedback loops to stream with the teaching practices. A detailed, accurate, and positive feedback is always more effective than unclear praise or pointers.

7. Project-based learning

Project-based learning creates an engaging environment for students, as they are doing something on their own, grouped with other classmates. The sense of responsibility creates a challenge to their learning potential, and students end up putting that extra effort to achieve targets. 

A time-based project, where students are required to interact and present a solution helps to develop multiple skills, critical thinking, and more importantly, engagement.

8. Active learning

Active learning is a method to engage students creatively through video call or chat groups. Perform activities in class that encourage discussion of the problem and interaction with classmates. Add some procedures in a regular class, for example: 

Quiz or Interview– form groups of students, and organise Q&A sessions once a lesson is completed. It can be made interesting, like a quiz, asking questions related to lessons taught. 

Office Hours– During teaching or after completion of a topic, take a pause and allow the students to clear any doubts or questions on the units completed.

Instead, come up with activities that learners can do to stay engaged. Use the breakout rooms feature to pair learners up and have them work through situations together (team building activities or operation-related) and then come back to class with an answer.

In a classroom, everyone would take breaks and mingle by the snacks. That doesn’t work on Zoom.

Instead, include a few virtual breaks where everyone grabs a snack and shares what they’re eating, shows off a talent (like playing the banjo), or grabs an object that represents them so they can talk about it.

Quality education is extremely important because it is the basis of how we think and function in our everyday lives. It is also the foundation of how we decide what we could possibly do in the future and that decides how we live our lives.

Focusing on quantity over quality in education can be effective but stress is a huge problem with it.  Stress can lead to many health concerns concerning one’s mental health so, bombarding kids with a huge workload can push them too far.

While there are some students that thrive and push past their limits, not everyone has that ability and may be forced to adjust too quickly to assignments they can’t handle.

When teachers assign too many assignments with little to no learning value, students feel restricted to a certain schedule of pumping out finished assignments without effectively learning the content in them. Students lose out on necessary critical thinking skills because they aren’t able to thoroughly think their assignments through.