7 Effective Ways To Develop Online Teaching Skills

With a wonderful response to my previous article on 10 ways to make online classes interesting and engaging. A lot of teachers have called me to know How to develop online teaching skills effectively. Hence I am trying to collate some of my research, learnings, and understanding on the same.

How to Develop Online Teaching Skills?

Online Teaching

The education system has undergone a metamorphosis in the last two decades. Integration of technology into education has been the catalyst for these changes. Smartboards have replaced chalkboards.

Content material and other resources are accessible to more people through the internet. The teaching and learning process is not only limited to physical classrooms but happens online too. Online classes are being projected as the future of education.

How To Develop Technical Skills To Improve Online Teaching

Presently, the education system needs tech-savvy educators. Teachers with technical skills for online teaching have higher demand in the industry when compared to those who lack the skills to integrate technology into their classrooms. So, teachers need to develop the knowledge of technological tools and technology-enabled pedagogy to teach in an online class effectively.

Many teachers are bound to feel intimidated to learn new tech skills. Some educators have a misconception that only younger teachers can effectively incorporate technology into teaching and learning. The experienced teachers also hesitate to leave behind traditional teaching methods, which have been successful all these years.

Some even feel that learning new technologies takes a lot of time, effort, and money. But contrary to all of these beliefs, learning tech skills to apply in an online class is very uncomplicated.

7 Effective Ways To Develop Online Teaching Skills

Here are the 7 effective ways to develop online teaching skills which can help the educators to make thier online clasess work seamlessly and get effective outocme while teaching online.

Explore Tech Tools

Exploring the technological tools, oneself is the most effective way of mastering them. Most of these tools are user-friendly and aimed at the use of amateurs. For instance, all the tools under Google suite provide a quick tour of the platform when someone enters them for the first time. They also have a help option available that clears any doubt that arises in the user.

Some Important Basic Tools

Some Important Basic Tools the teachers must be familiar with are

• MS Word, Google Docs – tools used for documentation
• MS Excel, Google Sheets – tools used for data management
• MS PowerPoint, Google Slides, Prezi, Canva – tools used for presentation
• Google forms – a tool used to administer surveys and quizzes
• Google Classroom – a tool that helps in managing teaching resources, assignments, and grading
• Gmail – online mail service that helps in the formal communication between students and instructor
• Calendar – a tool that helps in scheduling classes
• Google Meet, Zoom, MS Teams – platforms to conduct online classes

You can go through the user guide and FAQs for any help to navigate through the platform quickly.

Get Certified From Reputed Online Platforms

Educators can get certified from many online platforms, enabling them to effectively integrate technology into their classrooms and add on as credentials to their resumes.

Google Certified Educator (GCE)

Google offers a certification called Google Certified Educator (GCE) for teachers. It has designed a training program that provides the teachers with knowledge of Google suite applications and their effective application in the classroom.

There are two levels of certification – Level 1 and level 2 that cost $10 and $25, respectively. It takes 12 hours of training to complete level 1, and 10 hours for level 2.

The skills gained are assessed in a 3-hour examination. The candidate must score a minimum of 60% to earn the certificate. These certificates are valid for 3 years.

Microsoft Certified Educator (MCE)

Microsoft Certified Educator (MCE) is a program by Microsoft Corporation that aims to help educators design pedagogy that helps students develop 21st-century skills – Critical thinking, Collaboration, Communication, and Creativity using technological tools.

The teachers are awarded the certification after they pass a 15-minute proctored test that costs $15. It takes about 6 months to complete the training and certification exam. This certification has lifetime validity.

Apple Teacher Program

Teachers can also opt for the Apple Teacher program to acquire skills from Apple Teacher Learning Center. The program aims to help teachers use Apple products for teaching and learning. Apple

This is a free program offered by Apple.Inc. It takes about 16 hours to complete the tutorials and earn 8 badges for iPad/Mac, Pages, Keynote, Numbers, iMovie, GarageBand, Productivity, and Creativity.

Learn From YouTube

YouTube is a platform that helps teachers learn tech skills by watching video demonstrations. A vast number of videos are available in languages other than English as per one’s convenience.

New EdTech classroom, Edutopia, Teacher’s tech are some of the YouTube channels that showcase not just the use of tech tools in online classrooms but also new and innovative pedagogies in teaching. Many other independent YouTubers post educational videos about technology integration which can be easily found by finding the required keywords.

Sign Up For Online Courses On Technology Integration In Classroom

There are plenty of online courses available on EdTech platforms like Udemy, Coursera, and edX that concentrate on integrating technology in education. Most institutions recognize the certificates earned on these sites and can help boost one’s resume. 

Some Useful Online Course

Some of the useful courses that the teachers can take up are:                                                        

• Technology for Online Teaching: A Guide for Educators on Udemy
• e-Learning Ecologies: Innovative Approaches to Teaching and Learning for the Digital Age offered by University of Illinois on Coursera 
• Learning to teach online offered by the University of New South Wales on Coursera
• Online Teaching for Educators: Development and Delivery offered by University of British Columbia on edX

Introduction to Online and Blended Teaching offered by University of Pennsylvania on edX

Many courses on Coursera and edX are freely available, and some are paid. But if a teacher cannot afford to pay for the course, they can go for the free version where a completion certificate is not awarded. The platforms also provide financial aid for some courses. 

Attend Webinars And Workshops

A webinar is an online seminar conducted virtually for the online audience. Many online platforms conduct webinars and online workshops for teachers to help them hone online teaching skills and learning skills.

The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)

The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) is a non – profit organization that organizes webinars for teachers on various topics related to curriculum, pedagogy, and teaching resources. The organization also publishes research articles, books, newsletters, and articles for teachers to help explore and learn more about curriculum development.

Some Useful Webinars By ASCD

• Tailoring Classroom Technology Tips for Learning Outside the Classroom with Monica Burns (May 14, 2020)
• The eCoaching Continuum: Digital-Age Professional Learning that Supports the Whole Educator in Reaching the Whole Child with Marcia Rock (October 17, 2019)

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) is another organization that facilitates free webinars and workshops for educators on utilizing technology in education. Educators can find interesting webinars on ISTE achieves like Assessment and student response tools via Gamification.

Other Platforms

Many other platforms like British Council, Pearson Publications organize similar webinars for technology integration in education. The teachers need to visit these sites and sign up for newsletters or email notifications. This helps them keep track of several events that can help upskill their teaching.

NCERT Webinars

National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) hosts webinars on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools in education and uploads them on the official YouTube channels regularly. Teachers can visit NCERT or MHRD website for information on other webinars and workshops organized by the Ministry of Education.

Program by NISHTHA

National Initiative for School Heads and Teachers Holistic Advancement or NISHTHA is another program that helps teachers develop holistically. Module no 6 in this program is the integration of ICT in teaching-learning and assessment. The resources for this module include videos, presentations, and pdfs that are available on the NISHTHA website.

Explore Resources To Conduct Practical Classes

Practical learning is a key element of science classes. It is necessary to include practical experiments and demonstrations along with teaching theory. But it becomes difficult to include practical experiments during online classes owing to the non-availability of apparatus with the teacher. In such cases, online labs and simulations come in handy.

PhET simulations

PhET simulations developed by the University of Colorado is one of the most famous platforms across the education community that provides free simulations of experiments in Physics, Chemistry, and Biology.

Olabs

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, in association with Amrita Vishwa Vidya Peetam, has developed Olabs – an online laboratory based on the NCERT curriculum, which caters to learning and assessment of practical experiments in science. This facility is free for schools on registration.

Explore Platforms For Free Teaching – Learning Resources

Many educators upload their teaching material online for the access of teachers and students. These resources include presentations, worksheets, lecture notes, tests, etc. Teachers need to find such platforms and effectively utilize the freely available resources.

Lecture notes, question papers are available on different websites like Topperlearning, Vedantu, and so on. You can also easily download the free presentations from different platforms like SlideShare, powershow, etc.

Practice The Use Of Pen-Tablet

While the ways mentioned above help teachers acquire knowledge on integrating tech tools into their classroom, learning to use a pen tablet can provide a blackboard-like experience in an online class. Pen tablets are very useful in mathematics and science classes where there is a requirement of writing work by the teacher.

Pen tablets are widely available in the market for reasonable prices. Teachers need to practice its usage for about a week to gain mastery over it. Some excellent and economical brands of pen tablets include Wacom, Veikk, and XP Pen, etc.

CONCLUSION

To effectively teach, be it in an online platform or an offline class, a teacher must be open-minded enough to learn new things. It is also vital to unlearn some aspects of the pedagogical process and relearn new and innovative research. As Rabindranath Tagore has rightly said, A teacher can never truly teach unless he is still learning himself; only a lifelong learner can be a great teacher.  

Keep Learning – Keep Growing!!!

Disclaimer: The content shared in this blog is based on personal experiences, observations, and self-understanding through research. The details provided here are to share my thoughts with people, only for educational and informational purposes, and it is not a piece of expert professional advice to the reader. The details mentioned in this blog do not bind or compel any person to follow the methods given here. The intent to write and share this blog is to communicate some insights on the possible solutions and methods which can help people to get motivated and encourage them to start using some of these methods to achieve positive results in life.