Josh

Technology is changing expeditiously in each aspect of our daily living: business, entertainment, finance, communication, and education. ‘Smart Classes’ isn’t a short-term aberration given by COVID-19.

Teaching online is not similar to teaching traditionally; students are often sitting at home by themselves rather than in a dynamic classroom atmosphere, Wi-Fi connections can be hit and miss, and setting up presentations for everyone to see is much tougher and it is particularly more challenging for the teacher to observe and interact with their students. There are so many hindrances to overcome with online learning for both the students and teachers.

There are many ways teachers can motivate and engage students over longer distances. It’s all well and good reeling off an hour-long lecture at a screen, but how do you know that the students are really getting what are you teaching? How can you motivate your students and help them learn efficiently?

In this article, we will see some methods or ways to motivate students in online classes.

Provide students a sense of control While guiding as a teacher it’s important to keep students on task and motivated. Allowing your students to have their choice and control over what happens in the classroom is actually one of the best ways to keep them engaged. Like you can allow students to choose the type of assignment they do or which problems to work on, can give them a sense of control that may just motivate them to do more.

Make your class interactive The easiest way to review if your class is actually listening is to ask them questions. Online classes especially for students are lecture heavy. In a one-hour lecture, it is easy to switch off and get diverted, as students are just expected to listen and take notes, rather than take part in any activity. Teachers can uphold student engagement by keeping them on their toes with questions throughout the class. Even the idea that they could be asked a question will be sufficient to keep students a bit more engaged throughout the class. If students are asked questions during their lectures, they’ll be surely more focused and will be able to absorb details better. Teachers can make use of virtual classrooms for these interactions. Like in MeritHub’s virtual classroom we can do one-to-one interactions and share various reactions through emojis.

Add quizzes and challenges to your online lessons Everyone loves a fun quiz. Challenges and online quizzes are great for helping students get motivated for the lesson, as well as summarizing what was covered in the previous lessons. Improvised quizzes are particularly good for motivating those less engaged students, who may be unprepared for classes. Even though they’ve had little time to get their head into gear, a recap quiz at the start of a lesson will help them to remember key information and get focused.

Making the quiz a little competitive maybe with a prize or a points system will make it even more engaging for students. It is a really simple way to make online learning fun and interesting for everyone involved, as well as rewarding those students who are working hard. For these quizzes and challenges, you can go through MeritHub’s tutorials and quizzes. Here you can find many quizzes related to your topic and also you can make quizzes for your students.

Competition and Rewards Healthy competition in the classroom isn’t always a bad thing, and in some cases can motivate students to try harder and work to excel. Work to foster a friendly spirit of competition in your sessions through group games related to the material or other opportunities for students to show their knowledge or skills. Encourage your students to come up with interesting games and make this a routine in the classroom. Healthy competition can be a great motivation for students. These events can be either played individually or in a group as per the need. Rewarding them based on their performance from time to time will make the environment of class interesting and will inculcate the feeling of competition among students.

Peer Learning Peer learning is the process of students learning with and from each other. This usually works through teaching and learning activities such as student-led workshops, online class groups, peer-to-peer learning, and group work.

While not all students will jump at the chance to work in groups, many of them will find it fun to solve problems, do experiments, and work on projects with other students. Social interaction with each other can get students excited about things in the classroom and they can motivate one another to reach a goal. Instructors need to ensure that groups are balanced and fair so that some students aren’t doing more work than others.

An online teaching platform like MeritHub can help. Teachers are automatically set up as administrators and can split their classes into smaller groups through a simple and easy-to-use dashboard. These groups can use a specific and private messaging board to work together on projects or discussions. The platform can also allow students to share work or presentations without having to email several attachments, and teachers can smoothly keep an eye on proceedings.

Teachers will also be able to get everyone back together to showcase each group’s work and deliver each individual their own feedback. While working together is a good way to keep students motivated in the online environment, it’s important that teachers make sure each student still feels as supported as they would in the physical classroom.

Ask for Feedback Check in with your students to see how things are going on a regular basis. You can do formal or informal online surveys to assess attitudes, workload, and challenges. Students should be made part of the teaching and learning process and in this, should be given the chance to have their say. By asking students how they think the course is going, and how they would change the classes, teachers can adapt their lesson plans accordingly. Make course corrections as necessary. As an instructor, you can use ad hoc quizzes to assess learner comprehension of the material. If students will be asked about their feedback this will help them out with their difficulties, the problems they are facing in learning, and other issues. So if we are able to minimize their problems based on their feedback it will gonna help them out and make things easier for them to understand.