There’s no doubt that the COVID-19, aka “coronavirus” outbreak has caused major disruptions across the world, especially to the field of education through the closure of schools and universities.
If you’re a teacher or school administrator, there’s hope! This article will provide you with the resources and information you need to get started with facilitating and planning your e-learning experience.
What is E-Learning?
E-learning is also referred to as distance learning using the internet or online-learning and can be broken down into 2 primary types, and several sub-categories. These include:
Synchronous
Learning that happens live and at a controlled pace, usually by a facilitator or teacher.
- Live video lessons
- Live audio lessons
- Live streams/conference calls/hangouts
Asynchronous
Learning that happens at the student’s individual pace through the use of pre-published material
- Pre-recorded materials
- Pre-planned lessons
- Can be facilitated over a live channel, but learning happens at a self paced manner
- Time management
- User/class engagement
- A more classroom-like feel for lessons
- Live Q/A & feedback
- Can change the direction of the lesson instantly.
- Can include new and relevant information on demand.
- Students work at their own pace.
- The teacher takes a facilitator role during the lesson.
- The teacher can help more students during the lesson instead of spending his/her time on instructional material
- Higher quality learning materials can be created using
- Can work on auto-pilot even if you’re not present
- Teachers default to lecture style lessons.
- Can only help a few students through Q/A during the lesson.
- Focus on finishing lesson instruction/completion.
- Lower quality audio and video
- Can be interrupted during instruction.
- Missing the live lesson feel
- Students may get distracted while working at their own pace.
- Can take a lot of time to create videos and lesson materials prior to meeting students
So what’s better? What do I choose?
There’s no right or wrong answer and a teacher can be effective by using either of these modes of learning. It all depends on his/her style. As a school administrator, your responsibility is to empower your academic staff with the knowledge, tools, vision and expectations they need to successfully transition online. Here are some of our favorite tools:
Live lessons/Live interaction (VOIP Technology)
- Microsoft Teams
- Google Hangouts
- Skype conference calls
- Zoom
- Youtube Livestreams
- Facebook Groups
Pre-recorded / Pre-planned rich content
- Blue Brain
- Schoology
- Google Classroom
- Moodle
- Microsoft teams
- Talent LMS
- TalentCards
- Coggno
- Chamilo
- Sakai
- Khan Acdemy
- Udemy
Interactive games, quizzing tools and apps
- Kahoot
- Quizlet
- Quizzes
- Nearpod
- Mentimeter
- Socrative
At Blue Brain, we believe in a blended approach to learning for maximum engagement, completion, effectiveness and results. Not all your students will remember everything you teach live or in your classroom. Having the ability to go back and watch lessons is invaluable in the learning experience. Simultaneously, if classes are interactive it will keep energy, completion and results high, which is the most important element of any effective lesson. In our next article, we’ll discuss how to create effective and engaging lessons online.
While there are many valuable tools above, Blue Brain gives you the tools to build and sell interactive courses online, in an easy one-page format. Get started for free today
Or learn how to online courses works by attending this free workshop:
