Ready to Teach Online? What about your learners?

Bin Lids Sculpture, INA – La Unión, Cartago, Costa Rica

Picture taken by Jonathan Acuña (2019)

Ready to Teach Online?

What about your learners?

         Language instructors can feel that they are ready to sign in in Zoom or Microsoft Teams to start teaching a class, but what about their students? Are their learners ready to take an online class right away? This is one of those questions that all of us in the online teaching business ask ourselves whenever we get to start a new course with a new cohort of students. But the questions linger ... And what the experts suggest are things all of us must consider prior to going online and to virtually meet our students for a language class. Here you have five tips to consider every time you start to teach a class online.

         First: Technology Comfort

Instructors “should make sure that students are comfortable with the technology” (Gracia, n.d.). To avoid dire attrition repercussions, language students must be told that online courses require the use of technology such as videoconferencing platforms where they will find themselves interacting with peers and their instructor. For this reason, “there shouldn’t be technological difficulties that distract students from participating in class” (Gracia, n.d.) and from getting engaged in all sorts of classroom activities. Any kind of tech hassle may discourage learners to venture into virtual learning. An online class may be an assemblage of technologies that need to be used during learning activities; however, if students are not ready for them, the instructor may have to invest and deplete precious teaching time to help non-digital learners to get the knack of them.

         Second: Speaking Comfort

For student comfort in online classes to take shape and substance, the instructor must “help the student become comfortable speaking” (Gracia, n.d.) to him or her or to peers. For Gray (2012), “one of the most challenging aspects of teaching can be creating a space where every student outgoing or shy feel comfortable enough to share their thoughts and ideas.” Instructors should not go through the first five to seven minutes of the session as if it were a speedy journey. They ought to take this time to help students feel at easy and ready to speak, to help them get into speaking mode. Nevertheless, as Gracia (n.d.) points out, “not all students are comfortable speaking to the instructor one-on-one or in small groups,” and it is then in this initial minutes of the class that the teacher can have students in speaking comfort. If teachers don’t harness student comfort at this point, it will be rather ambitious to get them to actively participate in speaking activities.

         Third: Expectancy

It is imperative that students are informed of the learning objectives for their online language session. Based on Mind Tools Content Team (n.d.), expectancy, which is Gagné’s second level of his Nine Levels of Learning, is needed. Teachers must ensure that their class “knows what they need to learn, and they understand why they’re about to learn this new information” (Mind Tools, n.d.). According to Schwarz (2015), “an effective agenda sets clear expectations for what needs to occur before and during a meeting.” Though Schwarz is talking about business meetings, the online class is not that different because the class agenda helps learners prepare, focus, and get involved in the various parts of the lesson and its corresponding learning activities. That is why Gracia (n.d.) states that “students should be aware of the fact that they will be expected to ask and answer questions and participate” in classroom activities. Summing up, the secret of a class success lies in harnessing language learners’ efforts to actively participate in classroom activities while feeling comfortable.

         Fourth: Teacher Notetaking

         “Be sure to take notes during the session because students will want feedback” (Gracia, n.d.). During a language online session with learners, teachers need to have their notepads next to them for the notetaking of mistakes. Let us remember that errors are the bedrock of student improvement when learners realize the areas where they need to improve. As noted by the TeachThought Staff (n.d.), instructors must “honor mistakes as guidance for the teacher, too.” If language educators want to give their learners useful feedback for improvement, they need to take a look at the mistakes they make in the class while using the target language. “Mistakes give you, as the teacher, an important foundation for the lesson structure and individual student development” (TeachThought Staff, n.d.). So don’t let students be sorely disappointed at the fact of asking for areas of improvement especially when teachers have not yet been able to map what the mistakes are and their possible causes to provide timely feedback for the sake of language improvement.

         Fifth: Student Feedback for Teachers

         As asserted by Gracia (n.d.), “at the end of the session it is important to ask how the session went, what they liked or didn’t, and what to improve.” If feedback is important for learners, it should be so for instructors. No instructor is wearing a belt of prowess that can simply come handy when something is not going well in class. Nothing like this belt of prowess is going to come up and dispel the darkness of chaos in a language classroom. For that simple reason, as noted by the Office of Teaching and Learning at the University of Denver (2019). “getting feedback from your students during the term can be a good way to find out how things are going, to give students a chance to express their feelings in a medium other than the end-of-the course student evaluations, and to allow any changes in teaching to be made while student can still benefit.” Instructors are in need of opening some virtual space of learners to express their feelings regarding their learning and what they think really helps them improve their language mastery and performance. To sum up, this is not meant to be a pesky task for the teachers, but an enriching experience that can help them work better with students and the content that is needed to be covered along the course.

         In the teaching’s lore, there may be more pieces of advice that can be added to this list of five. However, the point is to consciously consider these elements when a class or course is to begin. Think how influential these during-a-class components are: technology comfort, speaking comfort, expectancy, teaching notetaking, and student feedback for teachers. As set forth by Gracia (n.d), “you will be able to create a better lesson plan next time” by using all these five elements because learners will feel comfortable with technology and with speaking in class, will know what it is expected of them and what the role of the instructor during the lesson is, will not get barren feedback (like “You did it ok!”), and will feel that their voices are heard and taken into account for class structure and activities.

References

Gracia, E. (n.d.). You might be ready, but how about your students? (Arizona State University) Retrieved July 17, 2022, from Coursera.Org: https://www.coursera.org/learn/teachlanguageonline/lecture/LC1ot/you-might-be-ready-but-how-about-your-students

Gray, S. (2012, September 19). Technology Helps Students Find Comfort In the Classroom. Retrieved July 17, 2022, from https://www.gettingsmart.com/: https://www.gettingsmart.com/2012/09/19/technology-helps-students-find-comfort-in-classroom/

Mind Tools. (n.d.). Gagne's Nine Levels of Learning: Training Your Team Effectively. Retrieved July 17, 2022, from mindtools.com: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/gagne.htm

Office of Teaching and Learning, University of Denver. (2019). Gathering Studend Feedback on Teaching. Recuperado el 18 de July de 2022, de Office of Teaching and Learning, University of Denver: https://otl.du.edu/plan-a-course/teaching-resources/gathering-student-feedback-on-teaching/

Schwarz, R. (19 de March de 2015). How to Design an Agenda for an Effective Meeting. Recuperado el 17 de July de 2022, de Harvard Business Review: https://hbr.org/2015/03/how-to-design-an-agenda-for-an-effective-meeting

TeachThought Staff. (n.d.). 9 Ways To Help Students Learn Through Mistakes. Recuperado el 18 de July de 2022, de TeachThought.Com: https://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/9-ways-help-students-learn-mistakes/

 

Ready to Teach Online? What... by Jonathan Acuña