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Instructor-Led Courses

·       Instructors play a crucial role in maintaining a consistent teacher presence. Students should not be followed behind in chase or be left to wander aimlessly in synchronous sessions; instead, they need guidance and supervision from their instructors.

·       Teachers facilitate activities, offer guidance, and keep students on track. They should not be mere bystanders and should not let learners meet with their doom because their instructors are just duckfaces in the online virtual classroom. Educators’ role is pivotal.

·       Effective time management is key to ensuring smooth class progression. The class is planned, executed, and then finished to the last stone by the teachers. If the last teaching stone is not laid on the students’ learning wall, the instructional process is incomplete.

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Student-Centered Approach

·       Courses must prioritize student engagement and interaction. A lumpy and poorly structured lesson plan can lead to disengagement, and we don’t expect teachers to simply shrug their shoulders and ignore this issue.

·       Learning shifts from a traditional lecture model to collaborative, task-based activities. Instructors need to encourage their pupils to say “mutiny on lengthy grammar explanations” that are not conducive to learning or hinder effective language use in conversation.

·       Students actively participate in challenging, meaningful tasks to promote language acquisition. Instructors should be concerned if students are not actively using the target language, and it should give all instructors the creeps when students are failing in their language learning attempts.

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Collaborative Learning

·       Online courses should incorporate collaborative tasks and teamwork. This means learners need to be active participants during class time and teachers should no monopolize or dominate class talking time. Teachers should not barge in on learners’ conversations; they should refrain from interrupting learners’ exchanges and allow them to experiment with the language they know.

·       Group projects and interactive activities foster language production and community building. These types of tasks can be effectively used across a full gamut of speaking and collaboration exercises where learners can negotiate meaning.

·       Balancing collaborative and individual tasks ensures a holistic learning experience. In online scenarios teachers should not hurl individual classwork into a desk drawer but profit from it and enhance the learning process.

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Maximizing Participation and Flexibility

·       Courses should offer flexibility in class schedules to accommodate diverse student needs. Forcing students to participate is counterproductive just by calling the class roster. Planning a class where students only listen, repeat, and are nominated to participate can be detrimental and rather spiteful.

·       Utilize a Learning Management System (LMS) to monitor and track student progress and engagement. Nowadays, learners may not always be diligent in managing their learning needs, and we can wager our pocket money against each other’s but if no LMS is used, it can be challenging to understand what students are doing on their own.

·       Clearly communicate expectations for participation and completion of coursework. It is no wonder learners can be worth and dissatisfied with their teachers and learning experience if their expectation are not met or if the book and course materials are not adequately covered.

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Effective Use of Technology

·       Leverage technology tools to enhance language learning. If you’re online, take advantage of every feature the videoconferencing platform offers. Tech-savvy and like-minded instructors can collaborate and exchange ideas to improve the student learning experiences.

·       Foster student fluency in using the online platform for communication and collaboration. “Working with bellows and anvil and hammers,” teach them that the platform is a step forward in achieving success in language learning.

·       Encourage critical thinking and inventive language use through technology-enabled tasks. If the institution’s LMS does include -for instance- forums, create interactive tasks for learners to engage with each other, and ensure that you, as the teacher, also participate in them.

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Clear and Concise Instructions

·       Always provide explicit instructions for all activities and tasks. Display them on the slide you plan to use in class.

·       Clarity reduces confusion and ensures students can complete tasks independently. Work on concept checking to ensure that learners do comprehend what needs to be achieved.

·       Anticipate potential challenges and questions to minimize disruptions. Be mindful of potential conflict within the class when assigning individuals for pair work or group activities.

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Aesthetically Pleasing Resources

·       Design and create course materials and resources with visual appeal. Ensure that the design is either neutral (suitable for any group of students) or tailored to the age of your learners in the virtual classroom.

·       Avoid cluttered pages and choose simple, well-organized layouts. Excessive content can be visually overwhelming and exhausting. Use each slide for a single element or concept, avoiding the combination of multiple elements (e.g., two grammar points) on one slide.

·       Visual coherence enhances focus and comprehension. Present information sequentially and one piece at a time. Displaying more than one piece of information can be distracting or even confusing for the learners.

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Feedback and Reflection

·       Provide timely and constructive feedback on student performance. Allocate a few minutes for providing feedback on important activities such as production tasks. It’s essential that students understand the areas they need to improve.

·       Feedback should stimulate critical thinking and guide language improvement. Take the time to clarify concepts that may have been unclear to learners. Challenge them to identify mistakes in pronunciation, in speaking, in word choice, and other areas.

·       Foster reflection on mistakes and encourage growth through feedback loops. As previously mentioned, provide feedback to learners after important production activities. This should occur at various intervals, not just at the end of a synchronous session. Also directly ask them what they believe they needs to enhance to become proficient speakers of the language.

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Structured Time Management

·       Design activities with specific time limits to ensure a smooth flow. Be respectful of the time constraints you establish for class activities. For instance, a warmer should never consume 45 minutes of a class but should be carried out within a 15-minute timeframe.

·       Balancing short activities, explanations, practice, and feedback maintains engagement. As author Penny Ur stated, students should be involved in different activities every 15 minutes or so. Ensure that feedback is integrated within those 15 minutes interval.

·       Incorporate tools like breakout rooms and timers to manage time effectively. Breakout rooms are as crucial, if not more so, than the main session classroom; it is within these rooms that students demonstrate their understanding of your explanations and instructions.

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Flexibility for Individual Needs

·       Recognize that online learning may require students to adapt their environments. Just as we, as teachers, need to adjust our working spaces for synchronous classes, learners need to make arrangements to have a quiet space at home, away from typical household noise.

·       Consider students' technical constraints and provide solutions for participation. Learners who need extra guidance can be directed to contact librarians or any other personnel who can assist them in setting up their equipment or managing their user login and password for the institutional Learning Management System (LMS).

·       Offer additional resources and support to accommodate diverse needs. Direct learners to YouTube tutorials, platform manuals, and similar resources. If feasible within the class timeframe, provide instruction on the basic platform features while working on in-class activities.

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Cultivate Online Community

·       Foster a sense of belonging through collaborative projects and interactions. Many learners may find the virtual world isolating and experience loneliness. Ensure healthy interactions among class members during synchronous sessions and throughout the entire course.

·       Utilize communication tools beyond the classroom for ongoing engagement. True, effective online educators do make use of communication features in the LMS to extend their teacher and teaching presence beyond the virtual classroom. Learners should understand that they are not alone in their learning journey.

·       Encourage peer-to-peer learning and support within the virtual community. As mentioned earlier, learning should not occur in isolation but should be facilitated by other peers. Students need to feel a sense of belonging to a group, even though they don’t meet F2F.