3 problems with online teaching and how to fix them

Despite the surge in demand for online teaching during the pandemic, many students and teachers are still hesitant to get on board. Why is that?

To be honest, I was also a bit hesitant when I first heard about online teaching several years back. I thought in-person teaching worked just fine, and there was no need for a substitute. I had too many concerns too about my ability to be as effective online as I felt I was face-to-face with my students. It wasn’t until I was forced into online teaching at the start of 2020 that I began to see the benefits and possibilities.

There are quite a few pain points for students and teachers who are just getting started or are still considering whether or not to give it a try. Here are a few common issues or complaints that people have about online teaching and how to deal with them.

#1 motivation

There isn’t a single discussion about learning that doesn’t include mention of student motivation, and educators are no doubt concerned that students are less motivated to take part in online classes. There are a number of causes for this, but one of the main issues I see is that students are expecting the same type of experience that they would get in an in-person setting. When the medium changes and expectations aren’t meant, students then get disappointed and disengage.

Instead, schools and teachers should be looking to redefine the online classroom experience. We shouldn’t be trying to replicate the in-person experience in an online setting. We should be aiming to give students something unique that challenges them to think about language learning in a whole new way and motivates them in new ways.

At eSchool, we do this primarily through our dynamic course design. Unlike traditional courses that are based on the scope and sequence of a course book, with a fixed progression through units, our courses are simulation based. This means that decisions students make at the start of the course will impact what happens later in the course. For example, we offer a Business English course where students choose which client they want to work with at the start of the course. Everything that happens afterwards is based on the needs of that client. They also decide what kind of marketing strategy to employ for that client, which further changes the direction of that course.

In our conversation course, Around the World, each student plans their own route around the globe, stopping in different cities along the way. Two routes are rarely the same, meaning that every student in the class is experiencing something different during the course. It also means a student could take the course again and again and get a difference experience each time.

#2 pace

Things take longer in online classes. It’s difficult to get through the same amount of content and activities as you would normally be able to get through in an in-person class. There are reasons for this. Technology can slow things down for sure, especially if the internet connection is slow and things take time to load. There are also longer pauses between when one person speaks and another responds. It takes time to put people into breakout rooms and time to bring them back. All of this makes it feel like online classes are less effective because you’re not accomplishing as much as you normally would.

One way teachers can make online classes more efficient is by flipping the class. Flipping the class is a strategy that has been used for some time. In a flipped-class, the input for the class is given prior to the start of the class. This means the teacher spends less time in the lesson providing input, and giving the students more time in the class to work on things like group projects.

At eSchool, we maximize the flipped-classroom as much as possible. Not only do we provide input prior to the start of the lesson, but we also provide a diagnostic test to see how much of the language the students already know. This way, the teacher only has to provide clarification on the points the students are less familiar with.

In addition, the teacher may also inform the students of the specific tasks they will be doing in the lesson. This way the students come to class prepared for the tasks and spend less time brainstorming. For example, prior to the lesson we may tell students that they will work in a group to create an advertisement for a company. Before they come to class they will have a chance to think about what the advertisement looks like, and during the class they won’t use up time brainstorming an idea. They can jump right into sharing their ideas with others and creating the ad.

#3 feedback

In in-person classes, it’s easier for teachers to move around the classroom and monitor the students as they work. A teacher with a finely tuned ear can even position themselves in the middle of the room and used the cocktail party effect to eavesdrop on small group discussions taking place anywhere in the room. This allows for immediate and direct feedback as well as delayed and whole-class feedback.

In an online class, the teacher has to drop in and out of break rooms, which takes time and only allows the teacher to hear what’s happening with one group at a time, instead of all groups at once. This increases the likelihood that the teacher will miss something a student says or a question a student asks that would otherwise get some feedback. Also, any time lost going into and out of breakout rooms is time taken away from students to present their work and get teacher and peer feedback.

This can be handled in a number of ways. First is to make sure students are producing or contributing in the lesson. A quick and easy way is to get them to post in the chat during whole class activities. If the teacher has called on one student to share, the rest of the class should be commenting while they listen. These contributions can be reviewed by the teacher in real time or after the lesson.

You can also get them to complete tasks asynchronously, as a review of the content from the lesson. Get them to type a response to the topic, or even video record themselves speaking about it. Balance these fluency tasks with discreet point, forced choice quizzes so students are getting a full picture of their abilities. For the fluency tasks, set clear criteria for performance that are based on recognizable standards. For example, you can use criteria from the IELTS, TOEFL, or any of the Cambridge exams. You can also choose from the can-do statements that make up the CEFR. Track students’ performance using these criteria over time as a part of their learning portfolio in order to measure their trajectory.

If you are using collaborative technologies, such as Google Docs or Slides, you can get students to give feedback to one another as well. The comment function of the Google apps is perfect for this since it also allows them to start a discussion. Teachers should make sure to guide the students on their feedback, ensuring the focus of the comments are relevant, constructive, and mention content and language.

An LMS is an effective tool to manage this feedback. Google Classroom provides a clear interface for teachers to track who they’ve given feedback to, and it manages the communication between the teacher and student well. More sophisticated tools such as Canvas allow teachers to score students on specific criteria and then generate detailed reports on student progress. At the end of a course, it is typical for a student to get a certificate that indicates their level and what students at that level should be able to do. Instead of a generic certificate, why not provide the students with a more detailed and thorough analysis of their abilities that will better enable them to focus their future developments?