Skills One Must Have to Become an Excellent Online Educator
Online teaching has taken off in a big way across the globe, in recent years. In 2010, Bill Gates was quoted as saying, “Five years from now on the web for free you’ll be able to find the best lectures in the world.” Fast forward to today and online teaching has become the growing face of the education system. Especially since the coronavirus pandemic, when schools and college campuses were shut down, locking millions of students and teachers out of the classroom, across the globe, the popularity of online teaching has spread far and wide.
Understand and digitize school operations with Teachmint and its features like user management for efficient school management.
The demand for e-learning has largely contributed to the colossal success of the ed-tech industry worldwide. Apart from educational institutions, many private digital teachers today are signing up to teach on online teaching apps and platforms. In order to support them in their mission, many teacher apps which simplify teaching through features like digital whiteboards, online teaching through mobile and automate many teaching functions like taking attendance, fee collection, and likewise, have been developed. However, the teaching techniques which work in traditional offline classrooms aren’t always suited for teaching online. In today’s online classrooms, digital teachers play a vital role in promoting student achievement, and it needs a somewhat different skill set than teaching face-to-face. By demonstrating these qualities, successful online educators increase student learning outcomes.
Work continuously towards gaining Expertise in Teaching-
When we talk about online teaching expertise, having tech skills is an important and often neglected area. A digital teacher must work towards getting proficient at making efficient use of the technological resources available to him. Even if you are not tech-savvy, to begin with, you don’t need to get disheartened. Nowadays, many online teaching apps are made keeping in mind the needs of an average teacher who may or may not know his way around the conundrums of modern-day technology. With a little smart approach and research, you can largely simplify your online teaching journey by choosing the right teaching platform. Secondly, all teachers must undergo requisite teacher training and certifications. Teacher training educates an individual about the effective ways to handle a classroom and engage their student to study effectively. Furthermore, a digital teacher must look for creative ways to make the classroom environment more engaging and student-friendly. Online teaching provides a myriad of resources for developing and delivering engaging and interactive lessons to students. Make use of different kinds of media in your lessons like text, audio, video, and animations, to get your point across. Online study groups and discussion boards are another creative way of learning.
Work towards developing Good Communication Skills–
In order to become a successful online teacher, you must have a welcoming and friendly attitude toward your students. Teachers who are skilled at friendly and unambiguous communication with their students often encourage high student learning outcomes. As a digital teacher, your goal should be to make each student feel that he belongs here and try to be open and approachable at all times to each student. A teacher has to be easily accessible to his students when they need help with anything related to the class. Many tools like phone calls, messenger apps, emails, video calls and likewise can be used by educators to remain accessible to their students. Apart from this, a teacher must also provide effective and timely feedback to his students. Nothing hampers student engagement with the subject more than not receiving periodic feedback regarding their performance from their teachers.
Work towards Providing Personalized Attention-
A successful teacher acknowledges the fact that every student is unique. Some students require a little extra push to learn effectively. The role of a teacher is to understand the needs of each student and keep encouraging them to learn. Apart from this, adaptability is the strong suit of a successful online teacher. You should be able to handle situations when things don’t go as planned. Teaching is a fairly dynamic field in itself, and online teaching, is all the more so. Above all, a successful digital teacher must have a passion for teaching and a willingness to learn.
These are some of the many skills which you will need in order to excel at online teaching. Anyone can get better at the aforementioned qualities by practicing more and consequently becoming a great online teacher.
Experience Teachmint’s LMS platform for seamless school management.
