The rise of distance learning has not gone unnoticed by classroom teachers and, especially now, with the crisis of the new coronavirus, having the content of classes in digital format has become fundamental.

Tips for creating online classes from traditional classes

Many professionals believe that passing the material used in the classroom, such as handouts, PowerPoint presentations, questionnaires, assessments, among others, to the digital format, is enough to create online classes.

The truth is that it’s necessary to be more careful about the instructional design and the treatment of the content to ensure the quality and effectiveness of the material.

Making this migration requires good planning and adaptations to obtain the best result. 

Check out some tips to convert your classroom classes into distance learning courses successfully.

– 7 tips for setting up a Successful Online Class

Define the format of the online course

There are three formats of distance learning courses to which you can convert your face-to-face class:

• Asynchronous Learning: the student interacts directly with the content, and the interaction with the instructor occurs with delay, through emails, forums, feedback, etc. The advantage of the asynchronous format is that it allows the student greater flexibility in terms of time, place, and pace of learning.
• Synchronous Learning: the class takes place in real time, transmitted online through audio, video conference, chat, among others. This model brings together instructors and students in the same time interval and allows everyone to communicate with each other. The advantage of this model is to break the student’s isolation, allowing him to solve his doubts on the spot, participate and share knowledge.
• Hybrid Learning: combines characteristics of asynchronous and synchronous learning. A very complete form of teaching, it allows the student to establish his own learning pace, studying the content alone, but he also has moments of interaction in real time with the instructor and colleagues.

– Blended learning: how your school can combine online and face-to-face teaching

All three formats have their characteristics and advantages and you must decide which is the best for your business model. 

When in doubt, think about which model best meets the needs of your target audience.

With this question defined, it will be possible to have a clearer idea of ​​the adaptations that must be made in your material to transform it into online classes.

Apply principles of Instructional Design

No matter how successful your content is in the classroom and how good it looks the way it is, it will still need to undergo a redesign with a focus on instructional design.

The visual part of your online course is very important to attract and delight new customers, but it is also essential in the learning process.

The way the content is presented and the information is passed on can help or hinder the student’s assimilation.

–  Learn how to record videos at home

Beautiful images, videos and fonts are not enough to make teaching material more effective, it is necessary to understand a little about how the human brain usually processes information.

An area widely studied by psychology, there are five multimedia principles that, when used in the creation of online classes, help to avoid the cognitive discomfort caused by the wrong combination of texts, audios, photos, drawings, graphics, videos, animations and other learning objects.

Multimedia Principles

• Coherence: any and all content or learning objects that are not related to the topic to be taught should be excluded.
• Signaling: important elements of the online class should be highlighted by visual or vocal resources to direct the student’s attention.
• Redundancy: it is better to use audio and graphics (as one complements the other) than, for example, audio and text, which causes cognitive overload in the student.
• Spatial contiguity: the descriptive information of graphics and images must be close to the content to which they relate.
• Temporal contiguity: visual and auditory information should not be presented successively, but simultaneously, to facilitate the connection of the contents.

Design Principles 

The principles of design aim to develop projects and products with a harmonious, efficient visual identity, easy to assimilate and memorize.

• Alignment: linear grouping of similar items to create a visual connection.
• Balance: grouping of items at strategic points to balance the look.
• Consistency: standardization of some elements of the layout to create a harmonious visual identity, easy to assimilate and recognize.
• Contrast: grouping of different items to direct the look and attention.
• Proximity: bringing similar items together helps to create a link between the related elements.

These are some principles and techniques that help in building an online course with more elaborate and efficient design, but it is certainly possible to go further. 

Like any other product, a distance learning course allows its developer to dare and experiment in creating his design, testing the best ways to involve his student and make the learning process easier.

– Design and video editing tips

Bet on interaction

Another subject related to the development of distance learning courses are the three main means of interaction to be considered in planning online classes:

• Between student-student: held between students participating in the same course, with or without the presence of the instructor. This type of interaction can be carried out through chats, discussion forums or other digital environments and provides the collaborative construction of knowledge.
• Between student-instructor: in this type of interaction, the teacher stops being just a source of information and becomes a guide, a facilitator, a support, acting in a more active way. It can be done through live classes, online chat, email exchange, phone, etc.
• Between student-content: occurs when students obtain information directly from teaching materials. It allows the students to set their own pace during the course, with support material that they can study, pause, reread and repeat this process until they master the subject.

Again, see which model is best suited to the needs of your students and format your course according to that definition.

– Tips for using eLearning in school education

What to expect from an eLearning Platform

After converting your face-to-face courses into online classes, you will need to host them on an eLearning platform, that is, a Learning Management System.

– Whats is a Learning Management System

Many teachers used only to classroom classes, still have doubts and suspicions about online teaching, so we have gathered here some frequently asked questions on the subject.

1. Are online classes easier than classrooms?

The main difference between classroom and distance courses is the pedagogical resources, the type of activity and the technologies used in the teaching-learning process. 

When it comes to undergraduate courses, both in classroom and distance learning, the subject program respects the same curricular guidelines and deals with the same themes, so at the level of complexity, the two formats are equivalent.

2. Do online courses have assessments?

It depends on the course. When we speak of graduation courses, to obtain this recognition, higher education courses need to describe how the student evaluation process will be. 

In addition, distance courses can employ different methods of student assessment, whether in individual or group activities. In free courses, it will depend on the instructor and the teaching method used by him.

3. In eLearning, does the student study alone?

No. Despite allowing students to choose their own time to attend online classes, study the material and carry out past activities, distance learning courses have several resources that allow interaction between the student, teacher and colleagues. 

This can be done through chats, video conferences or even face-to-face meetings provided for in the course program.

– What is an e-Learning platform

4. How do online courses assess student attendance?

There are several tools that fulfill this function. Unlike what many people think, despite the availability of the course for the student to access at the time they prefer, the activities and classes of a distance course have their accesses controlled. 

With a LMS such as Coursify.me it is possible to know when and for how long each student accessed the content, which pages they went through, the exercises they completed, whether or not they participated in a class and whether they finished the module.

5. Do I need to know about computers to take an online course?

No. The level of knowledge required is “user” level. Basic knowledge of how to access the internet, type, use the mouse and work with simple text editing programs is necessary. Depending on the course, the instructor can create a tutorial to teach the student how to access the system and navigate the virtual environment of the course. 

In addition, the student can ask questions directly for the teacher and person responsible for the course. At Coursify.me, for example, the website interface is already designed to allow intuitive navigation, facilitating access for everyone.

Attending schools, businesses and professionals in more than 60 countries, the platform is a dynamic Learning Management System, ready to serve you.

This means that you do not need to invest in building your own website. The Coursify.me is ready for you enter your course and create a fully customized page for your business.

We have three plan options for you to decide which one best suits your needs and the good news is that the Beginner Plan is free!

Visit our website, test the platform and start making your classes available online right now.

The post Learn how to transform your face-to-face classes into online classes appeared first on Blog Coursify.me.

Current scenario of online education in schools

The crisis generated by COVID-19, which caused the closure of schools and put the world in quarantine, launched a new look at the digital market and distance education.

Projections prior to the crisis already showed that spending on e-learning initiatives was already on track to reach $ 325 billion in the next five years, as educators seek to leverage the growing impact of digital education.

– E-Learning Market Growth

What has changed is the inclusion of elementary and high schools in this scenario, since distance learning was more concentrated in universities and free courses.

The coronavirus crisis is expected to be an opportunity to bring more technology to the classroom, just as it has been in China, where around 200 million students have started using distance learning since February 9 and only will return to the classrooms in early April.

“It will be a meeting of a generation of children and teenagers who are already very digital with teachers who are still stuck in an analog teaching model,” says Mário Ghio, CEO of Somos, in an exclusive interview with EXAME magazine.

The biggest concern of schools is trying to avoid losing the school year, considering that they usually have a mandatory number of teaching days to complete.

For schools that are beginning their journey towards digital learning initiatives, there is no rule that describes the ideal processes for implementing and adopting this method of education. Which makes the challenge even greater, as significant planning and preparation are required to ensure that online education is effective.

“We are seeing a great commitment from everyone who works with education to face this crisis. Everyone will leave with a different mentality of this experience.” says Mário Ghio.

Online education as mean to provide a deeper learning 

The crisis of the new coronavirus has affected the entire world almost simultaneously, which is why online education in schools is being debated by the vast majority of countries, who present their impressions and experiences.

According to the North Carolina e-Learning educational initiative, E-learning is “utilizing electronic technologies to access educational curriculum outside of a traditional classroom”.

“I have real faith and confidence in the future of electronic education,” says Jessica Millstone, co-organizer of the New York EdTech MeetUp, which facilitates industry discussion about what’s working and what needs work in education. “It’s useful for our entire lives, and there’s going to be a hybrid moment where all the technology we’re developing for consumer and business experience will become part of e-learning as well.”

But, Millstone notes, “the most successful versions of e-learning revolve around a split classroom. While some assignments are completed online, there’s also a certain amount of content acquisition — teachers then explore it more deeply in the classroom.”

– Blended learning: how your school can combine online and offline teaching

The result? Online education in schools is not a single service model. Instead, it is a dual-purpose approach that offers:

• Problem solving: Physical school infrastructure is not always accessible. As a result, some schools adopt digital learning days to allow instruction to continue during adverse weather conditions or amid serious disease outbreaks.
• Practical supplementation: Emerging technologies, such as augmented and virtual reality, “provide a trajectory in which e-learning is integrating real-world experiences to provide deeper and more concrete learning,” says Millstone. With proper technological support, classrooms can be “incredible labs” that complement digital learning initiatives.

Millstone points to the advantage of a multimodal approach. In her experience, “the least effective model is to tell students ‘go learn this by yourself’.” Instead, she suggests starting with an independent technology platform, like Coursify.me, which allows teachers to connect with students inside and outside the school’s walls.

– What is an e-Learning platform

Advantages and difficulties of online education 

Both in online education as teaching in conventional classrooms, there are two types of students: assets, focused on learning as much as possible, and liabilities that do not show so much concentration or enthusiasm.

In both classes the task of promoting some change in this passive behavior and arousing the student’s attention and interest is largely up to the teacher. 

– Content for online courses

The good news is that when it comes to online education, there are several tools that can be used to achieve this goal.

– Tips for using eLearning in school education

To help make your online classes more interesting, we have listed four strategies that can make all the difference:

• Create an interactive virtual environment: create a forum or group on any social network that can be accessed by all the students. This generates a feeling of “class” that encourages interaction and helps teaching in a more relaxed way, eliminating that “obligation” character of the classroom.
• Allow the student to control his learning time: use tools that allow the student to pause the lesson and resume it from the same point whenever he wants. Providing flexibility for the user to access the material at the time that is most convenient for them is a great advantage of online education.
• Show that you are present: the figure of a teacher is very important for the student to feel supported and confident in learning something new. Make use of recorded videos or live streaming so that your students can see you and continue the relationship they have in the classroom.
• Encourage evolution: create a competition, a scoring system for those who finish each stage of the online class. Build a ranking. By transforming the learning process into something similar to going through the stages of a game, you make your lessons more fun and attractive.

Many people believe that when it comes to gamification in education, it is related to the complex task of developing a game. 

In fact, it is much more about taking advantage of some elements of this universe and applying them in the learning process, such as:

• Establishing missions and challenges;
• Scoring for each phase won;
• Ranking according to the score;
• Prizes: both at the end and throughout the game.

– How to implement gamification in eLearning

Currently, it is easy to connect the school to the universe of young people, as they are used to systems of ranking and distribution of rewards, present in the environment of games and digital media.

By promoting experiences that involve students, gamification helps to gain greater engagement compared to traditional teaching models.

Barriers to online education

For online education to happen, administrators need to think about the types of systems and devices needed for virtual learning.

It is essential to analyze and consider whether the student has the necessary technological infrastructure. For example, if not everyone has good access to the internet, schools may be better served by resources that have offline components or that require minimal connective bandwidth.

It is also necessary to verify that everyone has computers through which they can access classes, so as not to hinder the progress of any student.

Importance of the Online Education Platform

In order to effectively offer the benefits of online education to students, it is important that digital learning technologies work every time students try to access them.

“Reliability is as important as relevance,” Millstone says. “Teachers will try something once, and if it doesn’t work, they won’t try it again. A great product isn’t enough if it doesn’t work properly.”

For schools that want to successfully implement e-learning initiatives and learning management systems, this means carefully evaluating potential suppliers and products before closing any partnership.

Ask the following questions: Are they reliable? Do they have all the features I need? What kind of support do they offer? How quickly do they respond?

Attending schools, businesses and professionals in more than 60 countries, the Coursify.me is a dynamic Learning Management System, ready to serve you.

– Whats is a Learning Management System

With all the necessary resources to enable and facilitate online learning, the platform has a friendly and fully customizable interface, allowing each school to maintain its visual identity, facilitating recognition by part of the student.

The Coursify.me features integration with other content platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo, which is ideal for teachers who want to provide lessons in videos.

–  Learn how to record videos at home

In addition, users can upload videos, texts, images, audios and any other material that is hosted on Dropbox or on their own computer.

There is no limit on the number of students allowed, and the school has full control over who has access to the classes, being able to monitor each student, to find out who registered, attended the classes and fulfilled the activities sent.

Visit our website, test the platform and bet on online education to continue teaching your students in the best possible way. 

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