Strategies to Improve Teaching Online

Lea M. David

Distance or online learning is relatively new to school teachers in the Philippines. With most teachers unfamiliar with the devices needed to conduct lessons online, here are some strategies that could help fellow teachers improve their abilities to teach online.

First, it’s crucial to establish digital presence at the beginning of every lesson. It would help if teachers engage and support their students right from the start to maintain an effective learning community. Just like in the traditional classroom where teachers are always present, thus should be established in the virtual classroom, too.

Second, make a supportive learning environment by encouraging both teacherto-student engagement and student-to-student interaction.

Some of the things you can do to make interaction with your students is to start with a personal introduction post, and encourage participants to contribute their own short bio or introduction to the group.

You could also make an open forum or discussion board where learners can post to request help and assistance from each other, developing peer-to-peer support.

Another thing you can do is to set-up small groups, similar to traditional study groups, for supportive mentoring of fellow learners.

These strategies will encourage learners to work together as an active learning community that can make online learning more engaging and interesting to students.

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The author is Teacher III at Magliman Integrated School