Top 4 Tips To Help You Produce Successful Students in a Remote Learning Setting

The last several years have seen an increase in remote learning opportunities. While the transformation of acceptable classrooms is wonderful to see, teachers need to understand that creating an effective learning environment goes beyond designing and installing Zoom office backgrounds.

An educational environment, even a remote one, needs to be engaging. Also, the setup needs to be practical and accessible. Unfortunately, many of the challenges of remote learning reside with the teacher, but there are ways to help and mentor your students to academic success.

1. Make It Easy To Trust the System

Many students who are unfamiliar with remote learning environments may find it difficult to trust the system. They may have the urge to communicate in person or work on physical assignments rather than digital interfaces.

As the instructor, your job is to make the students comfortable in the virtual classroom. While many tips and tricks are offered in online forums and communities, it is best not to overcomplicate things.

You can ensure trust in the system by showing and expressing confidence in it. Walk your students through the different aspects of the learning environment. Ensure that each student has a solid grasp of the technology and feels confident using it.

2. Make It Easy To Collaborate

While using Teams customized backgrounds can help unify the class, you also need to ensure that there are easy ways to collaborate with one another. For example, figure out ways to implement grouping features, so your students can break off into smaller groups for team activities.

Collaboration is an essential tool and skill. The valuable skill also ensures that all students socialize. If you do not use collaborative tools, your students are essentially sitting home alone, watching a computer screen.

3. Focus On Social-Emotional Well-Being

A significant part of early development is socialization. Most children use school to develop most of their socialization skills. A remote learning environment does not automatically work for contributing to a student’s social-emotional well-being.

Collaboration on class assignments or projects can help, but it is better if children have time for free-connection. Allow your class to have a virtual recess or something similar. Give them time to connect outside of the setting of academics.

4. Provide Learning Strategies

Every class has different types of learners, from kinesthetic to visual. Outside of a traditional classroom environment, it is hard for some of these learners to adapt. As an instructor, investigate the different learning styles and try to come up with ways to integrate those learning strategies into lesson plans. You can also work with students one-on-one to help them identify their specific and preferred learning styles.

While you can change background in Teams or create more unique virtual environments, the most important thing to remember for students is engagement. Virtual classrooms present unique challenges to students and teachers, and it is not always clear how to adapt. If you are teaching in a remote learning environment and could use some pointers, consider talking to remote environment specialists and designers.