“The most important thing that school can do is not to use technology in the curriculum core, but to use it more effectively”

John G. Palfrey & Urs Gaeer

You cannot teach people everything they need to know. The best you can do is position them where they can find what they need to know when they need to know it.

Seymour Papert - MIT

If we accept every challenge positively, it will open doors for us towards a brighter future. This pandemic COVID-19 taught us new dimensions of teaching and education which had been in our minds but never explored in such a direction as presently practicing. Nowadays online education is expanding its area in all dimensions. We may call online learning, e-learning, m-learning, and most commonly distance learning. This pandemic taught us the way of using technology in teaching and education, but the question is about its effectiveness. There are two aspects in dealing with the issue of effectiveness in online learning, the one on the teaching part and the other for students.

By realizing the sensitivity of teaching effectiveness by using the technology, education sector as well as industry showing their vast promising gesture for e-learning in future deliverables. As a result of the effort made to cope with the current situation, online education has become more popular not only in students but also attractive to employees for their professional development by taking an advanced course with their ease. Online teaching surely has different ways to proceeding as compare with physical or traditional ways of giving lessons. So, it automatically becomes more vital that teachers should adopt and improve their skills in an online teaching platform to make it effective for the desire results. There are few suggested strategies that you can adopt to make online teaching effective on both parts of learner and trainer.

Learners’ engagement

The most common challenge faced by instructors is to get involved and engage learners in lecturing activity. As the students are not in physical presence like normally in class, so it becomes very difficult to keep an eye on them about their attention towards lectures. They might be involved in other activities during lectures which will lose the crust of the topic and negatively impact results. In an online environment, it becomes very crucial for instructors to engage the students right from the start of the class and keep them energetically intact during the class to bring effectiveness in learning. This objective of engagement can be achieved by giving confidence to the students that you are visible and available for them just like in a traditional physical classroom. Always give them your days and time when you will be available online. You can also use social media support to get them engaged with you in the teaching process for example with an online post, forums, discussion boards, blogs over different communities. Through this engagement, you will also develop professional relationships with your students and make their experience far more personal and memorable.

Supportive environment

To be an effective online instructor you need to create an online group for students to support them in the learning process. The best way to achieve this is by encouraging both teacher-to-student engagement and student-to-student interaction (Dr. Judith V. Boettcher). We can make use of it as below.

1.      Make a group for discussion at the very start of the course and let the students enter their short bio in the group. This will involve other students and they start recognizing each other with a virtual bond creation.

2.      Also, allow them to discuss their views and ask for assistants regarding the topic in the discussion forum.

3.      Also, create a manageable small group like the physical classroom with one group leader for mentoring support.

Mixing of learning tools

In the present day, we are very much fortunate that we have a variety of online learning tools to collaborate and engage our learners like we use to do it in a physical classroom. The variety of activities that are now possible online makes it possible to create many types of effective learning environments (Dr. Boettche). We should not depend on using only a couple of tools, but an effective instructor in an online platform can be benefited by using a proper combination of different activities both in synchronous and asynchronous dimensions. Mixing of activity tools makes learning more attractive, interesting and engaging with the students and they always have excitement for what is coming next?

Ongoing feedback

Feedback always plays a crucial role in improvement and outcome effectiveness.  Feedback is an essential component of all effective learning environments including online. As an online teacher, our feedback creates a positive impact on students' engagement, motivation, and learnings. The process of feedback should not have any breaks and it should work as a continuous process throughout the learning experience. To make feedback an effective tool especially in an online learning environment, feedback must be constructive and provided as soon as possible. 

Use of M-Learning (Mobile Learning)

As we are in an online learning era, which opens doors for a variety of technical support that we have in online learning and teaching. Nowadays everyone has access to their mobiles which we can convert into a great opportunity for learning support. Technology itself not good or bad, it depends on how he/she uses it. Similarly, in the case of using a mobile, we can apply the technology here as positive or negative. Now it is a wise step to accept the usefulness of mobile learning in an online environment. We can make a collaborative link between students and teachers through our mobile devices by using varied and dynamically available platforms. Mobile learning allows users (students and teachers) to be in contact and updated on a real-time basis anywhere and at any time. The most precautionary measure we need to consider is that the lecture contents are easily accessible for students through smartphones, laptops, iPad, and other devices. Therefore, by applying the strategy effectively in the context of mobile learning we can feel more confident about learning in an online environment and it also creates a more collaborative and positive impact on learners (students).

The students of the future will demand the learning support that is appropriate for their situation of context, nothing more, nothing less. And they want it now the need arises. Not sooner, not later. Mobile devices will be a key technology in providing that learning support.

Dr. Marcus Specht – Professor, Open University of Netherlands

Conclusion

Finally, we can conclude the discussion by saying that it is you who can find opportunity in challenges instead of losing confidence by fear. Like in the current scenario of online learning both teachers and learners can make this time more effective by implementing the best-suited strategies, which will bring effective results in learning as well as the teacher’s grooming. By acknowledging the importance of emerging technologies in an online platform we can make better use of it for the desired purpose of effective learning. Although in current scenarios there is a lack of physical classroom contact with students using technology in its appropriate manner may work as close to that physical classroom. To cope with this, we need to work in different dimensions including learner engagement, supportive environment, mixing learning tools, ongoing continuous feedback, and the most hotspot use of mobile. In short, I can conclude my discussion here with some of the popular quotes.

Online learning is rapidly becoming one of the most cost-effective ways to educate the world's rapidly expanding workforce.

Jack Messman – Novell, Cambridge Technology

“Don't promote negativity online and expect people to treat you with positivity in person.”
Germany Kent