Captivating Online Classes

One of the most challenging aspects of teaching online is captivating learners through a screen. Here are some tips for captivating learners!

I am so happy when I receive pictures from parents of their learners' engaging in my lessons. This picture is from one of my video lessons which is even more challenging to engage learners! I was so happy to see all of the kids gathered around the screen and creating lemon volcanos with me at home. Here are some tips for engaging learners online:

Voice Inflection - Using different tones, songs, pitches and changing our voices throughout class helps make class more interesting.
Props - I like to use props and hand gestures. It's also important to move objects closer and further away from the camera.
Visual Aides - Similar to props, we can use teaching tools such as maps, blocks, toys, flashcards and posters as additional forms of engagement.
Rewards and Games - Most of my classes have built in rewards throughout. All of my pre-recorded video lessons include something hands-on as well as a learning game or quiz.
Lastly, I avoid screen-sharing as much as possible because learners are much more engaged with a teacher face-to-face. I have several classes where I do screen share but still start and stop throughout to hold learner's attention.

Categories: Online Classes