13 Tips to Improve Distance Learning

Hundreds of thousands of teachers are busy turning their in-person lessons into e-lessons, after we witnessed an escalation in recent days of schools around the world announcing the transition to distance learning. Designing e-lessons takes double the time and effort. Here are thirteen tips for providing distance learning services:

1. Record lessons: In anticipation of your students' health circumstances, or poor internet connection, record video presentations of your lesson and send them to your students and their families so it is easier for them to attend according to their time and circumstances.
2. Show your face: Research has shown that lessons recorded with the lecturer's face are more beneficial than just a slide show; combine showing your slides with video recordings of yourself.
3. Shorten the content: Recordings that exceed 15 minutes are difficult to download and distract students. If you need more time to present your lesson, divide it into several recordings instead of one.
4. Check the quality of presentation slides: Make sure to test your slides on mobile before you start recording your lectures, and ensure the text is legible on small screens. Also make sure the font size, color, background design, and screen dimensions are clear across all devices.
5. Design the educational program in a way that accommodates all of your students' needs, especially those with disabilities: It may not be easy to build an integrated curriculum, but at Ynmo we can help you obtain more than 3,000 educational goals and track performance progress according to best practices.. Subscribe now
6. Use available resources: It is difficult for you alone to produce an entire course of video recordings. Therefore, search for available resources for your lessons on the internet, use them, and provide your students with links to these resources.
7. Also make sure that these resources are available to everyone, to spare students access issues. If one of your resources requires prior permission, you will spend most of your time dealing with an inbox full of student inquiries. Being mindful and making sure your resources are available to everyone will spare you this dilemma.
8. Give precise instructions for resources: Your students might procrastinate if you suggest resources longer than 15 minutes to them, so specify the exact required portion, for example: (13:35 to 16:28), as this stimulates their curiosity to check the resource. When you provide multiple resources for your lesson, label them in the order you want students to follow, by numbering them according to levels of importance or difficulty, for example, to make it easier for students to follow the lesson.
9. Add interactive activities: Most distance learning management platforms such as Moodle, Edmodo, Blackboard include features for building interactive educational activities like short quizzes; you will find many guides explaining step-by-step how to build your activities on these platforms.
10. Activate the family's role in your educational program: by training them to present academic goals, and involving them in planning activities so that they have a clear and defined schedule at home. To view Ynmo's initiative for training families during the coronavirus pandemic click here
11. Be careful when using group communication software: as it is not designated for direct instruction. Therefore, set virtual office hours on one of the video calling platforms such as Zoom, for example, and make some meetings with students optional. Log in at the lecture time and wait for your students. And be patient! Also focus in your meetings on supporting students and resolve any arising problem promptly; this is one of the good methods for collecting students' evaluations and feedback on your online teaching.
12. Express yourself clearly: Express clearly to your students and their families that this is your first experience with distance learning, and that you are teaching them and learning with them at the same time. Ask for their help, and reassure them that you will make your best efforts to support their education. Students will empathize with you as they share your concerns, and this will be your launchpad for success!
13. Repeat teaching methods: E-learning students do not prefer continuous changes in their learning styles; they will be pleased with repeating the same educational activities. When you find a suitable teaching style, repeat it consistently until your students return to classrooms.

Adapted from source:

Lee Kyunhmee, 2020. Coronavirus: 14 simple tips for netter online teaching, The conversation. Available at:

.https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-14-simple-tips-for-better-online-teaching-133573

Originally published in Arabic. This English version was produced with AI-assisted translation; the Arabic original remains the reference.