5 Ways to Make Asynchronous Learning More Student-Centered 

MOVING YOUR CLASS ONLINE AND KEEPING THE FOCUS ON YOUR KINDS

After 12 years of teaching online in both synchronous and asynchronous classrooms, I’ve come to realize that student engagement is the lifeblood on virtual learning. I’ve also learned that creativity is the key to successful student engagement.

Whether you’re new to online teaching or have been doing it for years, all of us need a refresher from time to time.

#1 – Use a Learning Management System (LMS)

Your class needs a headquarters. You can’t simply email students assignments and expect everyone to stay organized. That’s why I recommend teachers use a Learning Management System. An LMS organizes both you and your students so that you can meet all your course objectives. 

What is an LMS?

Think of a Learning Management System as a virtual classroom where you can deliver and track online learning. Lectures and reading assignments are stored there. Students find and turn in their assignments there. Teachers grade everything there. If you’re not using an LMS, you’re missing out. Nothing will organize your class more quickly than loading everything into an LMS.

Here are some of my favorite Learning Management Systems:

• Teachable
• Thinkific
• Moodle
• Blackboard
• Google Classroom

#2 – List all your student’s assignments in one place. 

One of the biggest drivers of confusion in online learning comes when students don’t know “where to go” when they log on. Students need their assignments to live in one location so they know exactly what is expected of them. I know of some teachers who email their students some assignments, put others in a Learning Management System (LMS), and give other assignments orally over Zoom. This causes a ton of confusion and frustration in your students. 

When students have to search all over for what they need to do, they will miss something along the way. Make it easy on your students and yourself by using an LMS like Teachable or Thinkific to create a single portal for students to access and turn in all assignments. If you have a single place where student start their day when they log in, you’ll eliminate that confusion. Even if you link out to other sites, the links should all live in that home base. Your students will feel much more in control of their own learning knowing there is a single place they need to visit to get all of their directions and instructions.  

#3 – Communicate your communication plan. 

It’s easy to feel like you’re left out in the dark when you’re learning online. When you don’t know what to do, you often don’t know who to turn to for help. My suggestion is to create a clear communication plan. You want your communication plan to be listed in your LMS at the top of your course so students know how to contact you when they feel lost. 

A good communication plan includes: 

1. A clear list of places where you will communicate with students. That may include your email address, LMS messaging system, or phone number. 

2. A communication response protocol. Students need to know how quickly you will respond when they ask a question. You want to state clear language like, “When you email me, you can expect an answer within 24 hours, Monday-Friday.” 

3. Virtual office hours.  Consider holding office hours where students know they can get a live response from you over phone, chat, or personal Zoom meeting room. The number of students you have will impact the depth of communication you can have. Consider opening up time slots where students can sign up for a time to meet with you. 

#4 – Facilitate student collaboration.

One of the pitfalls to avoid in asynchronous learning is to isolate students where they never interact with each other. Just because you’re not meeting face-to-face doesn’t mean that students can’t work together. You can still create group assignments where students have to collaborate, and enable discussion boards where students comment on each other’s submissions. There are tools to make transition your in-person group work into virtual assignments such as breakout sessions. With some creativity and a little experience, you can create a collaborative environment, even if you’re not logging on at the same time.

#5 – Add a Just for Fun discussion board to the top of your course

Students want to get to know each other, even if they’re not meeting face-to-face. In order to facilitate social interaction and buy-in to the class, consider creating a Just for Fun discussion board where students can share about themselves. Participation is optional, but encouraged. You can post a Question of the Week to help spur on the conversation such as, “What’s the last time you felt really proud of yourself?” or “What country would you like to visit and why?” Just make sure you have a list of guidelines for appropriate and kind interaction on the board. 

We have to keep in mind that our students are whole people who need social interaction to stay connected and motivated. While you don’t want the Just for Fun board to overrun class discussion, you should leave it option so that those social conversations don’t bleed into spaces meant for academic discussion. 

Conclusion

Just because a class moves online doesn’t mean that student-centered learning has to stop. But by implementing these 5 strategies, you’ll see student engagement increase.

Until next time, Happy teaching!
Andrea

Talk to Google – An Online Pronunciation Activity 

A TIP FOR ONLINE ENGLISH TEACHERS WITH LARGE CLASSROOMS

There’s one question that still has me thinking…

In a recent webinar about improving online student engagement, one of the attendees asked a question that I’m still thinking about:

How to I give feedback to students, when I’m teaching a class of 100 or more?

I gave a few suggestions, including:

• Have students submit assignments before class begins, and then choose 5 excerpts from student submissions to talk about with the class.
• Use an LMS (Learning Management System like Thinkific, Teachable, or Moodle), where you can give direct feedback to students there.
• Use polling when asking a question, so you can validate that all students are participating, and so they get instant feedback about whether their answer was correct.

I also want to share with you one of my favorite pronunciation activities. It’s an activity that provides a ton of feedback for your students automatically.

I call this activity “Talk to Google” (or Alexa or Siri)

All students need for this activity is:

• Access to Google.com (or a smart phone), set to English settings
• A microphone

All you need for this activity is:

• A list of questions and specific answers that are Google-able. Do not give this list of questions and answers to the students before the activity
• Polling set up in your virtual classroom so that you can receive student responses. You will need to populate the poll with the correct answer for each question, along with 3 wrong answers for each question.

Step-by-step instructions

Start the activity off by “talking” with your smart phone. Make sure the volume is turned up, and phone is near your microphone.

Teacher: Hey Siri/Alexa/Okay Google, how are you today?

Virtual Assistant: (Wait for a response.)

Teacher: Say hello to everyone.

Virtual Assistant: Hello.

Give students the instructions for the activity. 

1. Everyone please open up a browser to Google.com. Make sure it’s Google.com, and not your country’s local Google, so that settings are in English.
2. Point out the microphone on the right side of the search bar, and ask everyone to test it to make sure it works.
3. Explain to them that this is a pronunciation practice activity. They are going to be asking Google a series of questions, and will hopefully get the right answer, based on how clearly you speak into the microphone.
4. Tell them that they should only speak into the microphone to search, and NOT just type it in the search bar. (Unless you want to flip this lesson into a listening/writing exercise and not a speaking one.)
5. Demonstrate to the class an example question. Show your screen as it types out what you’re saying in the search box. 

• Example question: How many people live in Berlin, Germany?
• If you’re working with a virtual assistant who speaks back to you like Siri or Alexa (instead of Google.com), the virtual assistant will speak back to you. Make sure the class can hear it.
• If you’re working on Google.com, make sure they see that the correct answer appears on the screen.

Say one question at a time out loud

Say it very clearly so that everyone can understand. You may need to say it more than once for your students. Display the question on the screen as well.

Give students time

Let them ask Google the question and get the answer. Make sure you and all your students are on mute so there is no background noise.

Have students choose the correct answer

Create a poll so your students can answer once Google understands them correctly and gives them the right answer.

This may take several tries for some students. That’s okay! Let them learn from each time Google doesn’t understand them. Let them fail at it so they can succeed. A lot of trial and error takes place with this exercise, and you need to encourage your students by telling them that it’s a hard exercise. The important thing is to not give up.

You may want to put a time limit of about two minutes on each question so that students who still haven’t gotten the answer at this point don’t get overwhelmed.

DON’T keep score of who got the right answer. The goal is for them to keep persisting until Google understands them, rather than push them to cheat and just type in the question to get the answer.

List of Questions

You are welcome to create all kinds of questions for your students to ask Google. Just make sure they are questions that have a clear answer. You also want to make sure that no one in the class would know the answer unless they asked Google. For example, DON’T ask, “What’s the capital of France?” because everyone knows that it’s Paris. Be sure to use a variety of English sounds so that your students are getting practice with all the sounds of English.

Here are some questions that I’ve used with my classes. Feel free to use them!

• What is the capital of Alabama?
• Who is the president of Cameroon?
• What is the capital of New Jersey?
• How many people live in Sudan?
• How many days are there until Christmas?
• What is the temperature in London, England right now?
• What sport is played by the most people?
• How long is the Nile River in kilometers?
• How far is it to Chicago in miles?
• When do the New York Yankees play next?
• Who won the last World Series?
• What is the square root of 123,201?
• What is the square root of 21,609?
• When is Abraham Lincoln’s birthday?
• When is Lebron James’ birthday?
• What time does Taco Bell open in Spring Hill, Tennessee?
• How long is the movie “Gone With the Wind” from 1939?
• Who is the coach of the Los Angeles Lakers?
• What is 421 x 364?
• What is the phone number for CVS in Franklin, Kentucky?
• Who painted “Starry Night”?
• What time is it in Aukland, New Zealand?
• In what year did Martin Luther King, Jr. die?
• How many words are in the English language?

Why I Love This Activity

Virtual assistants don’t lie

When you speak clearly to them, they understand you. When you don’t, they can’t. It’s a straightforward activity that gives students instant feedback.

Accent awareness

Most non-native speakers of a language are aware that they have an “accent”, but they may not be aware how strong it is or how much it affects the listener’s ability to understand them. This helps overly proud students to be aware of their weaknesses, and encourages insecure students when they pronounce something correctly.

Feedback isn’t emotional

Language learners often feel self-conscious asking a fluent English speaker to tell them what’s hard to understand, and can feel embarrassed when they find out that they are saying something “incorrectly”. Because of these reasons, a virtual assistant is a great help to bringing clarity about students’ exact pronunciation trouble spots. A virtual assistant is not being personal when it can’t understand you. It’s a logical operating system that records exactly what it hears. Therefore, feedback is not emotional or socially awkward. It’s direct and tailor-made for the speaker.

Feedback is instant and plentiful

Language teachers may not have the time to give direct feedback to every student. That’s why outsourcing some of that work to the virtual assistant is helpful and efficient.

Works for any level of learner

This activity can work for any level of English learner, depending on how you scale up or scale down your questions. For beginners, you won’t use any consonant clusters in the words, or any sounds that give your students particular problems. For advanced students, give questions to them with challenging sounds.

Is Google (or Siri or Alexa) perfect? No, certainly not. Especially not with some proper nouns or acronyms. However, I have found those tools to be 99% accurate when I am speaking clearly. Just avoid complex proper nouns if the virtual assistant is having issues with them.  Make sure you test all of the questions yourself so you can avoid that issue.    

Let me know

Once you do this activity in your class, let me know how it goes! For my students, it’s usually one of the most memorable exercises we do all semester. There is a lot of laughter and a lot of learning that takes place.

Until next time, Happy teaching!
Andrea

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How to Keep Your Students Engaged Online 

INCREASE STUDENT ENGAGEMENT IN THE LIVE CLASSROOM ONLINE

We’re in a new era of teaching. Ready or not, online education is the norm in 2020. For some of you, you’re excited about the challenge. For others, you may be wondering how you’re ever going to adapt.

I want you to keep in mind that even the most “expert” online teacher has only been teaching online for about 10-15 years, maximum. That means it’s a relatively new way of doing things, and there is plenty of time to learn and grow into becoming a great online teacher. If you’ve never taught online and only ever taught in the classroom, it can feel like a steep learning curve. Just keep in mind that everyone feels this way in the beginning.

I first started teaching online in 2007. Our ESL Institute Director needed a volunteer to teach online TESOL classes, and I was one of the only teachers willing to try it. Since that time, I’ve taught more than hundreds of students in live (synchronous) courses, and more than a million students through my video courses.

I’ve failed many times to engage my students online. I’ve seen blank stares, students looking at their phones, and students completely drop off the calls. Other times, I’ve succeeded in engaging students. I’ve connected with students, helped lead them into lightbulb moments, and watched them take huge learning leaps. 

If you have taught online for any length of time, you’ll learn that lessons can go horribly wrong, and technology can fail. It’s a learning curve. However, if you push through, you’ll find online teaching just as successful, enjoyable, and rewarding as an in-person class.

Here are a few of the roadblocks online learners face:

• device distraction
• too many tabs open
• technology issues
• no quiet space for learning
• more anonymity means less participation
• lack of connection

Online students face a ton of distractions in addition to the ones they face in an in-person classroom.

Those obstacles are the reason that we have to be diligent about student engagement with our online learners. They are overcoming a lot by learning online, and we have to be intentional about pulling their attention back into the online classroom.

Additionally, we know that in the language classroom, student participation is everything. Our students need to be speaking with each other and practicing what they hear. They need generous feedback and lots of encouragement to participate. Just because we are moving our language classes online doesn’t mean that we need to give up those important principles that make a language classroom dynamic.

80/20 Rule

I have a basic principle I follow in both my in-person and online language classes. It’s called the 80/20 Rule.

In language classrooms, my goal is for students to be actively participating 80% of the time, with only 20% of the time set aside for lecture. What does that student participation look like? It can look like:

• writing in their daily journal
• answering a question in the chat
• leading a small group discussion
• silent reading
• working on grammar exercises

What English students don’t need is to passively sit while their language teacher talks on and on about a concept they could have read on their own. We are in the information age. Students can Google any language questions they have. You know what they can’t Google? A real live conversation with their classmates. They also can’t Google live feedback from a language teacher.

We learn by doing. This is especially true in the language classroom. Language grows when the learner gets lots of practice.

Why do I bring up the 80/20 Rule? Because while it’s a fairly easy rule to follow in a face-to-face classroom, it can be hard to translate that rule into the online classroom. However, it’s even more important that we follow that rule in the online classroom, because students tend to feel less connected in the online classroom than they do in a face-to-face environment.

Because teaching online can feel scary at first, we often start with what we feel comfortable with, which is talking the whole time. When we hear silence, we want to fill it. However, we have to resist that in the online classroom, because silence is often where learning takes place. Silence is where students can think about a concept or what they want to say next. We have to give students space to think and react to what we are saying.

Now that the technology has finally caught up with those best practices in the face-to-face classroom, we can disregard the old, static way o teaching, and embrace those best practices in the virtual classroom. The key is to understand what tools can encourage the most engagement, and be willing to take risks in that environment to promote student engagement.

Top 10 Ways to Increase Student Engagement in the Online Language Classroom

Now that I’ve laid the groundwork of my overall goal of student engagement, let’s talk about tools and strategies you can employ to increase student engagement. So, I actually was invited by the International Society for Educational Leadership to run a webinar for their members. We recorded it and I wanted to share it here so you could follow along with these 10 ideas.

#1 – Cameras should be on (if bandwidth allows)

Everyone’s camera should be on, if possible. At the very least, the teacher’s camera should be on. There’s nothing like a human face to encourage interaction. If your students are only looking at the load of text you put on a PowerPoint slide, they won’t connect language to the context of social interaction. When you are on camera, students will watch the way your mouth makes sounds, and they will look at your facial expressions as you speak to help understand what you’re saying. If your camera is off, they miss all of that valuable interaction. On the flipside, students benefit so much by having their own cameras on. When their camera is on, they know that there will be an expectation of participation when they are visible to others. If they get to hide in anonymity behind a keyboard with no camera on, they won’t be as likely to speak up.

Of course, bandwidth doesn’t always allow that. That’s totally understandable if that’s the case, but best practice is cameras on.

#2 – Use a good microphone

You might be asking why this is a student engagement tip. What difference does a microphone make with that? Isn’t that just some technical advice? I would say that it’s both. Have you ever listened to someone over a webinar or Zoom meeting, and the audio kept breaking up or making some crazy noise? It’s incredibly distracting! You don’t want to have bad audio, because your students will turn you down or tune you out.

A good microphone is a priceless tool for the online teacher. Don’t just rely on your ear buds to work for you. You want to test out the quality of your audio. You can do that by recording yourself on a Zoom call one day, and then listening back to the audio quality. If your audio quality is poor, just think what that would do to a student who is struggling to understand English, even on the best of days. I use a professional microphone called the Yeti Blue, and I’ve found that it has improved the way I sound on calls like these. Using a good microphone will make a huge difference in your students’ ability to hear and understand you.

#3 – Utilize the chat

Ask a lot of questions, and wait for responses. The chat is a great opportunity for writing practice. It’s also a great opportunity for those shy students who hate to speak on camera to get language practice in the chat. I once had a student in a face-to-face class who never spoke up. He just listened as his classmates participated. I always had to call on him if I ever wanted his participation. One day, I took all the students to the computer lab to have a virtual discussion in a chat room. I wanted to give them an opportunity to have discussions online and see what their language looked like in a spontaneous written conversation. The shy student suddenly came alive! He was commenting on everyone’s thoughts and contributing to the conversation. I had thought this student was shy and disinterested, but really, he was just more comfortable expressing himself in writing as opposed to in speech.

Have an “Ask me any question at any time” policy in the chat. Encourage them to use it, as long as they are adding to (and not distracting from) the lesson.

#4 – Frequently remind your students of the day’s learning outcomes.

Our students have to stay connected to their “why”. Why are they learning English? Why is this lesson important in their life? Where will they use it in the real world? One of the most powerful motivators for students to pay attention is a strong connection to the “why” of learning. Don’t just tell students how to write a strong topic sentence. Remind them that a strong topic sentence is the key to writing an effective e-mail to their future boss. Anything that increases their motivation will increase student engagement.

#5 – Make use of breakout rooms

One of the biggest ways we increase student engagement in the face-to-face classroom is by dividing the class up into smaller groups so that they can tackle tasks together. These smaller groups give every student the opportunity to participate and voice questions if they have any. It moves the learner from a passive role into a more active one. Breaking up in small groups or pairs is easy to facilitate in the face-to-face classroom, but takes more intentionality when you’re teaching online.

Thankfully, most virtual meeting platforms have breakout sessions, the virtual equivalent of separate rooms. You can set rooms up randomly, or assign students to a particular room, based on what you know about your students’ abilities, personalities, and tech-savviness. 

In these breakout rooms, students can talk together and work on projects, but the rest of the class can’t hear them. As the teacher, you can pop in and out of each room to answer questions and make sure that each group is staying on task. Keep in mind that breakout rooms won’t work well with small children or with true beginners.

#6 – Avoid text-heavy slides

If you use Powerpoint, Prezi, or another presentation tool when teaching, make sure that you limit the number of words on the slide. There’s a general rule of thumb called the 4×5 rule: You should limit your words to 4 bullet points, with a maximum of 5 words per bullet. That may sound like too few words per slide, but you have to keep in mind that when you include entire paragraphs of text on a slide, the student starts reading, and stops listening.

I’m not saying that you never introduce a lot of text into a class. There are certainly times for that. I’m just saying that if you are lecturing about a topic, and the slide is there to support what you’re teaching, make sure that slide has limited words.

Let’s talk about situations where it’s perfectly appropriate to introduce a lot of text in the class.

1. When you display text for the students to read along with. You can either have students read the side silently, have a student read the slide for the class, or read it yourself. The key to having a lot of text on the screen is that you can’t say something different than what’s displayed, because most students can’t read and listen to two different things.
2. When you do a class-wide editing activity. One activity I like to do with my writing classes is to display a paragraph of text that has errors in it. Then I turn on the annotation tools, so that the class can collaboratively edit the paragraph. The annotation tools are color-coded, so you can identify who made the various changes.

#7 – Surprise your students

If students always know what’s coming next, they may be tempted to check out. Neuroscience tells us that our brains are constantly looking to conserve energy. One of the ways we do that is by tuning out when we hear information that we’ve already heard before.

When we add in surprising elements to our classes like visual props, a piece of music, or a surprising story, we perk our students’ ears and re-engage their brains.

#8 – Use the whiteboard

Whiteboards are a lot of fun and an efficient way for everyone to get to participate. You can start each class with an icebreaker activity on the whiteboard. For example, you could type out on the Whiteboard, “What did you do this weekend?” Then all your students can type out or draw what they did. The whiteboard encourages creativity and social interaction.

Whiteboards are also great for putting up announcements or telling students when to return after a break.

#9 – Creatively convert your favorite in-class games into the virtual space

Just because you’re not in the same room doesn’t mean you can’t have fun together. Don’t just throw away your favorite classroom activities just because you’re nervous it won’t work in the virtual classroom. There is usually a technological solution for any problem you might face. Don’t leave behind the fun activities just because you’re nervous to try it in a new format.

For example, if you usually play the game “I Spy…” with beginners to play with descriptive adjectives, try it in the online classroom. Have everyone look at all the cameras in a grid. Then play “I Spy…” based off what is in the view of everyone’s cameras.

There is usually a way to convert your favorite classroom activities to the online classroom. It may just take a little creativity.

#10 – Have students share their screens

Teach your students how to share their screens so that they can display the work they do. This is the equivalent of having a student go to the blackboard to write what answers they had in an activity. When you have students share their screen, students are able to collaborate and give feedback, and you’re able to give that student feedback as well. Just make sure that you reiterate to students that they are only able to share schoolwork and that they need to have all other tabs closed.

I hope all of these tips help you think about how to engage your students online. It’s entirely possible to do. It just requires some creativity and planning.

Need to charge your students? 

If you’re looking for a simple and easy way to charge your students to access to your courses and handle tutoring sessions, here are a tools I recommend.

If you need to sell 1-on-1 sessions, I recommend Teachable

As one of the biggest tools to support online teachers, Teachable provides a simple way to sell access to your previously recorded lessons/courses AND you can also sell access to your tutoring. Teachable is easy to use and they have a free version of their tool, so it’s low cost to get started.

If you need to make a community for your students, I recommend LearnWorlds

LearnWorlds provides two features that set them apart and make your life as an online teacher much easier. First is their video editing feature. All you need to do is upload a video and LearnWorlds lets you edit the videos, add quiz questions over the top, or add text over the video while you speak. This is extremely helpful if you need don’t already know how to edit videos.

The second unique feature of LearnWorlds is their learning community for your students. They essentially provide a small social network among your students so they can interact with each other, chat with each other and more.

Some other tools

In addition to Teachable, and LearnWorlds, you may want to consider Podia or Thinkific. Although these tools are not a perfect fit for selling 1-on-1 teaching, Podia does allow you to charge for Zoom calls/webinars.  

Remember that virtual teaching takes some time to get used to, so have patience with yourself and prepare, prepare, prepare. Those virtual classes will start to feel more normal, just like in-person meetings.

What kind of questions do you have for me about online student engagement?

Until next time, Happy teaching!
Andrea

Say what? 

HOW TO HELP YOUR ONLINE STUDENTS UNDERSTAND YOU ON ZOOM

“What did you say?”
“Teacher, I can’t understand you.”
“You’re on mute.”

If you have ever heard your students say something like that, you know how frustrating online teaching (and learning) can be. We are all online teachers now, whether that’s what we asked for. For some, it’s an exciting opportunity to master new technology. For others, it’s a fear-inducing nightmare that turns a passion into a terror.

Whether you are new to online teaching, or a seasoned veteran like me, there are some skills all of us could employ to speak more clearly to our online English learners.

Those with limited English proficiency face many challenges when looking to study in a synchronous classroom on Zoom, Adobe Connect, or Webex Training Center. Not only are they learning new technology, but the audio can make it even more difficult to understand what’s going on.

When we are face-to-face, it’s easier for English learners to understand us, but when we are in a virtual meeting, there are some things we need to do to make sure those learners can understand us, and we can understand them.

Here are my top 5 tips to help English teachers and learners understand each other in the online classroom:

#1 – Use a good microphone.

Your headphones will not work in this scenario. If you want to give your students the best opportunity to understand what you’re saying, use a professional microphone, like the Yeti Blue. Using a good microphone will make a huge difference in your students’ ability to hear and understand you.

#2 – Talk a little slower than you normally would in a face-to-face classroom.

We want to sound natural so that students can understand us, but really focus on our enunciation and our speed. You also want to encourage your language learners to speak clearer and a little slower than normal. One big mistake that a lot of second language learners make is to speak too quickly. They hear native speakers speaking quickly, and so they think they will be understood better if they speak quickly too. In fact, it’s actually more challenging for native speakers to understand what they’re saying when they speak too quickly. We have to help our students slow down or speed up, depending on whatever their weakness is. It’s counter-intuitive – not what you would think – to speak more slowly when English is not your primary language, but slowing yourself down helps others understand you better, especially in the virtual environment.

However, that does NOT mean that you as a teacher should dramatically speak too slowly or yell into the microphone. We want to talk at a normal speed – not too fast, and not too slow.

#3 – Project your voice

When you’re in a 1-on-1 tutoring environment, you may not need to worry about projecting (raising the volume of) your voice. However, if you are in a group classroom, projection is necessary. This is especially true if your microphone is down on the table. Always know where the microphone is. If you have control over where the microphone is, make sure it’s close to your mouth, but not too close to your mouth.

#4 – Turn the camera on

Most of us don’t enjoy being on camera. We are self-conscious of the way we look in our webcam, and we would rather share a set of slides for students to look at, rather than our faces. However, in the language classroom, body language is a requirement. Our students need to see our facial expressions, and the way our mouths form the “sh” sound. Turn your camera on, and make sure all students have their cameras on as well.

When Possible, depending on the platform, you are able to see all of the participants at the same time. This is important, because you may see that someone wants to say something before you hear them. This will help you avoid talking over others. You also may hear people breathe in, which is a cue that they want to speak. Consider the “raise hand” icons in those situations, if it’s a larger classroom.

#5 – Use the mute button

Use your mute button so that background noise doesn’t interrupt the classroom when your students are talking or working. Make sure you teach your students how to use their mute buttons as well. If only one microphone is on at a time, it vastly improves audio quality.

Need to charge your students? 

If you’re looking for a simple and easy way to charge your students to access to your courses and handle tutoring sessions, here are a tools I recommend.

If you need to sell 1-on-1 sessions, I recommend Teachable

As one of the biggest tools to support online teachers, Teachable provides a simple way to sell access to your previously recorded lessons/courses AND you can also sell access to your tutoring. Teachable is easy to use and they have a free version of their tool, so it’s low cost to get started.

If you need to make a community for your students, I recommend LearnWorlds

LearnWorlds provides two features that set them apart and make your life as an online teacher much easier. First is their video editing feature. All you need to do is upload a video and LearnWorlds lets you edit the videos, add quiz questions over the top, or add text over the video while you speak. This is extremely helpful if you need don’t already know how to edit videos.

The second unique feature of LearnWorlds is their learning community for your students. They essentially provide a small social network among your students so they can interact with each other, chat with each other and more.

Some other tools

In addition to Teachable, and LearnWorlds, you may want to consider Podia or Thinkific. Although these tools are not a perfect fit for selling 1-on-1 teaching, Podia does allow you to charge for Zoom calls/webinars.  

Remember that virtual teaching takes some time to get used to, so have patience with yourself and prepare, prepare, prepare. Those virtual classes will start to feel more normal, just like in-person meetings.

Until next time, Happy teaching!
Andrea

10 Easy Steps to Moving your Course Online

A Simple Guide for Teachers Who Need to Adapt to Teaching Online

There’s a mad dash to move face-to-face courses to online. It can feel overwhelming and unnatural for those faculty members who have never taught online. Even if you have taught online before, it can feel dizzying to move every single course online, when your courses were created with physical classrooms in mind.

That’s why it’s important to have an efficient plan when moving courses online. Let’s walk step-by-step through what you need to do to move your courses online.

#1 – Analyze your current course

Before you move everything online, you want to analyze your current face-to-face class. Look at all the components of the course: The objectives, the textbook, major assignments, assessments, and activities. Don’t instantly jump to how you’re going to translate each activity word-for-word to the online environment. Instead, consider the big picture of the topics you’re presenting. If there ever was a time to re-evaluate what you’ve been teaching semester after semester, now is the time. Feel empowered to leave behind what didn’t work well. Just keep that big picture in mind: the course objectives or standards that have been set by your department. Anything else is negotiable.

#2 – Determine whether your class will be synchronous, asynchronous, or a hybrid

Synchronous classes are most like traditional face-to-face classes. Everyone meets online at the same time, and the teacher leads the class virtually. Synchronous classes are great for classes that require group work, or for full-time students in the same time zone. Synchronous elements include listening to live lectures, live chatting, and participating in breakout rooms.

Pros: You can do real-time monitoring of your students’ engagement. Synchronous sessions provide the energy of a live class, and students feel less isolated.

Cons: Student schedules vary, and it may put a hurdle in front of a student with a busy work or family schedule. Also, if your student population has students from around the world, this will likely not work, due to time zone differences. If you or a student run into technology issues for a live session, it’s difficult to reconstruct that experience.

Asynchronous classes are most flexible. Students can log on any time and complete work on their own, without having to attend class at a specific time. Asynchronous classes work great when you have students from several different time zones, or when you’re working with adult populations who have jobs and families. Asynchronous activities include watching video lectures, contributing to discussion boards, and submitting assignments online.

Pros: Anyone can take the course at any time. Students can watch or read course content at their own speed, and as many times as they want to.

Cons: Some students may flounder without the real-time guidance of an instructor. Students also may feel isolated as they work alone.

Hybrid courses blend synchronous and asynchronous elements so that students have to both log in at specific times, and also log in on their own to interact with the course.

Whether you choose a synchronous, asynchronous, or hybrid format, your learning objectives should not change. Your delivery will change, but what won’t change is what you want your students to be able to do upon completion of the course.

#3 – Choose an online platform

If you haven’t already, you need to choose an online platform that will work for you and your students. You want to think about the following considerations:

• Ease of use for both the teacher and the student
• Level of interaction the platform provides
• Synchronous vs. Asynchronous capabilities
• Grade tracking
• Integration with existing websites
• Pricing per student

Here are a few of my favorite online learning platforms and Learning Management Systems (LMS):

Teachable

If you want a reliable, and internationally friendly tool, look no further than Teachable. They were recently acquired, but since then, they’ve released a major update to their tool where you can sell coaching/tutoring subscriptions. So, if you plan on selling synchronous lessons in addition to your courses, Teachable is likely a good fit for you.

Pros

• Teachable is easy to use
• Friendly for international students
• You can sell coaching / tutoring
• They have a free version of their tool, so it’s low cost to get started 

Cons

• They are focused on courses, so if you want to sell ebooks, audio files, etc. you’ll need another tool. (See Podia if you need a tool that sells courses, subscriptions, and digital products) 

Pricing – Plans for Teachable start for free and go up to $249/mo. The lower priced plans take a larger percentage of each sale if you are making sales. They also come with fewer tools out of the box.   

Thinkific

Thinkific is another wonderful tool with free pricing plans. I actually prefer Thinkific over Teachable unless you’re selling coaching / tutoring programs. So, if you are just looking for a great tool to sell your courses and you have no plans to provide tutoring or coaching, I highly recommend Thinkific. Part of the reason I like them so much is the amount of control you have over what your course landing page looks like. 

Pros

• Thinkific is easy to use and you can get started with a FREE plan
• Friendly for international students
• Highly customizable landing pages
• Drip content over time for your students
• Sell memberships
• Cohorts of learners going through your course
• Perfect for institutions with multiple instructors
• Private & hidden courses

Cons

• No simple way to accomplish synchronous coaching or tutoring like Teachable.
• No way of selling stand alone products like Podia.

Pricing – Plans for Thinkific start for free and go up to $399/mo. The higher priced plans are focused on helping people manage multiple instructors.

LearnWorlds

I included LearnWorlds because they are the clear winner if you need a tool that also provides video editing. That’s right! If you want to put your course online, but you’re not sure how to edit video, LearnWorlds has you covered. This is extremely powerful if you need to overlay vocabulary words, definitions, or other items while you are teaching. The other magic sauce for LearnWorlds is that they will automatically create a transcript of your video.

I would advocate that this tool really is the best experience for the students as well. The platform allows your students to highlight sections of copy and take notes on what they’re learning. Furthermore, they have a bunch of testing options, like informal quizzes, formal tests, assignments for critical thinking and certificates for verifying knowledge.

Pros

• Video editing included in the tool!
• Automatic transcription of your video
• Interactive videos (add questions, titles, overlay images, links & more to your videos)
• Flexible video hosting (they will host it, or you can plug in videos from other places)
• Note taking and highlighting for your students
• Robust testing
• Automatic certifications

Cons

• There isn’t a free version
• No simple way to accomplish synchronous coaching or tutoring like Teachable.
• No way of selling stand alone products like Podia.

Pricing – Pricing with LearnWorlds starts at $24/mo and goes up to $249/mo. 

Podia

So, now finally we’re onto Podia, the tool that I use for all of the courses, products, and subscriptions I sell on Study with Andrea. Although I think there are better tools if you only need to sell and manage courses, I need to be able to sell ebooks, audio files, courses, and memberships. All of those are made possible to sell through Podia.

Pros

• Simple and easy to use
• Sell memberships
• Build a group of affiliates to sell your content for you
• Flexible designs for landing pages
• Free migration for certain plans
• Great customer support

Cons

• Only works for individual class sessions.
• Not an LMS (Learning Management System)
• Free version has limitations on length and number of participants
• Although they support 11 languages and 22 currencies, they’re not as internationally friendly as Thinkific.

Pricing – They have two pricing options, $39/mo and $79/mo. They don’t take a percentage of your sales. 

MY RECOMMENDATIONS

If you need it to be low cost, I recommend, Thinkific.

If you’re a tutor and need to sell live courses through Zoom, you should use Podia.

If you need to manage multiple teachers, I recommend, Thinkific.

#4 – Source your dream content from the internet

One of the biggest benefits of teaching online is that you are able to bring in speakers and articles from reputable sources. When a class is face-to-face, there is often the pressure to be the one-person show – the sole lecturer and source of information. You don’t want to appear like you’re phoning it in for your class, so you avoid showing too many videos in class. Leave those insecurities behind when teaching online. You want to bring in as many great thinkers and well-produced videos as possible. Keeping your students’ attention and reaching those learning objectives is top priority – not just re-creating your lectures online.

Have you ever wanted a top Johns Hopkins doctor to explain the nervous system to your Intro to Biology class? You can. Ever wanted linguist Noam Chomsky to teach your students about universal grammar? It’s a click away. In the online classroom, you are curating the very best online content for your students. That goes far beyond lectures. You can also find learning games, flashcards, and interactive sites for your students to engage with.

#5 – Break up your course into smaller chunks

If you’re used to lecturing for the majority of your class time, you will likely want to re-format your delivery. Attention spans are limited when we have devices in front of us. Instead of a 45-minute lecture, you may want to consider two videos from outside sources, the outline of your notes, and a two 10-minute lectures covering the material that remains. Break up your content into digestible pieces so that your students don’t just open their social media while they listen.

#6 – Load your course content into your LMS

Tools like Podia, Thinkific, Teachable, and LearnWorlds all have similar ways of uploading your course outline, video content, and written materials as well. Keep in mind that if you’re uploading large video files, you’re going to want to be on the fastest internet connection you can find. 

If you already have your content on an existing tool, Podia will move the content over for you so you don’t have to do it.  

#7 – Clearly define technology

Clearly lay out your minimum technology requirements so students know what resources they need to succeed in your class. Make a clear list of hardware (i.e. laptop, headphones) and software (i.e. Blackboard, campus email, etc…) that students are required to have access to. Don’t take anything for granted.

#8 – Clearly define engagement

You also want to set clear expectations of how frequently students should be interacting online. Students may not know that they need to check their school email address daily, or contribute to a discussion board twice a week. It’s obvious in a face-to-face class that students need to show up every time class is scheduled. However, when you’re teaching online, it’s not as obvious. Lay out what the minimum requirements are, and also lay out how not meeting those minimum requirements would impact their grade.

You also want to clearly define how quickly you will be interacting with the students. You want this schedule to be as consistent as possible. That way students know when they will receive feedback and grades. You also want to be clear about your online response time to messages or e-mails. You may include a response time expectation such as, “I will be sure to respond to any e-mails or messages within 24 hours, Monday-Friday.”

Then it’s paramount that you follow through on the guidelines you set for yourself. No student wants to be left hanging for days on end when there is not physical way to drop by the office.

#9 – Make deadlines clear and simple

Asynchronous and hybrid courses have quite a few more deadlines than a traditional face-to-face or synchronous class. Students may need to contribute to multiple discussion boards or provide reading responses on a weekly basis. Because of the number of deadlines, you want to streamline them as much as possible. For example, you could make all discussion boards due on Tuesday, and all reading responses due on Thursday. That way, from week-to-week, students don’t get confused about when to complete their repeated tasks. 

#10 – Evaluate what works and what doesn’t

Throughout the course, you’re going to find out what works in the online environment and what doesn’t. Be sure to take regular notes about what you want to tweak for next time. You also want to conduct a survey of the students, asking them questions not only about course content, but also about how the technology supported their learning experience.

Conclusion

You can do this! The majority of courses can be moved online successfully. You may even find that your students are even more engaged than they normally would be sitting in a classroom. Take it step-by-step, and be sure to give yourself the time and grace you need to tackle this learning curve.

Mercifully Strict

A Fool-Proof Guide to Stopping Academic Cheating

When I first started teaching ESL, it was 2006 and I had no idea what I was doing. The very first test I gave, one of the two students in my class cheated on the exam. I was wide-eyed and shocked. I had no clue how to handle it. When I caught the student, I took her to the Director’s office, where the student exploded into a flurry of her native language and negative emotions. I wondered what kind of cultural whirlwind I had stepped into.

My philosophy on teaching university students is that they are adults, but they are also at the same time emerging adults. They want freedom, and should be given the ability to handle freedom. My job as an instructor is to educate the student, but also to guide them into greater levels of self-directed learning and responsibility. The only way that happens is if they can feel the full weight of their choices.

A couple years after that disastrous first exam, I had a group of students who regularly shared the answers to their homework rather than do it themselves. This escalated into an incident where finally one of them decided to cheat on an exam by writing vocabulary words on his hand. If you have never felt that sinking feeling of catching someone cheat, then you aren’t really a teacher yet. It is a terrible feeling when a student puts you in a position that you have to confront them about cheating.

You go through all the stages of grief. 

1) Denial: No, he can’t possibly be cheating. He is smarter than that.
2) Anger: I cannot believe he thinks I’m stupid enough to not notice him cheating!
3) Bargaining: Okay…I’ll let it slide if he doesn’t look at this hand for the rest of the test.
4) Depression: I cannot believe he’s still looking at his hand. Why would he put me in this situation? Am I completely failing as a teacher?
5) Acceptance: He’s cheating. It’s my job to stop it. Here we go.

The key to dealing with a cheater is to simultaneously let them feel the full weight of their consequences, all while extending compassion to the person. Some teachers might try to guilt and shame a student when they’ve caught him cheating. They bring their own insecurities into the situation instead of just following through with boundaries and consequences that were previously set up.

I find that another approach to be more effective. The key is to show compassion on the student, showing your support for them as a person, all while being extremely strict on the consequences of their choice. This might sound oxymoron, but it’s effective.

What does this sound like? It sounds like this:

Teacher: I am so sorry that you have to deal with the consequences of your choice. These consequences aren’t fun in any way. As you know, it is clearly stated in my syllabus that anyone who chooses to cheat will fail the test. I am so sorry that you are having to learn the hard way that this rule is non-negotiable.

Student: Is there any way you can have mercy on me? I’m so sorry.

Teacher: I forgive you, and accept your apology. This is obviously not what we envisioned would happen at the beginning of the semester. I hate it when I have to catch someone who is cheating. It’s not fun for either of us.

Student: I know what I did was stupid. I won’t do it again. What can I do to fix this?

Teacher: I’m glad that you won’t to do it again. I’m sorry to say that this rule is not negotiable. It’s set up to protect the integrity of our program.

The key to ensuring that the student prospers from this event is maintaining honor for that student while enforcing the rules. It is not productive to guilt or shame a student when they’ve made a horrible decision. The key is to let their consequences impact their lives rather than our emotional manipulation towards them. If we honor the student and still speak positively to that student, they might be able to walk away from the situation with hope, rather than defeat. If we guilt and shame them, there is less chance for that student’s redemption.

What does honoring the student sound like?

Teacher: I know you are better than this. I believe that you are a good person who simply made a bad choice. You are bright and have the ability to work hard. I know that you can learn from the situation, and be a better person after this is all over.

Have you ever sat in class before and seen students eyes wandering and said out loud, “eyes on your own paper”? During my first year or two of teaching, I would sometimes have to say that five times in the same test. I learned over the years that five warnings is way too many. I give one warning now, but it comes before the test begins. The reason students continued to keep looking after warnings 1-4 is that I didn’t act after giving the warning. There were no consequences for cheating. I wasn’t following through with any real consequences if they continued to move their eyes around the room. How do I remedy this? I simply state at the beginning of the test, “If anyone looks around at other papers during this exam, you will give me your exam, and you will receive a zero. I don’t want that to happen. It would be terrible for you to have to call your mom and tell her why you failed my class. So please, keep your eyes on your own paper. Any questions?”

Then here’s the key: I follow through on what I say. If I see someone looking around the room, I called their name, take their paper, and they’re asked to leave. It takes one guinea pig in the beginning of the semester to do that for the entire semester to be cheating-free.

It sounds incredibly tough to follow through on those kinds of consequences. But being tough once prevents a semester of struggling through repetitive cheating. If you lay down the law once, the majority of students will not test you. This is not you being tough. It is you laying out a clear set of boundaries and allowing students to make their own choices. You love your students, and you want to make your classroom a place where the temptation to cheat is taken away.

Final Note: It’s important to note that when educating international populations, you need to make sure that your students are educated about what is and isn’t cheating. The cultural norms for plagiarism and cheating are not the same from culture to culture, so you have to be clear at the beginning, middle, and end of the term that your students know what is acceptable in your classroom.

Reflection Questions

What is my classroom policy about academic dishonesty? Who created the policy?

Did I clearly announce the policy at the beginning of the school year?

Have I always followed through on enforcing the policy? If not, why?

If I have always enforced the policy, has the policy been effective in preventing further cheating? If not, what should change about my communication of the policy? Should something change about the policy itself?

Have I ever used guilt or shame to pressure a student instead of kindly enforcing the rules?

In your own words, what does it mean to be “mercifully strict”?