Online teaching – compulsory, not freestyle!
Online teaching is trendy, at least since the beginning of March many schools and colleges are closed due to the Corona virus! Every teacher is now required to teach online. This requirement poses a major problem for many teachers because online teaching has not been an issue at their educational institution. Find out what you can do when online teaching is no longer a freestyle activity but a chore in FROLLEINFLOW’s new series of articles.
Teaching & learning in times of Corona
More and more, educators and learners are using online services like video conferencing, digital whiteboards, instant messaging and more to stay in touch and keep classes moving. Those who already have experience with online teaching now have a clear advantage!
On the web and in personal consultations, however, we very often experience that many teachers from traditional educational institutions have not yet engaged with online teaching, or have not done so in depth. You can hardly imagine how a “distance learning” scenario can be set up.
There is also the question of how long the phase of online teaching will last? No one currently knows how long educational institutions will be closed. This is reason enough to make good use of the current phase to consider how online teaching can be set up in a way that is not only purpose-oriented but also sustainable.
Focus: teaching-learning scenario
In conversations with educators from various educational institutions over the past few days as they embark on their digital journey, one question was asked over and over again:
- If digital teaching cannot and should not be a 1:1 copy of face-to-face teaching, how do you teach online?
This question is smart because by now almost all teachers know what tools are available for online teaching. Teachers, however, also know that tools alone are not enough to provide good online teaching. It takes a concept to set up good online teaching.
Design contemporary scenarios for online teaching
One solution approach that has repeatedly been convincing in our discussions with education stakeholders who want to take off with online teaching now is the goal-oriented design of teaching-learning scenarios.
To provide some basic guidance here, we’re publishing a scenario every day during this week – and showing how to map it purely online. We will present you a total of 5 teaching scenarios:
- Classic scenario
- Entry online scenario
- Blended learning scenario
- Co-creative scenario
- Collaborative scenario 4.0
1. CLASSIC SCENARIO
A classic scenario can be streamlined as what most people associate with classrooms. In the front (at the blackboard) there is a teacher who narrates and then it is about the learners listening and consolidating knowhow.
This scenario is a typical example of how teaching takes place in traditional educational institutions. Everything has its justification and is not qualitatively evaluated here. We have illustrated this classic scenario in Figure 1- A “Classic Scenario. Old school teaching”.
So, now this scenario is suddenly to be put online. What to do?
You could now start by reading out your teaching content, scripts, etc. as a “lecture” in a video conference. This approach would correspond to a one-to-one translation from classic scenario to online scenario. However, this raises the question of whether pure reading aloud (online) is a good solution and whether there is not a better solution, especially with a view to improving the quality of the entire event!
But how then, you may ask?
Basically, you can think of the timing of an event (series) in horizontal progression per day, week, or over a semester. This depends on the learning goals you are trying to achieve. Please consider extending as much of the “stuff” of synchronous communication into the asynchronous space as possible to equalize learning and allow more breathing room for reflection.
The visual course laid out here can serve you as a structuring idea and as an impulse generator. In the vertical design of your concept, you as teachers are free to try your hand at designing the individual event units. Feel free to experiment. And take advantage of the diverse material already available on the web. You don’t have to recreate everything yourself. Works collaboratively, across institutions when possible. And share your experiences so that we all learn from each other.
At the end of your conceptual phase, you will definitely have a concrete teaching concept with a time frame that you can play with. Good luck!
