Classes taught online are a great way to make learning more accessible. They don’t require attendees to be in a specific location. They allow people who may have other responsibilities to attend without worrying about disrupting others and they also enable students to work wherever is most comfortable. Learning new subjects has never been easier!
In 2021, I took part in voluntary teaching with an organisation called Code First Girls. I delivered an Introduction to JavaScript cohort to 30+ students alongside two other instructors. Here are some tips from my personal experience:
Set expectations at the start of the session
Before beginning, set out the style of the session. This could include the content that is going to be covered and how. Let the people attending know what type of interaction is required of them so they can adjust themselves for the session ahead.
There will probably be questions from students during the class. Inform them of the best ways to ask. This could differ from one session to another. Sometimes it may be best for the questions to be asked in dedicated times and others for people attending to unmute and ask as soon as a question arises.
Try to make sessions interactive
Interactive sessions are more engaging. There are many ways to make online teaching interactive. A few include:
- Quizzes
- Minor tasks to do either individually/ in small groups / as a whole
- Quick presentations
Ice breakers also help encourage engagement in a session. They can be quick and anonymous, and use fun interactive tools like whiteboards to gather shared input.
Keep a conversation archive
Chat tools are great alongside teaching. During my teaching time at Code First Girls, we asked the students to write questions they may have in Slack. We took advantage of the thread feature, which allowed us to pair answers to questions. This created a small collection of FAQs for students to reference during or after the sessions.
The same goes for resources that are shared during online sessions. Having written communication available after the session had ended also allowed students to still have a link to resources after the session ended.
Use break out rooms/set group tasks.
Group tasks are an easier way for people in the class to get to know each other. It is much less daunting to have a conversation online with five people rather than 30!
As part of the Code First Girls cohort, the students worked in groups of 4 or 5 on the project, which spanned the entire course. During each lesson, the students built upon projects. Each week, there was some voluntary time for the groups to present parts of their work. At the end of the course, we had a presentation evening where each group took turns presenting the websites they had been building throughout the course. The presentation was a great way to celebrate what they had learned and achieved through the course.
Get regular feedback
Ask for feedback after sessions. This could be a simple questionnaire or a way to contact you. Feedback helps you improve the way content you deliver lessons in the future.
We also gained feedback during the sessions while teaching at Code First Girls. We covered several new concepts during a single lesson. At the end of the lesson section, we would put a message in Slack and ask students to react to if they understood the topics covered. By viewing the number of ‘thumbs up’ on the message, we evaluated if it was a good point to move on or if we needed more time to cover the content.