How Tutors Can Transform Distance Learning?

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COVID-19 changed the whole dynamics of our society. It steeped into our careers, personal lives, and education. During that era, parents become teachers, teachers become distance tutors and a kitchen table converts into a classroom. Kids in pajamas and breakfast in their hands used to sit in front of their digital devices to attend their classes.

Even after Covid-19, a lot of students and teachers prefer distance learning. Learners with any physical or mental disability want online classrooms to avoid sitting in the physical classroom. Athletes having rigorous training schedules, students doing part-time jobs, and learners preferring flexible schedules also prefer distance learning. In this situation, teachers should know how to effectively do online teaching and learning. This blog is going to help them in this regard.

What is a distance tutor? 

A distance or online tutor’s job is to rekindle the love for education in the hearts of students and provide them with academic support or resources. They could help learners acing any specific subject area. They could be a substitute for school for those kids who don't attend any educational institute due to personal or health reasons. They could provide MOOC courses to learners who want to learn new subjects and skills to be a successful professionals person.

Both parties need online communication channels and the Internet for distance learning. The teacher and student must have access to a stable internet connection and EdTech tools.

Now, how teachers could get the distance tutor job? They could gain this job through freelance platforms, directly from educational institutes, business pages, or through different agencies. Now, what are the effective strategies for successful distance learning? Let's discuss the guide in the next sections.

Effective Strategies for Distance Learning for Tutors 

The learning and teaching methods of every student and tutor are unique. But, you have to follow some guidelines to make distance learning and teaching a success.

Clear Communication 

As a tutor, you should be available for your students. It means they could ask any question from you and reach out in case of any confusion. For this, you should share your preferred communication channel with students at the beginning of the course. It can be of any type, such as email, message, phone call, and video conferencing. You can use FaceTime, Zoom, and Skype for video conferencing. You should also do one-on-one with your students to check if they are struggling in their studies. 

Here, you should set some boundaries. Clearly mention your office hours to students and what are the communication rules. 

Anticipate Questions

Whenever you assign any new assignment or project to the class, students must have various confusions regarding it. They must learn how to overcome any pitfalls or obstacles they could face while completing the new assignment. So, you should provide them with all the essential resources and guidelines.

For this, you can go on YouTube and watch the videos that explain your requirements. Or, you can go to Khan Academy, Ted-Ed, and Shmoop for this purpose. Make sure to watch the whole video before sharing it with students. If these platforms don't have the content you want, you can make your mini-lessons with the help of Screencast-o-Matic.

Clearly Communicate Your Expectations

Classroom management is essential for successful online learning. So, you should make sure that your students are behaving and that there is a structure during your online live classes. For this, you should set some rules and guidelines for your classroom and make sure to implement them. At the beginning of the course, state the rules and expectations so that learners should know how to behave.

For example, in Zoom, you could ask students to use the raise hand feature when they have a question during the class. Interrupting the flow of lectures should not be allowed. If someone doesn't follow the rule, you could mute them. 

Give a warning to those who break the rules and take some severe action, such as calling their home, to make sure no one else will make the mistake.

Interactive Discussions

Interaction with teachers and peers helps learners to build a community and sense of belonging. So, you should start interactive discussions in the classroom where students can learn about each other and their teacher. This discussion should be fun and informative.

Various tools could help you in this regard. The first one is Flipgrid, which allows students to respond to topics their teachers posted with a selfie video. Students can review each other's responses and respond to them through video. Another is Padlet where you could initiate the conversation on the conversation board.

Parental Involvement

Research has shown that a healthy relationship between parents and teachers could impact the quality of students’ learning. So, in online learning, parents and teachers should collaborate to make sure that the kid is logging into the computer and attending class daily. 

For parental involvement, teachers could make a WhatsApp group of parents where they could share updates and the progress of kids. They could have one-on-one with parents on the phone call or video conferencing platforms.

Frequent Reminders

Online learning needs extra class maintenance and motivation to become successful. As students have to learn at their own pace, they could start lagging in their activities. So, sending frequent reminders could help them to remain organized and focused on their studies.

For this, you could use the “Reminder 101” collaborative app. In this, you could send mass personalized messages to parents and students. Moreover, you could post the reminders on the wall of Padlet or Google Classroom where you are collaborating or interacting with kids.

Pre-Recorded lessons

If you are not doing live classes, then pre-recorded lectures with your voice in the background and simple PowerPoint slides in front are boring. You need to upgrade your video lectures to gain the attention of your students and make the lesson more personalized.

For this, you can use Canva. You could create slides on it and open the recording option that allows your face bubble to appear on slides. Similarly, you could use Loom or Screencastify for this purpose.

How to choose the best EdTech Tool for Distance Learning?

There are various EdTech tools that teachers and kids could use for online learning. But, every tool is not suitable for everyone. So, you should make sure that the EdTech tool is suitable for your learning needs.

For this, you should determine your and your students’ learning objectives. Do they want live classes or a flexible schedule? Does their subject include complex lectures or simple topics? You should ask yourself these questions and look for a tool that is compatible with your needs. If you are confused, you could ask your colleagues what they are doing in virtual classrooms.

Moreover, you should look for the latest and up-to-date tools. The tools that have positive reviews should be on your list. Once you select the tool, call a mock class to test it before implementing it in the course.

Conclusion 

Teachers play a big role in making distance learning a success. If a teacher fails to make online learning effective and fun for students, they are failing them. So, tutors should implement different strategies such as clear communication, pre-recorded lectures, and interactive discussions to engage students in the online classroom. They should make sure that the learner's progress is positive and that they are not lagging.