Get What IS Working for Students in Virtual Learning to Work for You in your Online Classroom
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~ estimated 9-minute read ~
Get What IS Working for Students in Virtual Learning to Work for You
Virtual learning has brought our students many unforeseen challenges since March 2020, and some of these challenges have either diminished its negative effect as teachers beat these challenges tech-on, while other challenges continue as we enter the last term of the next school year after schools went virtual last spring.
However, there are found advantages for students brought on by virtual learning that cannot be dismissed or ignored. And, if we as teachers use these advantages to increase student attendance, engagement, participation, and achievement, these virtual learning advantages students are experiencing become a Win-Win, for both students and teachers, in our virtual classrooms.
The U.S. Department of Education reported that according to a study of K-12 students (1), “Students in online conditions performed modestly better, on average, than those learning the same material through traditional face-to-face instruction,” (p. xiv). When I read this study finding, I was surprised and motivated to find out why. Keep in mind, this study was done in 2010. (See page xvi for the conclusions of the study.)
One obvious advantage is the ease of schooling virtual learning at home provides to students with special health care needs or who have physical disabilities. The anxiety these students may have felt and experienced leaving their homes to attend school physically is no longer an educational obstacle for students who need care, equipment, and support getting to and attending school (2).
Another virtual learning advantage that emerged is teaching online has caused teachers to be more student-centered than ever in their instruction. When we were in our physical classrooms, teachers were visually, the “sage on the stage”. Everything in the classroom (posters, signs, pictures, furniture, etc.) was a representation of the teacher, his or her personality, expectations, and the content. However, in the virtual classroom, teachers found out quickly, if we did not connect to students immediately at the start and throughout the virtual class, and make instruction and learning about the students, we lost them or their attention fairly quickly (3).
Additionally, the virtual online classes have pushed us, as educators, to push community and social constructive learning through verbally asking students questions to keep them engaged and attentive, encouraging students to enter answers in the chat, and creating break-out rooms for students to pair and group with a learning task as the mission. These social episodes with fun transitions in between in our virtual class keep the attention moving to encourage students to stay engaged, be in front of their laptop with the virtual class on his or her screen and camera on, rather than just attending in name only without the camera turned on. Additionally, building community among student peers and with the teacher nurtures social-emotional wellness in our students during a time when socialization is a necessity in adolescent development.
Students, learning from home, have more autonomy and freedom in their learning, which when they make the right decisions, gives students more ownership in their education. This awareness students have of what individually works for them, influences and feeds their chosen effort and engagement inside virtual instruction and assignments. This recognition organically increases a student’s metacognition, which is extremely valuable for student achievement and higher-level learning. Many times, these preferences students have in their learning are related to their learning style.
With more flexibility of student time caused by the online environment and the time saved in traveling to and from school, as well as the content being accessible 24/7, students have some new independence to decide how much time they spend on content and assignments. If the content is harder, they may choose to stay engaged longer or access it later after the virtual class because of the content’s continuous access. This increase in control of their time and on-demand access to content and assignments benefit students who want to stay inside the content longer than what an end-of-period school bell stopped in the physical classroom.
Furthermore, teachers found out quickly last school year how valuable feedback plays in communicating to students, monitoring their progress, and continuing relationships. With all the different ways to provide feedback (comments in online assignments, annotations in submissions, emails, one-on-one virtual conferences, etc.), the increase in feedback not only helps the student know what he or she is doing well and how to improve to do better, but also helps the student feel seen and heard. In addition, a sense of belonging increases, which plays an important part in a student’s social-emotional wellness. Last school year without teachers physically meeting students at the beginning of the school year, feedback played a huge role in building relationships and trust between student and teacher.
Last but definitely not least, since many teachers are using more media (videos, pictures, infographics, audio files, etc.) in their instruction, these supplements, and variations in the content are supporting the different types of learners we have in our virtual classes. What may have been a majority of information in text form in the physical classroom, has morphed into a welcomed visual, interactive, and animated nature of content which, hands down, appeals to this generation of students. Adding media to instruction also stimulates students' senses and helps accommodate instruction and learning. Media inside the content is also beneficial for our ELL students in their learning and translation. Just as we know the saying, "A picture paints a thousand words", supplementing our content with appropriate and contextual media in image, video, music and sound, infographic, animation, chart, and graph forms gives the content a life-form and power that text, simply, does not possess.
In summary, virtual learning spaces, for the benefit of the student, offers:
More emphasis on student-centered instruction
More social learning time in classes
More opportunity for student ownership of learning
More flexibility of student time to commit to their learning
More feedback provided by teachers
More media to stimulate and attend student learning
With these increases in mind, how can we take advantage of the advantages and do more in our virtual, hybrid, hyflex (hybrid with student flexibility of learning), and physical classrooms to
encourage higher student performance?
Give a virtual education option to students who have special health care needs or physical disabilities. Support and supplement their home-based learning with teacher and health paraprofessional home visits. To provide socialization opportunities, we may offer optional social gatherings with peer students in class.
Create more community and social-constructed learning by using online discussion,
break-out rooms, and group work on a regular basis. Using Microsoft’s Flipgrid for video discussions is a big hit in the secondary classroom.Ask students to create their own student academic action plan and put it into action. In this way, students realize the value of their self-motivation, self-efficacy, and time-management, all tremendous assets in the 21st century. Teachers meet with students, one-on-one, to discuss, monitor, and give feedback on the student’s action plan progression.
Continue to find new ways to provide more feedback to students. Record feedback in audio or video form, which most LMSs (Learning Management Systems) allow. Or use applications like Loom or Screencast-o-matic for free or Bomb Bomb video email ($19 a month but SUPER EASY to create and deliver videos via email) to record and insert video into emails you send to students (and parents).
Create more media for your content. Use Canva for Education for everything still-image (and linked) or Thinglink for interactive infographics. Also, create interactive media lessons using Nearpod, Peardeck, or Sway. Interactive lessons in our virtual classes have been the #1 GAME CHANGER in virtual learning for our students.
Check out my
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on Virtual Learning Student Advantages Free Guide
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Please comment below—How do you plan to take advantage of the virtual learning advantages for students in your instruction and student learning activities?
Next week’s blog topic: What kind of feedback supports a student to succeed?
Want to hear my podcast episode on The EdTechEnergy Podcast channel?
You’ll find teacher bonuses for my podcast listeners included in the show! Head over to this episode’s show notes!