Best Offline Methods that Work in Online Classes

Considering the current situation in the world that COVID 19 has put us into, more and more schools, universities and training centres had to shift to online classes, even when they had no prior experience, no plans to do so, no knowledge of the existing online teaching tools, etc. This resulted in a big mess, as a lot of teachers had to learn all those things in a hasty manner and it was not easy.

Here, we’ll talk about the differences between online vs. offline learning and point out some methods that can work effectively in both settings.

The Differences between Online vs. Offline Learning

The key difference to begin with, is the location. In offline lessons we are more binded with the physical location of the classes, while the online classes give us more flexibility. Students and the teacher can join the class wherever they want from and feel more comfortable in relation to space and time.

Offline lessons take more energy as teachers, engage more with the students than in online classes. This means, there is less physical monitoring in online classes, less classroom management and more classroom engagement on the part of the students. By saying less classroom management, we don’t mean that the students are not paying attention, it means that they are away from each other, and want it or not, they are more self organized.

Another thing worth mentioning is that the preparation of online classes takes longer than for the offline ones. This is because offline classes are more flexible in terms of instructions, there is an extensive amount of body language, eye contact which help the tasks to be easily apprehendable for the students. In contrast to this, online classes need cristal clear instructions to make sure the students don’t fall off the track and know exactly what they are supposed to be doing.

Last but not the least — we cover more during the offline classes as compared to the online ones, as online classes take more time from the point of view of technical management — when technology fails us, when students need a more thorough explanation, etc. The best ration from my experience is that in online classes you cover half of what you normally cover in offline classes.

Offline Methods that Work Well Online

This may seem a bit strange and confusing, as from the first look, it seems like offline and online classes are completely different. However, if we take a closer look, we can find some quite vivid similarities which can work for both types of sessions.

Here are some things that we should stick to if we want to conduct productive online classes.

— Scheduling

As it is with offline classes, when students are supposed to arrive on time, be ready for homework and class participation, online classes should require the same amount of presence and the level of responsibility. The classes should start right on time, homework should be checked and participation should be graded (depending on the school policies). The best way to do this is to use the Lock Meeting option if you’re using Zoom for online classes, which means that the students won’t be able to join the meeting once it is locked. Similarly, you can use the Waiting Room option which will indicate who was late for the class. Doing this, you should consider the audience you’re working with. This will work with school children, but rarely with adults, as they might feel like “back to school” and just drop the course 🙂

— Pair/group work

Like in offline classes, pair-group work should continue to be an integral part of online lessons. This will help to maintain the natural flow of the class, the students won’t feel the shift from offline to online lessons as they will be working with the same methodology and similar activities. Using Breakout Rooms will give you this chance, if you’re working with Zoom. It will give your students a chance to work in pairs/groups and you will have a chance to switch between the rooms and monitor what the students are doing and help when necessary.

— Monitoring and Feedback

It won’t be new to say, thet in offline classes, we monitor the students when they are working on a task, take some language notes and provide language feedback when they finish the activity, or at the end of the class. This will work similarly effectively in online classes. You will take notes and share language feedback by posting them on a word document and sharing your screen with the students like a whiteboard.

— Presentations

If you’re using presentations for your offline classes, the same works perfectly well with online classes. The difference is that in offline classes you don’t have to be specific in your instruction and/or post them on the PPT, however, in online classes, it’s best to do so, as you might share the presentation with your students, put them in breakout rooms and ask them to start working on TASK 5 for instance. In this case, to save time, it’s best if the instructions are clear-cut on the file you share with your students, so that they don’t get lost on what to do and how to do it. An alternative to PPT is a Microsoft tool called SWAY which is a very nice tool for creating bright, engaging and all-in-one-place presentations.

— Games

Games should not be avoided if you are conducting online sessions, especially if your students are used to it in offline sessions. The difference is that you will need to adapt them accordingly, to make it accessible and doable for the online environment. The best one to start with is Kahoot. It is very easy to play this game online, all you need is to create the game, and share your screen with the students. Another one is Quizlet, which will give you a variety types of activities to stage in your online sessions.

These are some ideas that can get you going in the first steps of your online teaching experience. Hope this helps and let us know what other methods you have tested that work both in online and offline settings.