This blog is a step-by-step guide on how to make online teaching more engaging for your learners.

Sell online courses in 2022

Online learning has definitely made education more accessible but if engaging, that’s a different debate altogether. Today, while sitting within the comfort of your home, you can learn from top educators and universities across the world. And when the pandemic hit the world, learning could go on all thanks to this possibility.

But the question here is whether online mode does justice to the overall teaching-learning experience. 

Is online teaching as engaging as the traditional model?

Unlike offline learning where lessons are delivered within the closed environment of a classroom, in online teaching there is an endless number of distractions. And to keep students together as if in a real classroom and make them stay connected, invested, and motivated throughout is not an easy task. 

And therefore the most common question a teacher asks is “how to make online teaching more engaging”?


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Make online teaching more engaging

So, if you are a teacher who is trying hard to navigate through it all and find ways to make online teaching more engaging, deliver the best, and have your students interact, we at Graphy are here with a foolproof action plan. Follow these tips and turn online teaching into an engaging experience for both yourself and your students. 

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Bring Personality to Your Teaching

The first step to making online teaching more engaging is to bring your individuality into the picture. Students would want to interact with a person who would come to the classroom with their own set of experiences and beliefs and impart education while riding on it all. 

If your teaching lacks a personality, it’s simply like you are reading from a book or an essay and this, students can very well do on their own. So, the engagement rate would take a downward curve.  

Take On the Role of a Storyteller

We all love stories and your students love them too. So, the best way to make online teaching more engaging is to charge your lessons with a narrative voice. Don’t just go around stating facts and information in a mundane fashion but present them all in an interesting way. 

Share Your Enthusiasm For the Subject

Here, the mantra is to seem as invested as you would want your students to be. If they feel like you are teaching just for the sake of it, the interest of students wouldn’t be anything more than that. So, make the students aware of your interests and the in-depth knowledge that you have regarding the subjects. 

Don’t Limit Yourself to the Textbooks

What books don’t teach you, your experience does and as a teacher, you have a wealth of experience at hand. So, from time to time, make sure to share it with your students, help them go beyond the pages of their textbook, and make online teaching more engaging.  

 Use Every Technology at Hand to Your Benefit

In this modern world, technology is always at your aid. So, why not make use of it to make online teaching more engaging when technology is what made online learning possible. 

You can break the monotony of online teaching by incorporating certain elements that work well with verbal lectures. Use PPTs, images, videos all to your benefit, and make sure that boredom never creeps into your online teaching space. 

  • Video-sharing platforms like Zoom or Google Meet have a screen-sharing feature. Use that to collectively watch images, videos or relevant documentaries with your students. 
  • Use PPTs to impart lessons in a more graphic and comprehensive manner. You can also share it with students afterwards for their reference. 
  • Do some research and find virtual games, breakout rooms or quizzes that will aid in the learning process and make learning more fun and exciting. 

Here, what is important is to know how to use each of these virtual tools. As an educator who offers online teaching, your inability to use them all efficiently could negatively impact your credibility. 

At Graphy we help integrate third-party tools with your online course platform and therefore we have got you covered on this front. Get in touch with us for more assistance. 

Set Everyday Goals and Follow Them Through and Through

As a teacher your role doesn’t end with delivering online lessons, you also have to make sure that your students are making the best out of your online course. Now, you wouldn’t want your students to sleep through the lectures and sail through the course without having learned anything. In the end, attendance counts for nothing if you haven’t learned anything. 

So, what you need to do is track the progress of your students by setting achievable goals and having them work towards achieving it all. 

Divide the Lessons Into Digestible Chunks

The lesson that you impart in a day shouldn’t be too little or a lot. If it’s too little, the students might not find it worth their time to attend your online sessions and if it is a lot, they might get too overwhelmed. What you need to find is the right balance and divide your everyday lessons into digestible chunks that students can listen to and retain. 

Also, important here is to give homework to students every day and have discussions on it in the next lecture. That way, students would have a reason to come prepared for the lessons and this would make overall online teaching more engaging.

Check Progress using Revision Classes and Tests

There is a reason why every school curriculum involves regular tests, annual exams, and revision classes. That is how you track progress and make students face how well they have been doing in the chosen course. So, make sure you conduct regular tests and organize doubt clearing sessions to bridge gaps if any. 

 Interactive Lessons For the Win

Bring more interaction to the picture and you naturally end up making online teaching more engaging. It is easy to doze off or let your mind take you to a different world in the middle of a lecture when teaching is a one-way street. So, have interaction at the core of your online teaching methodology. 

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Engage in Dialogues

The moment you feel like you are a part of a conversation and might be asked to share your input at any time, you naturally become more attentive and invested. So, rather than you talking for the entire duration of the class, opt for an interactive session where students also participate and share their opinions or learnings. 

Ask questions like: What is your take on this idea? Have you experienced anything similar in your life? 

The key is to make students feel that their opinion would be heard and be valued. That they are not passive listeners but active participants in the whole online teaching mode. 

Opt for Live Lessons

Today, online teaching is a combination of the synchronous and asynchronous modes of learning and both parts are equally important and are key to making online teaching more engaging. 

Both synchronous and asynchronous modes together help build a real-time learning experience and this allows you to come together with the students, cover new topics, discuss what they learned in the course so far and bring in the scope for new findings. 

Here, conducting a live session is of utmost importance. While recording the lectures and sending them across is an option, it takes away the interactive aspect of your online teaching. That will make your lesson nothing more than a video available out there on the internet. 

So, always prefer live sessions over recorded lessons and while you are at it keep the camera on and ask the students to do the same because that brings in a semblance of face-to-face learning and makes online teaching a lot more engaging. 

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Know Your Students and Accommodate Their Interests

One factor which determines how engaging your online sessions would be is the level at which you connect with your students. It is quite simple, if students feel like their absence won’t be noticed and that their opinions in the classroom don’t matter, they are a lot less likely to be present and engage with what is happening in the classroom.

So, if you are serious about making your online teaching more engaging then, make an effort to know your students and accommodate their interests and needs into your teaching plan. 

  • The first step to knowing your students is memorising their names and using them whenever you address them in the classroom. 
  • Ask students about why they opted for the course and what their expectations are from it. 
  • Create a safe space where students could share their honest feedback. 
  •  Always be open to the concerns of the students and bring in necessary changes to the curriculum or teaching methodology if the need be.  

This was our guide to making online teaching more engaging. With Graphy, learn the art of engagement and make sure that what you put forth for your students is the best learning experience out there.