Not a computer person? The hard part of teaching is the part you already know. A calm checklist for your first online class, from the practice call to the homework.
Teachers who are new to online classes nearly always start with the same sentence: “I’m not a computer person.” Often it comes from someone who can quieten forty children with one look, and who knows exactly which part of a chapter confuses Class 9 every year.
That knowledge is the hard part of teaching, and you already have it. The buttons are the easy part. There are about six of them, and by your third class you will press them without thinking.
The day before
- Do a practice call with someone at home. Ask a son, daughter or grandchild to join from another room. Can they hear you clearly, see your face, and read what you write?
- Learn the six buttons: microphone, camera, share screen, whiteboard, chat, and leave. Say each name out loud as you press it. It feels silly. It works.
- Plan the lesson in three parts of about 15 minutes, with a question or a small task between them. A long lecture is hard to follow on a phone.
- Write your first question on a slip of paper, so you don’t have to invent one while you are nervous.
- Plan for load-shedding: charge the laptop, check the UPS, and keep a phone with a data package ready as a hotspot.
Thirty minutes before
- Plug in the charger and close everything else on the computer.
- Wear a headset or earphones with a microphone. They stop the echo of laptop speakers feeding back into the microphone.
- Sit facing a window or a lamp. With the window behind you, you teach as a dark shadow.
- Put the laptop on a few books so the camera is level with your eyes. Students should see your face, not the ceiling fan.
- Tell the family the class is starting. A note on the door helps. (It will not stop the pressure cooker. Nothing stops the pressure cooker.)
- Phone on silent, class list beside you, water within reach. Join early and check that the microphone icon is not crossed out.
The first five minutes
- Greet each student by name as they join. It tells them you can see them, and that they belong here too.
- Do a sound check: “If you can hear me, type 1 in the chat.” Wait for every name.
- Give three rules, once: microphones off unless you are speaking; to ask something, raise a hand or type in the chat; if the teacher disappears, stay and start the exercise on the board.
- Ask a warm-up question everyone can answer, like one thing they remember from last time.
- Say in one sentence what today’s class will cover.
During the class
Camera
When you say something important, look into the camera, not at the faces on the screen. To the student, it looks as if you are looking straight at them. The rest of the time, be yourself. Nobody expects a newsreader.
Sound
If you can fix only one thing, fix the sound. When researchers played the same recorded talks in clear and in poor audio, listeners judged both the speaker and the research less favourably when the sound was poor. Speak a little slower than in a classroom, and pause after each important point.
Writing on the screen
Writing with a mouse feels like writing with a brick. Easier ways: type in large letters on the whiteboard, write on white paper with a thick marker and hold it up to the camera, or photograph a page and share it. Write fewer words than on a blackboard, and write them slowly.
Calling on students
“Anyone?” gets silence online. Ask the question first, pause, then say a name. Research on classroom questioning has found that teachers usually wait less than a second before speaking again, and that a pause of about three seconds brings longer, better answers. Online, allow extra for the delay in the connection: count to five in your head. It will feel long. It isn’t.
Tick a name each time that student speaks, so the quiet ones get their turn too.
When something goes wrong
Sooner or later, something will. It happens to every teacher, and students forgive it quickly if you stay calm.
| Problem | Check first | What to say |
|---|---|---|
| One student can’t hear you | Is your microphone crossed out? If the others can hear you, the problem is at the student’s end. | “Turn your volume up. If that doesn’t work, leave and join again.” |
| Everyone hears an echo | Someone has speakers on next to a microphone. | “Everyone except the speaker, please switch your microphone off.” |
| Your internet drops | Rejoin with the same link. If that fails, use your phone’s hotspot. | Nothing yet. They know the rule: stay and start the exercise. |
| The electricity goes | Laptop on battery, router on the UPS? If not, join from your phone. | “Load-shedding, sorry. Let’s carry on from question 3.” |
Lost more than ten minutes? Don’t squeeze the whole lesson into what is left. Finish one part properly and move the rest to the next class.
After the class
- Watch ten minutes of your recording before you share it. Notice where you rushed and where the students went quiet. Nobody enjoys hearing their own voice, but this teaches more than any training session.
- Give homework in writing, where the whole class can find it: what to do, which page, and when it is due. Homework given only out loud gets lost.
- Note who was quiet and which part ran long. Start the next class with both.
- For younger students, a short note to parents after the first week, on how their child is settling in, puts their minds at rest.
Before your second class
Your first online class will not be perfect. Your first class in a real classroom wasn’t either, and you got better by teaching, not by reading about teaching. Do the practice call today, and keep this list beside you on the day.
If you would like to teach online with us, this post explains how applying and pay work at Education360, and the application form is here.
