The migration from the traditional to the digital classroom is inevitable, as more schools and teachers access affordable and accessible education technology around the world. However, e-learning has been received with mixed results by teachers with varying degrees of technical skills, training, support and access to online teaching tools. Yet, even armed with the latest tools and courseware, e-learning requires a few essential tips to ensure a successful teaching experience for both the teacher and the learner. So, we’re sharing 3 simple but necessary tips to help teachers get the most out of their e-learning strategy.
- Get technical on tech
With any digital experience, it all starts with the technical necessities. This may seem like an obvious one but, in our experience, e-learning is more than having the right laptop, desktop, internet connection or smart device. Often, the most frustrating experience is the quality of connectivity and livestreaming that holds back what should be a simple school lesson. Whether you’re using a trusted video conferencing tool or livestreaming platform, ensuring a buffer-free performance can be easily solved by reducing the bandwidth needed to upload, transfer or broadcast content. When your audience consists of young, curious and easily distracted students, every moment counts in how you deliver your lesson.
How we can help; prevent avoidable technical failures and create a dynamic virtual classroom environment with our real-time broadcasting and live streaming capabilities. With our proprietary NIF lossless data compression technology, we can ensure a seamless and smooth teaching experience by reducing bandwidth requirements by up to 90% without sacrificing the quality or resolution of your content.
Additionally, our multimedia mobile cases also allow for classes to be captured, broadcast, and uploaded to the cloud for easy access, making remote classroom broadcasting possible with any Wi-Fi, satellite, GSM, or fibre line connection. You also have the option to stream content to an individual student for one-to-one engagement, or stream to hundreds of learners to maximise the reach of your educational programme.
- Don’t be soft on software
From how you plan your courseware to how students are onboarded onto your platform, make use of applications that give you full oversight of the student’s learning journey. The first component of your software suite often starts with an LMS platform, which allows you to develop, deliver, track and report on student progress. However, be mindful of the limitations and value-added features of your chosen LMS platform; if you want to design a more personalised experience that extends a level of control to the student, an LXP solution leverages the power of artificial intelligence to curate and discover new content, as well as provides individualised, custom learning pathways that are self-paced for the student.
A reliable and user-friendly authoring tool is also essential, and is sometimes included in your selected LMS platform. With an authoring tool you can create, design, and publish content in a variety of media formats, giving you more flexibility with the lessons you want to deliver and less reliance on standardised, off-the-shelf content.
How we can help; simplify complex administerial and operational tasks with our easy-to-use school management and LMS platform. Integrated with multi-level video conferencing capabilities, data collection, record keeping and performance tools, you can ensure both accountability and efficiency from any remote location.
- Make content king and engagement queen
It’s natural to hit a wall when it comes to creating content that is both rich in multimedia and interactive for your students. When your online lessons lead to content fatigue, you risk losing an engaged audience that could be retaining your courseware in a much better way. When planning and designing your content, consider who you’re designing for and what outcomes you actually want to achieve.
In an earlier blog post, we discussed the benefits of microlearning – a notable learning methodology that has demonstrated the merits of designing lessons that are short yet effective. Given that attention spans across all ages are just under 50 minutes on average, depending on age range, keeping your lessons at a duration of 30 to 45 minutes is ideal. Additionally, make sure each lesson focuses on one subject matter at a time. By using exciting visuals and interactive elements, the benefits of e-learning really come to the fore. With a plethora of content libraries and authoring tools available, putting these elements together in a way that enriches your students’ learning journey is a much easier task. However, there is such a thing as overdesigning your content, which could lead more distraction than engagement. So, build an intuitive learning path that is simple, structured and gets more complex incrementally and allows for a manageable learning pace for your students.
How we can help; Create engaging and interactive experiences with our digital whiteboard for live teaching, designed to bring your lessons to life. All you need is a device with a camera and audio and connect either your computer, smartphone, or tablet to our system, which runs seamlessly on low bandwidth.
Our sales team are also on hand to help you source content from our existing content partners. We assist with planning the lesson structure of your education programme and integrate it well into our existing suite of software and hardware solutions.
—
We offer education technology that goes the distance, with our Niflink Teach end-to-end solutions designed to connect any classroom or learning environment through our proprietary NIF data compression technology. Our inclusive, smart education platform can be customised to your needs, no matter where you are in your e-learning journey.
Learn more about Niflink Teach here.