Teaching Successfully in the Virtual Classroom

“Put effort into getting to know yourself, your students and the system. One step at a time, keep moving forward, stay positive, and bring your unique talent to the table.”

Rita Costa, Director of Studies and Senior English Trainer of inlingua Luxembourg, has many years of teaching experience, including teaching virtually. Today, she shares her knowledge and provides valuable tips on how to successfully teach in the Virtual Classroom. Find out more about the way she motivates her learners and monitors their interaction.

1. What differentiates the Virtual Classroom (VC) from a traditional classroom?

At their core, VCs are video collaboration platforms with specific features for synchronous asynchronous online teaching. There are some reasons why a virtual classroom can be more effective than a traditional classroom:

2. How do you motivate learners in Virtual Classroom?

Just as in an actual classroom, the teacher and the students can engage in question-answer sessions. Effective role playing, debates and discussions are encouraged. Put effort into getting to know yourself, your students and the system. One step at a time, keep moving forward, stay positive, and bring your unique talent to the table.

3. What are the best ways to monitor the interaction of students in Virtual Classroom?

3. What are your top 5 expert tips for teaching successfully in Virtual Classroom?

1. First, get acquainted with Zoom: (especially the breakout rooms for group sessions). Make sure you test out the slides. Font sizes, colours, template designs and screen ratios should be double-checked. Learn how to move the video feed out of the way, annotate on a whiteboard, access the chat box, etc. Remember: if you annotate on one slide, the same annotations will be transferred to the next slide(s). Better to erase them before moving on to the next slide. What I do (on Zoom) is use the presenter’s view when I share my PowerPoint presentation. I can type notes on the right-hand side, save them and copy them onto my last slide called “Notes from today’s lesson”. The learners appreciate this recap as it contains lexical/grammatical items plus pronunciation issues present during speaking practice. You can also share the whiteboard. Make sure learners have had their welcome session before beginning.
2. Remember to focus on ‘Active’ Learning in the breakout room too: don’t forget to engage learners who are in the breakout room. The course should mix spurts of discussions, collaboration, video and audio clips. Embrace technology and what it has to offer.
3. Let learners take control: encourage them to use the communication tools (before, during or after a lesson) on Zoom/myinlingua. Make sure you have explained this to them during your first Welcome Session.
4. Use existing resources (my.lab, etc.)
5. With higher levels, try flipping the classroom. With tech savvy learners, get creative: use Padlets, Quizlets, virtual reality videos on YouTube, gamify the experience etc.

…and an additional tip: open and read pre-lesson emails and documents from learners. Correct exercises and give them feedback. You can also use the “Reactions” option during your Zoom lessons.

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Next blog: Make sure to read our next blog article about the most effective tools in the Virtual Classroom. Rita Costa shares her expertise for both Mac and Windows users.