Designing Lessons For A Virtual Classroom.

When you have to design your lessons for a virtual classroom, especially if the change happens overnight, it is important to know how to create the lesson for maximum impact.  I can tell you that before COVID hit, I wouldn't have had any idea how to do this but over time, due to necessity, I've had to become more flexible.  Although it seems as if the administration thinks we can just do the lesson scheduled for face to face online just as easily, that isn't correct. 

Although there are some similarities such as letting students know what they'll be studying, the process of creating the lesson is rather different.  There are three things to keep in mind when designing lessons taught online.

One of the first things to consider is how long the class is going to be.  Most of us will be told that our classes should run the usual length of our real classes which means they will run between 45 and 90 minutes.  For the longer classes, think about incorporating breaks but no matter the length of the class, think about how long your students will be able to sit for the instruction because you don't want to loose their attention.

The second thing to think about is the way you want to divide the class up so you students engaged.  If the chunks are too long, you'll loose them and then you might have trouble getting them back.  The problem with virtual instruction is that you can't always see if the students are actually involved.  I've had times when I had to turn my camera off due to the bandwidth when I was using Google slides.  

By breaking the content up into smaller chunks, it makes the material easier to digest but you have to be careful to keep the lesson flowing so it doesn't feel disjointed.  Break up the longer sessions with time for personal reflection, games, breaks, or just time to prepare for the next topic. Finally, integrate opportunities for repetition, revision, applications, and consolidation for your students.  All of these must have a clear purpose and relevant to the students.  

When you plan your lessons, there are six things one should think about as you write it.  Think about the overall objective as you create the lesson while making sure you look at it as if you were the student. Make sure you begin with the objective and connect to the objective throughout the lesson to keep the flow going and to help students connect.

Next, Start engaging students before the actual lesson begins by just chatting with them or setting up some sort of ice-breaker or activity to prepare them for class. Make sure you incorporate a variety of activities using different teaching methods, add in personal reflection, group work, pairs, etc. Use the software to its fullest using all of its functionality and include some things that can be done outside of class.

Furthermore, choose activities that have students participating every few minutes. They might participate via polls, breakout rooms, chat, icons such as thumbs up or thumbs down, etc but choose it based on the outcome you desire. It is important to use a variety of these tools rather than the same ones otherwise students become bored. 

When you use visual, make sure they are stimulating.  Think about using licensed images or videos while keeping text to a minimum. If you use slides, they should move every half minute to full minute and the slides should hold mo more than one key idea. When visual are stimulating, it helps keep student attention and engagement.

At the end, think about a way they can share the knowledge they learned during the class period.  If you follow all these ideas, you'll design lessons that are better to use in your virtual classroom.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.