- How are my students progressing? How are they? Follow-up and support
One of the key aspects in the success of online training is that the student feels accompanied, that somehow perceives that the teacher cares about him.
It is important to enable meeting spaces where students feel listened to, where we can resolve their concerns or difficulties and transmit tranquility, encouragement and enthusiasm to them. This support can be by video conference (individual and group tutorials) and through forums (sending reminders about delivery dates, sharing topics of interest, etc.)
On the other hand, the platform offers us tools that allow us to monitor our students more individually. Are they connected to the platform? Do they turn in homework? Contacting a student who has been offline for some time to find out if they are having any problems is a gesture that the student will appreciate and can change the way they approach the subject.
- Evaluate so they learn
How we evaluate conditions the way our students learn, so it is very important that the evaluation system is consistent with the competences that we want students to develop.
Continuous evaluation is an opportunity for us to propose attractive challenges to students, in which these competences can be developed and, furthermore, we can evaluate them.
Feedback plays a fundamental role here, since it is key to contributing to the development of these skills. It is better to request a broader global task, with intermediate milestones, than a multitude of independent mini-tasks, in this way, the student will be able to improve her performance with the feedback she receives.
It is important to give students very detailed indications about the task to be assessed. Why is it important? what do you have to do? when? What resources do they have? How are they going to be evaluated? The evaluation criteria must be made explicit and shared with the students, these are a guide for the teacher in the evaluation, but they are also a guide for the student during the completion of the task. Sometimes a rubric or a checklist could help us. We must not forget that the evaluation must provide relevant information to the student for improvement.
It is important to be aware that the current circumstances are very special and perhaps we should make the evaluation more flexible (for example, making exceptions with the delivery date in duly justified cases).
If we are going to carry out a final evaluation test, it is preferable to put our effort into thinking of an activity that is difficult to copy, instead of adding layers and layers of technology for its surveillance. Keep in mind that the more layers of technology we add, the more likely it is that some students who have problems that day and, surely, may end up being penalized students who did not deserve it. From the indications given by the Ministry and the CRUE, it is insisted that the security measures chosen should not hinder or make it impossible for students to take the tests.
Online exams worry and generate a lot of anguish for our students. To ensure that everything goes well, and also to make them feel calmer, it is essential to do a pre-test or mock exam, where they can see how to access, what type of questions they will find and, especially, if they have any technical difficulties. to be able to solve it or think of alternatives for them.
During the examination, any technical incident must be reported and recorded at the time (not after obtaining the qualification) to seek an evaluation solution or alternative as soon as possible.
- Creation of Flipbook
The flipped classroom is known to be one of the most effective ways of teaching remotely. Software like FlipHTML5 is one of the best remote teaching tools through which teachers are empowered to assign lesson plan and follow-ups along with hands on small group activities. The ideas can be simply understood with the digital flipbook where more interactive content or textbook can be created.
- Coordinate and lean on other teachers
Networking with other teachers will help us generate better and more coordinated responses for students. Also, it allows us to support each other, feel accompanied, consult and share ideas, doubts, good practices, difficulties. This can be done through scheduled meetings, but also in more informal spaces such as “virtual cafes” or online forums.
