The Ogburn Online School

The major questions that should be covered are:

• Why education plays a significant role in your life?
• What is your purpose of teaching?
• What are your qualifications to prove your credibility as a teacher?
• What are your tactics of keeping the students engrossed?

The second part might contain the answer to the question:

• How would you implement your teaching ideas to make your methods more effective?

A teacher with the genuine intent of helping his or her students can always be a phenomenal teacher, whether offline or online. However, there are certain smart tips to follow, when it comes to online teaching:

• Building a great rapport with students
  Students tend to share everything with their peers. So, if teachers built a relation with students where the students are free enough to share even their shortcomings openly, half of the job is done. Teachers should always be on the lookout to provide a helping hand to the students that makes the students rely on their teachers, and focus more on their studies.

• Devoting extra time
  Students should be made aware that online course has to be treated with great seriousness. Same applies for teachers as well. This is no shortcut to gaining teaching experience. In fact, extra hours have to be contributed to understand the course themselves.

• A genuine feedback is a must
  Assessments should always by followed by proper feed backs to the students on individual basis, since it is an online course. Many students feed on their teacher’s remarks to improve themselves and even to get their sense of capability reinforced.
  The teacher should also be sensitive to the student’s needs or concerns and should always seek out for solutions on a positive note, for the student.

• Communication with students
  Many tools are provided by online schools to facilitate potential communication with students, such as discussion forums, live sessions or privatized emails. You have to experiment as to which of these works the best and draw a conclusion.

• Do not treat it as any other 9 to 5 Job
  Students can crave for your helping hand in critical times, even at your “off “ hours. Without your guidance at the proper time, they might lose confidence. So, you might have to sacrifice your personal time or extend your working hours during crucial times, in order to fulfill your responsibility as the student’s angel.

• Get immersed into the course management
  Actively participate in reviewing assignment submissions or setting gentle reminders for students for deadlines.

• Establishing a scheduled procedure
  There should be an element of repetition to their style of handling the course. Students will have a clear idea as to what is expected of them and this will help them to create their personal schedules for upcoming weeks. This specific pattern will help students in developing their time management skills.

• Plan for emergencies beforehand
  Online teachers plan out to keep students aware of even subtle changes to the common pattern being followed. They might even appoint a person for emergency situations, such as if they face health issues or, if the website gets non-functional for a while or if some tools do not work. Students should be kept updated.

• Be mindful when writing to students
  In the world of online learning, where there are no face to face interactions, it is very important to be mindful while conversing with students, or sending them messages via mail. Any kind of harsh tone or derogatory remarks should be avoided. You should remember that your remarks can make or break them, so you need to be extra conscious and considerate.

• Flawless course materials
  It is your duty to make sure that the course material is flawless, that is, the contents should have the attributes of systems performance, proper instructional design and precision. The course material should always be of a superior quality and content.

• Understanding the student’s needs on a personal basis
  You need to be sensitive to the student needs, and that too on an individual basis, unlike in traditional classrooms. Only then can you come up with personalized solutions for each one of your students.

• Keeping students motivated and attentive
  Encouraging students to speak their minds or collaborative assignment works captivates the minds of the students, much contrary to monotonous lectures.

• Encouraging students to give their feedback
  Allowing students to give feedback early in the course can be beneficial to the teachers and to bring about necessary changes to make their teaching pattern more effective.

• Making the students aware of the course expectations
  This step should be taken at the beginning of the course itself. Students should be informed as to how many assignments they need to submit on a weekly basis, how important are group activities and that quizzes are also to be treated with seriousness.

• Making effective use of the tools
  The online school provides many useful tools that you should be aware of first and foremost. You should have a comprehensive knowledge of the tools and the entire online platform right from the start of the course and only then can you teach the students about the tricks and intricacies of using the various tools. Tools such as chat rooms or programs pertaining to quizzes can be used throughout the course to make it more interactive and engaging for students from time to time.

• Be ready to make amendments in your course materials as per student’s needs
  The beauty of online schools are that the students are not forced to adhere to any set-up coursework. You need to bring changes to your lessons, in case, a particular student needs more details on a particular topic.

The most essential point to keep in mind is that students should never feel alone while taking online courses as it might scare them off. There are no face to face interactions, so if there is not enough communication between teachers and students, online courses will never work for students. They need constant mental support at all the stages to feel your presence beside them. Online teaching is a great responsibility, yet it can give you a great sense of achievement, especially when you make a difference in a student’s life without even meeting him or her face to face.