Since the widespread transmission of Covid-19 was recorded, many schools and universities worldwide transferred their classes to online platforms as an effort to protect students from the virus.

For tutors, utilising online platforms like ours is becoming a must to help students keep up with their online classes.

While some tutors may find online teaching daunting, there are several tips that you can apply to make it better for you and your student.

Here are our recommendations that you can follow for your online teaching classes:

Record your lectures

Live streaming of your tutoring sessions can be hard for your students to follow, especially if they do not have access to a stable internet or if they are sick.

Instead, record your lectures and have it hosted in a video hosting site like Youtube. When it is uploaded, send the link of the video to your student.

If you are able to edit your videos, you can put subtitles on them so your student can follow the lecture.

Keep videos short

When you record a video lecture for your student, keep it as short as you possibly can.

Long videos from 15 minutes onwards are hard to upload and may cause download problems for your student. It will also cause them to lose focus because of the length.

Show your face

While recording your lectures, you should show your face in the camera. Some studies say that it is better for your students to see you in the video because they focus on you rather than a video narrative.

In a video narrative, they may find the lecture boring and not pay careful attention to its content. Here is how to make your student pay attention in your lessons.

Smile a lot

When you do your videos, it is important that you smile and stay upbeat. Your tone of voice is very important.

This will give your students a reason to focus and know that the class won’t be boring even if it is done online.

It also shows that you are ready to help them in class.

Use Interactive activities

To ensure students stay interested in the classes, you must give them interactive activities that will catch their attention.

Check various online platforms here that allow such activities and even see what other avenues you can use to interact with them easily.

Most online platforms that offer these interactive activities are for free so you and your student don’t have to pay to utilise it together.

Test out slides

Before you upload your lecture, check if your lecture slides are readable on your smartphone, tablet or computer so your students won’t have to worry about the text and ask you about it.

Change the font sizes, templates and screen ratios accordingly if you spot problems. Here is a comprehensive guide to make sure your online class goes on smoothly. 

Remember that electronic tools leave electronic traces

Since your tutorial session will be online, it will leave electronic records behind which you can use in your future sessions.

You will be able to adjust your future lectures when it comes to how you upload video lectures, what materials you upload, and how discussions can be done.

It will also help you see which gaps you need to address in your future tutorials will be done online. You may even turn to new online teaching tools once you see the current platform does not work.

As an extra tip, you can ask your students to review the online tutoring session. Their feedback can help you see which areas you may have missed for your online classes.

Prepare your next course while teaching this one

While using one online learning course for one student, you should already prepare your next online course for your other students.

Since you already managed to make one online class, you already know what to do to prepare your next course and adjust the level depending on your student’s grade level and subject proficiency.

You can also add the new additions you want to put in your online teaching course that you were not able to do so in your first online session. This will help you to increase productivity on each lesson on top of these tips.  

Ask good questions

It can be difficult to determine your student’s progress when you are teaching them online or if they have to gauge their work through online apps. It can be very easy for them to cheat if the questions are very easy to answer with a little bit of research.

If you want to see if they understood the material you provided, ask questions that will inspire them to think carefully and provide a profound answer that you can discuss together. Here is how you can increase class participation by asking good questions.

You should take time to vary the type of questions you ask your student. These questions must also be interactive so you can see how much effort was placed by the student.

You may need to do this with a trial and error because not all students perform well in certain types of questions depending on their learning style.

Watch student engagement and adjust for better participation

If you use video conferencing to do your online tutoring sessions, you can easily see whether your student is paying attention to you or not. It will also give you an idea which subjects they are not interested in.

To get them to participate in your discussions, you can change the way they participate in every topic or subject.

For example, you can request for an essay for one day and then, on the next one, you can ask them to do an interactive exam. You can also open an opportunity for your student to ask you questions or talk to them about their concerns.

Final Thoughts

Online teaching, especially in today’s modern climate, definitely ensures that students in every level of education can continue their pursuit of knowledge. As many people see its benefits, it continues to grow and improve how students get their information from their teachers and tutors alike.

As a tutor, it can be daunting to use online teaching to help students during these times. However, the benefits it can give you and your student are immense, especially if you know how to manage it.

With the tips above, we are sure you can make a difference in their studies even if you are not with them physically.

To become a better tutor, these are crucial articles that will help you improve:

Tutoring Strategies to Support Student Introverts
8 Amazing Books to Help You Get Started as a Tutor