High Ideas To Transition To On-line Studying
Inside Secrets To Making An Effective Transition To Online Learning
Online courses – especially those that use live captioning for web conferencing – make learning accessible and flexible to a larger number of potential learners. This includes students with disabilities, geographic restrictions, or prohibited work schedules. As more and more people expect colleges and universities to offer online options, virtual courses can help institutions stay competitive.
Of course, the pandemic has forced colleges and universities around the world to go virtual. Now the vast majority of classes are at least partially online. While some students enjoy learning virtually, others have concerns about focus, engagement, and accessibility. Post-secondary executives share these concerns and have a few more of their own. They worry about unfamiliar technology and a lack of personal interaction.
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Transitioning To Effective Online Learning: The Playbook
Uncover secrets to provide accessible and comprehensive learning experiences for everyone in your organization!
Student engagement: the greatest challenge
How to integrate students in a remote environment is the question that most administrators and teachers ask themselves. For students, engagement provides focus, encourages critical thinking, and ultimately increases learning and retention rates. But how do teachers involve students through a screen?
This guide explains the key components for making the move to effective online learning. We want to help you empower trainers to engage students and gain meaningful experience in the years to come. We will cover aspects of successful remote learning, including best practices related to web conferencing, course design, personal connection with students, and improving accessibility through live captioning, video captioning, and transcription.
Take a unified approach to technology and online learning
Effective learning starts with effective communication. In an online environment, administrators, instructors, and students need to be on the same page. This starts with a careful balance of technology. Does your institution use video conferencing software like Zoom for both communication and teaching? Or are you using a more interactive video platform for your online classroom? Do you use asynchronous learning content via a Learning Management System (LMS) such as Canvas or Blackboard?
Most institutions use a combination of the following:
- A unified communication solution for interaction outside the classroom.
- A live broadcast solution for classroom activities; and,
- Asynchronous learning technologies for complementary materials.
Well-trained support staff can help address some of these challenges, but they cannot be everywhere at the same time. By creating an online resource center with labeled videos with how-tos and setup tutorials, you can make your support staff more efficient and make troubleshooting materials easily accessible for everyone. Subtitling these videos can provide professors and students with more clarity as they go through the setup processes, especially if they are unfamiliar with the tools. To maximize the value of these technologies, it is important that both your teachers and students know how to use the tools. And that’s not always as easy as it sounds.
Use hybrid learning opportunities
Careful consideration must also be given if your facility has the capability of a hybrid learning environment in which some students attend class while others watch in sync via video conference. Hybrid learning models offer institutions the ability to combine the best of in-person and online teaching so that professors can use their personal time for activities that are better suited for face-to-face interaction.
When designing a hybrid learning environment, institutions and trainers need to consider:
- What are the desired learning outcomes of the course? What skills should students have at the end of the course?
- What types of activities, exercises, and assessments will help students develop and achieve these learning outcomes?
- Which of these activities are best for face-to-face learning and which are best for online learning?
Class activities
Classroom teaching should focus less on long lectures and more on active learning activities such as group discussions, work examples, review of case studies and student presentations. To really maximize the value of a hybrid course’s personal time, make sure the in-person activities are collaborative and student-centered. This will allow students to get to know each other and increase the investment in the course.
Online activities
Online activities can be reserved for asynchronous materials such as short videos, readings, some reviews, and other group discussions. Students can meet online to discuss and set up group projects, and then meet in class to discuss the details of the project presentation. These materials can also help prepare students for classroom discussion. In particular, the in-person and online portions of the course should be integrated and work together to enrich students’ learning experiences.
Some students may be interested in the personal parts of the class (and stand out during this time) while others prefer online lessons. However, giving students the flexibility to participate both in person and online at their own pace can benefit different learning styles and increase student engagement.
Make course materials accessible
Accessibility is perhaps the most important aspect of online learning. Once professors have the right tools, the ideal course design, and the learning content they want to use in their classroom, they need to make sure that these materials are available to all of their students. This includes students with potential disabilities, foreign students in other countries, or students with different learning needs.
Online learning uses a wide range of video content that must be accessible to any potential viewer. In addition to helping your facility comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), speech-to-text services like Rev, which provide closed captioning and transcription, are a quick and affordable way to increase student engagement.
How should subtitles and transcriptions be used?
Live subtitles powered by Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technology can instantly improve the accessibility of synchronous live activities such as the following.
- Live streaming lectures
- Live streaming group discussion sessions
- Consultation hours with teachers
- One-on-one meetings with trainers or colleagues
Asynchronous content must also be accessible, which is why institutions and trainers should invest in subtitles for the following materials:
- Recorded lectures
- Recordings of live lectures that were subsequently shared
- Informal video announcements or messages from teachers
Finally, consider offering students searchable transcripts from live classroom sessions so that they can easily reference the material in their spare time.
How do students benefit from captions and transcriptions?
Labeling video footage and providing transcripts can help students engage with the material, understand it, and retain the information.
clarification
Live closed captioning lectures and group discussion sessions allow students to understand what is being said when the audio may not be recognizable. For example, if a student is watching from a place with background noise (young children, outside traffic, etc.), live captioning allows them to see words or phrases that they may have missed.
understanding
According to the VARK model, students learn in a variety of ways. Some are more visually oriented while others excel at reading or writing down the material. Subtitling and transcription services can actually help these learners better understand the content of the course and help them succeed.
Supplementary learning aids
Caption videos and exact transcripts of lectures are valuable learning aids and can complement students’ notes. While 99% of students take notes during class, they only capture around 30-40% of the material. Transcripts of recorded lectures and discussion boards help students fill in any gaps in their notes. Also, accurate transcripts ensure that keywords or phrases are spelled correctly, which can be especially useful for more complex technical courses such as chemistry or biology.
Conclusion
Traditional classroom teaching already presented its own challenges. Moving the classroom online presents a whole new set of obstacles for teachers and students alike. But it also offers opportunities to connect and collaborate in creative and exciting ways. With the right tools, methodology, and a world-class accessibility partner like Rev, institutions can deliver deep, engaging learning experiences and help students achieve their goals.
Download the eBook Moving To Effective Online Learning: The Playbook to find out how to combine the right tools with a solid learning strategy. It even includes bonus content like tips on balancing synchronous and asynchronous learning and promoting connection with students in virtual rooms. You can also find helpful statistics to support your business case based on studies and educational research.
