When researching remote or virtual environments, you will find many topics on virtual meeting branding & customization efforts. Customizing the virtual environment is one way to improve focus, even in an academic setting.
Unfortunately, there is so much more to becoming a successful instructor than dressing up in the virtual classroom. If you want to be really successful, you need to motivate and mold students’ minds, even if they are not right in front of you. Thankfully, many professionals offer tips and advice for new remote instructors.
1. Cultivate a Healthy, Trusting Environment
Any learning environment must cultivate healthy and productive activity while developing trust in the system. While younger generations grew up with technology, they are not all as welcoming to new platforms or changes to traditional academic routes.
You can help bolster trust in the system by showing confidence in it. Use the platform as much as possible. Help students recognize the usefulness of the available tools and accessories.
2. Engage
While a Zoom Virtual Office provides the opportunity for remote learning, it does nothing to promote learning. An instructor and willing students are two necessary components of a classroom setting. However, beyond having the environment and the bodies to occupy it, you need engagement for actual learning to occur.
As the instructor, you are responsible for leading, directing, and managing engagement. If you do not engage with activities, technology, and students, you cannot expect your class to.
3. Collaborate and Share Often
Socialization is one thing missing from remote classrooms, which is potentially detrimental to young minds. Watching a class unfold online is not the same as being present with others in a physical environment.
You can help your class socialize or interact with one another by collaborating and sharing often. Create group assignments that require student-to-student dialogue. Offer time for free chat or discussion, allowing students to interact with one another.
4. Create a Daily Schedule
Because the remote environment is so far removed from the physical classroom, it is easy to get distracted. You may hear your phone notifications or see something or someone pass by your home window, taking you away from your responsibility to your students.
Creating a daily schedule is an excellent way to prevent distractions and ensure productivity. Write down precisely what you want to get through during class.
5. Take Restorative Breaks
While learning to change background in Teams is an essential skill for an instructor of a virtual classroom, it is not the most important thing to learn. As an instructor, you need to focus on your well-being. Teaching in a virtual environment can be lonely and frustrating. Make sure you give yourself enough time to connect with the people you love and relax away from the computer.
Being a virtual instructor can be rewarding, but it is challenging. You need to find ways to keep students engaged and maintain your own sanity in the process. If you could use some more advice, consider talking to a virtual office creator or another instructor.
