How to Make eLearning Effective

The inclusion of eLearning and its ever-evolving nature in the education system offers sustainable means for employee training in the present as well as in the future. There are different points to be considered when you are designing a learning course but it becomes effective only when more than 98% of the students give positive feedback.

Designing and strategizing an effective eLearning course needs a substantial amount of hard work, time, and commitment. Here are a few pointers that can help you out in your efforts to learn about how to make eLearning effective.

For Teachers:

Fully prepare for the class

Are you thinking about how to make online learning effective? Before you go ahead and start explaining concepts to your students, you must have a thorough understanding of the concept yourself. This has to be done to avoid being put in a spot when your student asks a few doubts regarding the topic being discussed. There is no set time limit for you to prepare for the class beforehand, just that you need to take ample time to research the material that you are going to discuss in the class.

The reason behind this is very simple, there may be several claims within the course material and you need to be prepared enough to back up these claims with relevant data. Not all your students would grasp the concepts in the same way. Some of your students may need some more explanation of the concept with use of proofs for the claims being discussed. By being prepared fully for the class, you would be able to deliver better which would in turn help students in grasping the concepts in a better way.

Use video

The use of videos to simplify a complex concept is what makes e-learning effective. Using videos while teaching different concepts to your students will qualitatively improve the learning experience for your students. When you use an instructional video or an embedded presenter, it would convey a better understanding of the subject material when compared to a few stock photos. The content you prepare for the eLearning course needs to be prepared accurately before presenting it to your audience.

To record a lecture video quickly and clearly, I would recommend DemoCreator for teachers. This tool is a professional computer screen and webcam video recording software to create tutorials, guide, online courses and more. Moreover, the built-in screen drawing tools allows writing and drawing while recording to make the content understood better.

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Use humor

You can always use humor to get across your point. Generally, if you are teaching a dull concept or a subject, a little bit of wit and humor can help you in getting the attention of your audience and make the learning more interesting. However, you need to be mindful of certain things while doing so, since not every learner of yours would find your joke funny and may get offended.

To avoid such a situation, it is better if you research your audience in terms of experience, culture, and personality. You also need to take care that the humor should never overshadow the subject matter under discussion. The best way to include humor in your eLearning sessions is by using witty quotes, jokes, and funny one-liners that are relevant to the subject matter and highlight the concept that you are trying to explain.

Interact with students

You need to facilitate communication with your students and be approachable enough so that they feel comfortable asking you questions and doubts regarding the subject matter. You need to establish an open communication line and specify during which days and hours you are generally open to taking questions and queries from students.

This will not only ensure that the expectations from your class are met, but will also make sure that your students receive all the necessary support and help they need. There are different ways in which your students can interact with their teachers including, social media, discussion forums, emails, chats, video conferencing, etc.

Interactivity must be added to your eLearning course not just in the form of student and teacher communication but also in the form of the content you post on your platform. You must use certain elements that alleviate boredom and boosts engagement with your audience.

For Students:

Set daily goals for studying

As a student, if you wish to improve the effectiveness of your eLearning class, you need to first take certain steps from your end. First and foremost, you need to set a daily goal for studying. This means that you need to evaluate what you hope to accomplish during your eLearning course every day and ensure that you are following it through. When you set a clear goal, you will be driven enough to stay motivated and not procrastinate.

The goals you set each day need to be very specific and you should be able to measure it easily. Along with these daily goals, you need to chart out your end goal as well and make sure that you are progressing well towards it each day. Whenever you make significant progress towards your goal, make sure that you reward yourself with some activity that you like, maybe towards a hobby you enjoy. Such set goals are a great road map when you are learning online.

Schedule time to study on your calendar

Scheduling and planning your study time can be very critical when it comes to eLearning. You need to plan ahead and start working on the assignment well before the due date. A study calendar can help you a great deal for remembering important dates like deadlines for assignment submission or exams.

You can easily save this calendar on your phone or your computer. You can even create a wall planner where you can mark a check as and when you study according to the set schedule. Open your calendar on the preferred device and then pick a reliable and predictable time that you need to dedicate to completing your assignments or watching the eLearning lectures. This will ensure that the eLearning courses you take up are not neglected or forgotten.

Actively take notes

Online learning can actually make it pretty difficult for you to retain all the information that was given during the class. When you actively take notes during the class, you will just need to glance through the points you took down during the class to refresh the concepts learned during the class. Notes would help the students in getting a clear idea about what the teacher is trying to convey and will also keep you concentrated throughout the class. Try writing down only the main ideas as points while taking down the notes.

A good way to stay organized while taking notes is to keep the central area for note-taking during the class, a small column on the left for jotting down main keywords, and at the end of the page sum up the entire page's content in one or two lines. You can even use devices like your phone or laptop to type the notes instead of writing it down. Every week, try to dedicate some time to review these notes.

Join the discussion

During the online class, try engaging with your tutor and your fellow classmates to better understand the concepts in your course material. You can comment on your classmate's paper or you can even pose a question about a certain project you all are working on. Try to grasp what your tutor and classmates are speaking and join the discussion by contributing a few relevant points or asking questions related to the discussion.

Ensure that you check the discussion chain as often as possible. Even if you have 30 minutes in your day to spare, see if you can dedicate it to frame an appropriate response on the discussion thread of the online class you are taking. If at any point of time you feel that you are falling behind, you can speak up and let your instructor know. Be proactive in the class, clarify your doubts, and ask questions.

Conclusion

How to make e-learning successful? Follow these guidelines during your eLearning class and you will surprise yourself with the results. Apart from the above points, as a teacher, you need to try and think outside the box. Be creative in the way you teach your students and try incorporating engaging teaching methods to improve the effectiveness of your class online.