COVID 19 has changed the way we live in a number of unprecedented ways. Social distancing means that students all around the world have had to learn to adapt to remote learning. Remote learning is certainly different to classroom learning. As much as we attempt to imitate the classroom through remote learning, there are distinctive differences to learning via a screen but there are a number of strategies to help students learn effectively and efficiently while also maintaining their mental health.

Here are 5 examples of remote learning strategies:

1.Allow students to get to know a little about you

Tell students a little about yourself and your background, your hobbies and perhaps even a series you’re currently watching on Netflix. Allowing students to get to know you makes the lessons feel more personal and reminds them that there is a real person behind the screen. This also allows students to feel more welcome.

2. Liven up your lessons

Adding pictures, videos or some humour to your online lessons can really help with student engagement, especially with younger children. Also, students learn in different ways and lessons should be accessible to all learning styles.

3. Provide students with breaks 

This is an important point, making sure that you provide your students with regular breaks is essential for their morale and concentration.

There are a plethora of factors like age and home life that can have an effect on a student’s attention span. Providing students with regular breaks means that there will be higher levels of student engagement during online presentations for example.

This also means concentrating on less content in short periods of time as it makes it easier to teach students complex topics and they can efficiently grasp all the material.

4. Take advantage of online resources

Online resources like Elearnus are fundamental in helping children reach their full potential while learning remotely. Elearnus offers teachers many fundamental resources to help students learn like; student/parent dashboards, lesson preparation, timetables, the ability to upload lesson materials and grade reports.

5. Make sure to offer students clear feedback

Providing students with regular feedback about what they are doing well in and what they could improve in is essential not just in remote learning but learning in general. 

It also allows you to establish a personal connection with your individual students.

Feedback allows students to identify areas of the course that they need to concentrate on, and positive feedback helps build students’ confidence levels. 

You could also even utilise discussion boards and forums on Electronic Learning Management Systems (LMS features) so that students can support each other in the learning process.

Remote learning is a new phenomenon for most students and is going to be a way of life for them for the foreseeable future. Focusing on well-being and effective learning strategies are key for happy and healthy students. As time passes, we will become more informed about how to make remote learning easier for both teachers and students, but for now we can continue to learn what works and what doesn’t work for students.