12 tips to help a relevant, authentic and meaningful online learning experience

1. 12 Top Tips to Teaching Online
A teacher wrote a newspaper article during the global school closures of 2020 and in it she
said, “Nothing about what we are doing currently (video teaching) is as good as what we
were doing a few weeks ago …” my immediate reaction was that she needed to quickly
reassess how she teaches online! Teaching is a tough gig and it takes many years to
become an expert, and the same application is needed to master online delivery. As a
former Drama Teacher, BBC Radio presenter and video editor for ESPN, I know that it can
be done and done well.
There are essentially 12 things you can do, many of which can be applied on the spot or
very soon after, to help online teaching engage the learner and progress their learning. None
of the professional tips will be beyond any qualified and experienced teacher but technology
support could be helpful.
Say no to Nostrils!
Nobody wants to see up your nose. More importantly you don't want to appear to be looking
down on people. Move your camera to eye level and you won’t come across as superior or
smug. Also, what is behind you and what will learners see? Tidy up, make it less distracting.
You don’t want laundry hanging behind you or an old poster of the Bay City Rollers.
It’s good Health and Safety practice for
posture, so move that camera! If you’re
on a laptop then elevate it at least for
the duration of the call.
The end of this article has a link to my recommended aftermarket products page.
Lighting
Use two sources of light, three would be brilliant.
For two point lighting, your computer screen, while less than ideal, is perfectly adequate for
providing the principle light source. At least another source is needed to throw light on the
side of your face. It doesn’t need to be overly complicated, and can either be a desk lamp or,
as in this case, natural sunlight from a window.

2. Three point lighting, as used for this picture of the author, ensures that the viewer's eye is
focussed on the subject by diminishing the background to such an extent that it is almost not
there. This increases the likelihood that the learner pays attention to what is being said.
Good Audio
Be mindful of your audio levels, you can check this on most video software when you set up,
and please, don’t rely on the microphone that came with your smartphone. In all fairness
they aren’t bad but we’re looking at every trick in the trade to help a learner's engagement
and bad audio almost immediately leads to bad engagement.
Speak slowly and clearly and ensure your voice
isn’t too quiet, too loud, muffled, cutting out or
over modulated.
You don’t need to have elocution lessons but pronunciation is more important in this
environment than in the classroom as both you and the learner have lost other forms of
non verbal communication.
As an ex radio journalist I could go into great detail about the nuances of how to best record
your voice - 10 cms is the best distance for most mics - but suffice to say most built in
microphones on webcams or computers are more than adequate AND provide the built in
advantage of being a good distance away.
Know Your Technology
This is a bit obvious but, please practise your technology. Arrange a time to rehearse with
colleagues before embarking on a video teaching session with your students. Like most
things, the more you practise, the better your results will be.
Each software and system has various features and benefits, most have ‘breakout’ rooms
for plenary work, and you’ll need to be aware of any developments and updates whether
they are used or not.
And as all teachers know, showing honesty in your knowledge is a good thing for developing
your relationship with students. Allowing a student more proficient than you to demonstrate
or work something is great for all involved.

3. Listen
As mentioned elsewhere in this article, learning online is very different from classroom
learning for one very obvious reason - all non verbal communication is effectivelygone.
So, as well as speaking slowly and clearly, there is a real need to listen. Be an attentive
listener and really concentrate on what is being said and respond appropriately to it. As an
ex journalist I know that this takes concentration and practice. You have to both remember
the questions you’re asking and respond to what the person is saying.
Listening is hard, don’t just listen for a couple of
seconds and assume what they’re asking
because you could be wrong and the person will
disengage the second they realise they weren’t
heard.
Colours
You may have heard that 55% of communication is what the other person sees of you, 35%
is how the other person hears you and only 7% is what you actually say.
How accurate those ratios are is not important right now, but most psychologists will agree
that what we see has a bearing on what we remember. Most teachers know that using green
marker pens on a board is a no-no because it’s poorly picked up by people who are in some
way colour blind.
Different colours worn by the teacher can have an
impact. Yellow is calming and can be too calming.
Red is associated with danger so it is blue and green
that are the best colours for on camera work.
Also, avoid moire in your clothing. It is very distracting.
Forum Moderation
Moderating a forum starts with setting one up. There are many out there from Facebook, MS
Teams and Slack, but if you’re using an LMS there may be a forum built in. The important

4. consideration is that it’s closed so that people feel that they are in a safe and secure system.
You want your learners to feel that it’s alright to fail and to ask questions free from any
recrimination.
You need to populate the forum, give reason for
people to use it, and engage with them thus
modelling the desired behaviour.
Once people have a reason to go there they will adopt the standards you set and in time it
may be possible for the forum to be self-sufficient. There will always be some more
comfortable than others using this medium but for them this may be their opportunity to
shine.
One Technology
The point behind this is to reduce the likelihood of distraction and disengagement. By
keeping the learner on the system in which you're communicating you stand a greater
chance of keeping them on track within their learning.
Many software offer video communication, chat
rooms, break out areas, links to other systems
and so on - keeping them in the one familiar
place can only be advantageous to their learning.
If there needs to be removal from the one technology, make it as easy as possible for the
learner to re-engage and give clear signposts for how any learning outside the system can
be uploaded or otherwise integrated into their learning.
Socratic Learning
This is not a quick fix. However socratic learning or otherwise known as ‘the flipped
classroom’ is probably online video teaching at its best. This is the high water mark of
teaching remotely.
Direct your learners to the information - ideally a
properly constructed interactive elearning
environment - and then afterwards, in a live video
session, they practice applying what they’ve
learnt with your feedback.
It also means a more facilitative approach to learning and can be quite casual. As ever this
is a call that teachers and institutions have to make on their own depending on the needs,
strengths and weaknesses of the learners.
It’s getting emotional
Emotional engagement is a vital precursor for learning. If someone is subjectively connected
at the beginning of their learning they are more likely to succeed. One way of creating that
intuitive state is to employ some music.
It’s done all the time with TV and radio news. That fanfare of august trumpets and
authoritative bass and drums at the beginning of a bulletin is pavlovian but it works.

5. If you can build a learning environment that is any of the following, you’re on to a winner.
Awe inspiring, positive, surprising and emotional have shown to be the key signifiers of
the most memorable and effective learning experiences since the early 2010s.
Learning anywhere and everywhere
Learning doesn’t have to exist in controlled learning environments and it’s relatively
straightforward to collate learning from outside the system by employing an xAPI.
An experience API (xAPI) collects learning experience data across multiple devices and
activities and stores it in the ‘someone did something’ format in a Learning Resource Store
(LRS). Most education institutions use an LMS to store details of learning, but it is limited.
An LRS is the final resting place of the data from not
only the LMS but all the other activity providers such
as social media, downloaded readings, meetings and
so much more.
Looking Forward
These ideas are most certainly not a quick fix, but are interesting nonetheless. Most people
not only have access to a computer or a phone at home that has a camera connected to it.
That camera can track your face and your eyes and quickly generate avatars (the iphone
does this already with Animojis) which is great for learners who don’t wish for themselves to
be seen and yet still shows interaction. It’s already available in FaceTime.
And there already exists the software (hint: it’s in Adobe Character Animator) that can track
eyes and therefore the level of attention given to the learning environment or the video they
are watching. As we can watch learners’ eyes we need to watch this space.
Teaching online is as different from online facilitation. Online facilitation or enabled learning
is, or should be, socratic in nature. It should be in a flipped or blended methodology of
student centred learning. It is ideally suited for the interdependent learner, one who thrives
with some, meaningful and relevant guidance from their teacher. Online video teaching is
more didactic and better suited for those who struggle more with self paced learning.