For successful online teaching, you need to use auxiliary techniques, tools, and resources. For example, you need to constantly change your teaching style (speak jokingly or seriously), alternate theory with practical examples.
It is worth using what I call “constant audience tugging”. Technically, it looks like this: the teacher gives a certain amount of material and asks if everyone understands. If the students have turned on their cameras, you can ask, for example, “move something to show that you understand everything.” However, there is a part of the audience that will never turn on the cameras, no matter how much you persuade them. In addition, sometimes the connection does not allow you to turn on the video. In such cases, you can use chat – formulate questions with a plus or minus, one or zero answer, etc. For example: “Who has experienced this, put a plus,” “Who has not experienced this, put a minus.”
You definitely don’t need to turn the class into a continuous lecture. Some teachers are so good with questions and answers that they put three slides on the screen and tell the rest in words. Still, in an online course, a lot of information should be on the screen. You should not rely solely on your own skills and the responsibility of the students, who will write down everything from the teacher’s words. And, of course, we shouldn’t give up on interactive activities.
Lastly, some people say that online education is just a crutch that we use until we can go offline. But for the third year in a row, we have actually been living in an environment where distance education is almost the only way out. And it is not known how much longer we will be forced to study online.
Therefore, in my opinion, it is wrong to say, “If we were in the classroom with you, I would show you now” or “This is online, it’s not really learning, but if we were offline, it would be better.” Imagine a theater actor playing in a TV show and saying: “Of course, I’m not playing well here – but if we were in a theater, on stage, I would really play for you, but this way – well, you know, it’s a screen, it’s not the same.”
You shouldn’t make excuses for yourself if you can’t master a certain technology: we, as teachers, must show by our own example flexibility and self-development, the ability to achieve results in any environment.