Online learning is here to stay, and the fact is that hybrid or virtual learning modalities present a whole new set of challenges to educators. Without the opportunity to interact with one another face to face, students often find themselves distracted and disengaged in virtual environments.
Yet, while the challenges of online learning are unique, teachers have found ways to motivate their classes, engage their students, and improve learning outcomes online. For example, many are using advanced EdTech tools to gamify instruction and deliver personalized experiences.
In this article, we take a look at effective strategies for overcoming 4 of the most common challenges of online learning.
Key Takeaways
- The challenges of online learning include distraction, poor digital literacy, and a lack of student interaction.
- By using advanced assessment tools, educators are gamifying their online classes to engage students and teach more effectively.
- New mobile-friendly learning platforms expand access to classroom materials for students with differing backgrounds.
- Teachers can improve student outcomes by educating and assessing their classes on digital literacy.
4 Top Challenges and Solutions for Educators
Teachers and innovators are finding creative ways to improve the quality and efficacy of online education. Here are 4 strategies you can use to overcome the challenges of online learning.
1. Student engagement and motivation
Peer-reviewed research shows that a positive student-teacher relationship improves academic achievement, emotional regulation, class participation, and learning ability. In a traditional classroom, students and teachers respond automatically to one another’s body language, facial expressions, and movements. These organic interactions solidify rapport with students and help make in-person learning engaging for both pupils and educators.
It can be difficult to achieve that same level of interaction when students aren’t physically present in a classroom. Moreover, the easy availability of distractions means that online classes have to compete for student attention. When the whole internet is at students’ fingertips, that is no simple feat.
To ensure online classes are as engaging as possible, teachers are using advanced EdTech tools to create truly immersive learning experiences. These tools make students want to log in to class and engage with learning content.
Here are 2 engaging approaches for building student engagement online:
- Gamified assessments: Gamified assignments are an interactive way to challenge students to make decisions on the basis of their knowledge. They keep students engaged by making learning fun and immersive. For example, you can have students work with a chatbot to build a story that reflects what they’ve learned in a geography unit. When integrating gamified assessment into your online classroom, it’s important to keep your learning objectives in mind to make sure the test questions remain valid, reliable, and able to effectively measure the intended student outcomes.
- Interactive content: Interactive content can help ensure every student participates during class time. For example, TAO features several built-in question types, including a liquids interaction, that can be used in an exam to simulate the concept of volume. When students interact with the test item, they get a visual representation of volume that helps them learn.
2. Fair access and equity
One of the challenges of online teaching is ensuring that all students have equal access to virtual resources. From one region to another, and even from district to district within a region, socioeconomic disparities significantly impact the learning opportunities available to students. In a hybrid or remote learning environment, some students will have access to new computers and a speedy Internet connection either at school or at home, while others will work on older or slower machines. Some may not have access to a computer at all, and must rely on access to public resources (for example, using a computer at a library), or may only have mobile devices such as phones or tablets.
To help mitigate this digital divide EdTech providers are finding ways to bring advanced capabilities to a range of devices. Here are a few strategies educators can use to deliver equity for their students:
- Use mobile-friendly platforms: Globally, there are 3 times as many smartphones as personal computers. If teachers want to reach as many students as possible, their online learning tools must be mobile-friendly.
- Integrate with a Learning Management System (LMS): When teaching online, educators often have to switch between multiple software packages as they deliver instruction and assessment. That’s why EdTech innovators are designing software that aligns with open standards so it can be seamlessly integrated with LMS platforms. This lowers the administrative and training burden on educators and makes it easier for students to access the tools they need.
- Roll out digital literacy programs: Where traditional literacy refers to the ability to read and write, digital literacy refers to the ability to understand and use digital communication technology. For students to get the most out of their online classes, educators need to teach and assess digital literacy alongside traditional academic subjects. Lessons can cover everything from using search engines to collecting and analyzing digital sources, navigating slideshow and video presentation tools, and communicating clearly online—all of which are relevant skills for students to build.
3. Student assessment
Student assessment comes with its own challenges. For example, online classrooms are typically composed of students of varying abilities and backgrounds—how can teachers prepare instruction and assessments to address all of their needs? Similarly, how can educators assess higher-order thinking and collaboration skills in an online format?
To resolve these challenges of online teaching, educators are deploying new EdTech tools that enable personalized assessment and increase accessibility.
- Assessments for learning. In an online classroom, it can sometimes be difficult for teachers to get feedback from students. After all, when educators and students aren’t meeting face to face, many of the subtle cues that teachers rely on to gauge student progress—such as facial expressions and body language—are missing. To overcome this challenge of online teaching, educators are implementing assessments for learning. These quick assessments, which might include virtual entrance and exit tickets, then help teachers get a sense of what students understand and what they need more help with.
- Adaptive assessments. Adaptive assessment tools adjust the difficulty of the items presented to students based on their previous responses. By creating a comprehensive question pool, educators can ensure each student gets an assessment that targets their specific needs.
- Portable Custom Interactions (PCIs). PCIs are assessment items that use interactive technology to enhance testing. Importantly, PCIs don’t simply measure what students have already learned, but also provide insight into the way each student approaches problem solving.
- Accessible assessments: By using computer adaptive testing, educators can ensure students with accommodation needs are assessed appropriately online. For example, an accessible assessment will include text magnification tools, text-to-speech converters, and proper color contrasts to help students who have issues with vision.
4. Communication and collaboration
For many students, speaking up in class is incredibly scary. The virtual setting, which lacks the immediacy of a classroom environment, can only heighten the sense of isolation and anxiety for nervous young people. But when educators strike the right balance between challenging and supporting students, their classes will come alive.
Here are some ways to encourage lively communication and collaboration in online classes:
- Socratic discussions. The Socratic discussion is a time-tested way to engage students and cultivate higher-order thinking skills. To lead a Socratic discussion, invite students to develop arguments on open-ended questions and challenge them to provide evidence to support their positions. You can use EdTech features such as live chats for this; students can easily share evidence and incorporate visual assets into their arguments. Though they may be nervous at first, your pupils will appreciate your confidence in them.
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- Virtual/augmented reality: Virtual reality and augmented reality represent the cutting edge of EdTech. If your online classroom is equipped with these capabilities, you can use them to engage students in immersive problem-solving scenarios. For example, students might be dropped into a simulation of a natural environment where they have to apply the knowledge they gain in class to solve problems.
- Timely feedback. One of the challenges of online learning is that it can be difficult for students to get personalized feedback from teachers. To ensure students have a solid sense of their classroom progress, teachers are using assessment tools that provide precise, real-time results on student progress. They can then quickly communicate this information with families to keep everyone on the same page.
Conclusion
Millions of educators face the challenges of online teaching. In the worst cases, remote learners spend class time surfing the web or playing video games on other tabs, spoiling the chances of meeting their learning goals. But in the best cases, teachers are using digital tools to develop engaging, immersive, and personalized learning experiences in their online classrooms.
These tools can be used to gamify content and make classroom instruction more engaging, measure and develop higher-order skills such as collaboration, and improve digital literacy and accessibility.
When educators are equipped with the right tools, online learning can be transformed from a challenge to a benefit.
FAQs
What are the challenges of online learning?
Online learning can be distracting, unengaging, and difficult for students to access. Moreover, students who learn exclusively online might have trouble interacting with classmates and communicating with teachers.
How can educators overcome the challenges of online teaching?
Educators can overcome the challenges of online teaching by engaging students through techniques such as gamification and Socratic discussions. In addition, they can use advanced testing tools to provide immersive assessment experiences to their online classes.
