2022 is an year that has called parents to be well versed in how to manage online classes than ever before. Online learning has become the new norm of education. It is not surprising how many parents find this process too overwhelming to cope with.
Parents of younger children especially are going through much turmoil trying to juggle their day-to-day chores whilst accommodating the online learning process that consumes a large amount of their time and energy.
Does Learning Online Really Help?
Many parents having to deal with children taking lessons online for a good part of 2020 are now questioning the productivity of online learning. Is this really beneficial to children?
Whilst there are many benefits in online learning, safety stands first. With a widely spreading pandemic, online learning is the most assured way to keep children safe from falling victim to the virus.
If parents learn how to manage online lessons successfully, there are many benefits that can be reaped.
Significant Benefits Of Learning How To Manage Online Classes
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- Comfort: Online learning can be carried out from the most comfortable for your child in your own home. Unlike fitting into uneasy desks and chairs or a crowded space, online learning allows you to get comfortable with your own space.
- Convenience: With least preparation time for an online meeting and ease of adjusting to the session almost in no time, it brings in much convenience to both parents and children.
- Time Saving: Time is one of the most precious resources for both students as well as parents. The significant cut out of commuting times to and from the school or educational institute helps a student and parent save a minimum of two hours a day in average resulting in nearly 10 extra hours to the student and parents.
- Cost saving: As the saying goes, time is money. Apart from the time saving that was discussed above, the cost of transport which is comparatively high is also saved with online learning.
Online education being a big part of every household that has schooling children, let us now discuss a few strategies for managing online lessons. Have you not yet established any strategies and have fallen victim to an unexciting and boring routine? Let these tips help you gear up for a brand new 2021 with some powerful practices that will help your children pick up and run.
7 Steps On How To Manage Online Classes
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Set up the Tools and Space
Get excited about the online lessons yourself. Discuss with your children how they would like to set up their work space. If possible, change the location from where your laptop used to usually stand. Ensure that the seating, table height and lighting is comfortable for your child to engage in long hours of learning.
You would need to have a dedicated laptop with a good internet connection. You could look around for the numerous offers your service providers may have for online learning activities and benefit from them.
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Consider online lessons to be actual physical lessons
Although it’s easy to fall into a lame routine with online lessons, it is worth it for parents to put in some extra effort beforehand in setting up rules around this new routine. It is certainly much easier to set rules and boundaries in advance than changing wrong practices that have become habits later on. In this step, you need to consider online lessons an actual physical activity yourself. Get prepared for the lessons as if you were sending your children off to school. Wake up to a routine, dress up, organize meal times, intervals and so on.
Have your children dress up and be presentable, immaterial of whether the meetings are with camera or without.
Treating online lessons the way you would treat an actual lesson would make a huge difference in making the most out of online lessons for your child.
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Establish a Routine
Having an organized schedule is paramount for taking online lessons successfully for the long term. Your child’s online presence could be easily prolonged even beyond the class duration. It is important that parents set important timelines and boundaries so that children could take frequent breaks and pull out of the computer at the right time.
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Communicate with your child
Whilst communicating with your child is important at all times, it is important that you get regular feedback from your child. Feedback as to whether he or she is finding it challenging or smooth. Ask them what you can do to help them better engage with lessons and many other decision making tasks. Make sure that you take the feedback seriously and genuinely help your child with any challenges. Some children manage to adapt to online lessons quite early in the game. Some others however need extra support and tutoring as they are simply unable to get adjusted to the new norms.
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Engage in other activities
It is important that other physical activities are also included in your day plan for your child. Make sure that you use even the minimum outdoor space. You have to help your child engage in any physical activity at all.
These physical activities help your child focus on studies better. With a balanced mind whilst staying healthy during these difficult times.
As discussed in the point above, it is easy to sway away into the online world. This is because, even after the lessons and get stuck there for an entire day.
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Manage homework
We need to strive to keep online learning interesting and motivating. For that, it is important that the assignments following a class are attended to regularly instead of having them accumulating.
Help your child keep a tab of homework. Help them also with a time to attend to homework regularly so that the child will not lose momentum. -
Have an open mind to easily grasp how to manage online classes
The online dominated learning process is a new game to almost everyone. It might be easy to get frustrated with the mishandling of sessions and get into the blame game. However we need to understand that everyone involved is in this together. Therefore you need to explain to your children also the importance of being kind to each other. You must teach tolerance and helping out through technical challenges and so on, to have a successful online learning experience.
These steps will help you prepare yourself and your children for a pleasant and effective learning experience online. This will also help them reap the benefits of online learning with a similar enthusiasm as with physical schooling.
References: northeastern.edu, chartercollege.edu
