One of the main problems in today’s online classrooms is the factor of student participation when it comes to online assignments, homework, or just class in general. Especially during quarantine, the amount of importance that online classing has in our modern curriculum has increased significantly. There arises a problem with this idea, however.
When teaching a student over a keyboard and screen, a student is at home where they have a lot of control over their own behavior and initiative to participate in classwork. On most homework websites that teachers utilize, however, there are many loopholes that students can utilize to dodge the bulk of most classwork.
If a teacher or professor posts an online lecture as a video, for example, the student can scroll to the very end of the video to mark that they have finished the assignment, or they can even mute the lecture and exit to another tab to do other online things.
A lot of the time, this is on the part of the student’s sense of distraction, and they might not even be doing it intentionally. The question still stands though: What can be done to make a student less distracted and how can you force them to participate in assignments when they are at home and in control?
Many options come down to professors using archaic classroom measures that don’t necessarily work in a transition to online classrooms. For example, lecturing a student to pay attention in a zoom class not only alienates the student but it also interrupts the entire class for a longer duration than it might during a normal in-person setting.
Especially since online classing is stressful enough with all the technical difficulties, it might be better to pursue another option for online classing. It just so happens that, since this is a rising dilemma, many online companies have been trying to create a platform that addresses these topics. One such service goes by the name EdPuzzle, and for today’s blog post, we will talk about the benefits of using it as a service in the field of online education.
EdPuzzle is an easy-to-use platform where you can make any video your lesson. With just one click, you can find video lessons created by other teachers, including formative assessments! Another click and you can adapt that video by embedding your own questions or audio. With the final click, assign it to your students and get beautiful hassle-free analytics: see who watched the video, who didn’t understand the lesson and who did a good job. Students can re-watch the video as many times as they need at their own pace, while you can easily check their progress from your account.
With EdPuzzle, you can make any video your lesson in three easy steps:
- Find a video on YouTube, upload your own or re-use a video lesson created by another teacher.
- Then, edit the video to create your lesson. Record your voice to personalize it, and hold your students accountable by embedding questions in the video.
- Assign the video to your students and check their progress in real time while they learn at their own pace.
Below is a great tutorial we found on YouTube by Richard Byrne:
These features and more will help create a cohesive virtual classroom environment and give your students a chance to be engaged and held accountable for their work. While there are admittedly many options available to support your online classes, we feel that this resource is worth your exploration.