We’ve been teaching online for a year now, and though it’s not something we ever expected to do, we’ve found a lot of amazing benefits. To celebrate i-Learner’s online-teaching anniversary, our tutors have chosen their favourite aspects of virtual lessons.

 

Online Teaching is Flexible and Adaptable

It should come as no surprise that in this year of change, we’ve loved the tools that help things stay the same. Stopping face-to-face classes doesn’t stop us teaching, because our classrooms can exist wherever we are. Forty percent of our teachers said flexibility was their favourite thing about online teaching.

Some of our teachers have moved to be closer to family during this year, and they’ve been able to take their classes along with them. Our students have also benefited from this flexibility. Some of them live far away from our education centres, and instead of travelling to join their classes, they only have to turn on the computers in their living rooms.

This sense of continuity is especially important now. As Mr Rob shared, online teaching allows students ‘to continue their learning under difficult circumstances, and … express themselves in a small-group environment.’

 

Connections are Closer During this Difficult Time

Now that classrooms are in our homes, students and teachers can strengthen their bonds and make learning even more productive and individualised. From their first online lessons, Ms Brenda’s young students have loved showing their favourite Sumikko toys to their classmates, and ‘the laughter was really from the bottom of their hearts.’

A third of our teachers said this close connection was their favourite thing about online learning, and many of them added that this sharing of students’ home lives was a large part of that. This doesn’t only make classes more enjoyable, but it’s important for learning too. As Ms Iqra says, these genuine connections ‘make the lesson more interactive, interesting and educational in aspects of life that aren’t in textbooks.’

 

Creative Solutions are at our Fingertips

A quarter of our teachers chose access to online resources as their favourite thing about video lessons. Ms Lina likes to ‘integrate multimedia resources such as videos,’ and other teachers love the texts, images and games they can easily integrate into their lessons to bring them to life.

Ms Jean has found that the virtual world is a great help when teaching tricky concepts: ‘In courses like Critical Reading and Writing level 3, which I teach at the moment, there can be unfamiliar vocabulary where pictures are very helpful to students’ understanding of the context. My students love it when I look things up with them, and we usually end up learning something new together.’

 

This creativity is what makes learners succeed. At i-Learner, we love to nurture curiosity in our students, and online lessons are an excellent way to do that. What’s your favourite thing about online learning?