Every teacher and student has encountered various challenges since the learning process switched to online. It is easy for students to turn to online learning as the only thing they need to do is learn. But when it comes to teachers, they have to manage other things and also look out for their students. The sudden entry of Covid into our lives has changed things for everyone. With Covid under the nose, education has shifted online and is always searching for new tools.
LMS, being the most widely used tool for managing student education, is used in almost every educational institution. It has an easy way to create courses, manage records and also is effective with results. But with every new tool come certain complications.
Here are a few potential problems that a teacher may face, as well as some advice on how to deal with them.
- Understanding the user interface: It could be difficult for anyone to take a jump from the traditional to the modern way of teaching. They may feel pressured by the amount of data they need to manage with the upcoming change. Amongst all this, if they are not able to understand the user interface then, everything is going to collapse. The user interface must be clear and easy to notice. A course should be easily accessible on any device. Using heavy graphics may take time to load, as a result, the user may feel annoyed.
Solution: To make teachers know the use of various features in the LMS, the administration should take sessions where they explain to the teachers about their user interface options.
- Adaptability: No matter how big or small a change is, it takes time to adapt to the new normal. Teachers will feel the same. They will need time to grasp the new options, features, and uses of the LMS. Most LMS provides easy onboarding programs for users to get going.
Solution: Using LMS that gives an easy onboarding process, for example, Bites onboarding and training, which gives users a customization option that helps in tailoring things to make them easy to understand.
- Technical issues: Administration will provide the material required to the teachers for Online teaching, but as LMS is software, it can pop up several technical issues. Teachers may face problems while uploading content, editing, changing the format of files, bugs, or anything that can come up.
Solution: Providing service that will help teachers solve their issues over-call is the easiest option. Or weekly sessions to check the progress report and solve questions is a good way to keep in touch with teachers.
- Time management: One can feel that online teaching will save time. But teachers have to prepare material, upload content, and other multimedia content. Along with that, they have to track students’ progress and give live sessions. Several things need to be observed. This can affect the teacher’s time management skills.
Solution: Administration should provide a scheduled timetable to teachers so that they can prioritize tasks in accordance with their importance and time-sensitive nature.
- Engaging students: Teachers in traditional learning were familiar with the excuses students made and dealt with them accordingly. But with online learning, they barely manage to keep their students focused. Teachers may face low attendance, distracted students, and similar problems. This will lead to demotivating them.
Solution: Teachers should include the use of interactive ways to engage the student. They can have online activities and games like quizzes, matches, puzzles to keep them busy. Videos made with cartoon characters and other interesting stuff will keep them motivated and will increase their curiosity to learn.
- Communication: With students learning online on LMSs, teachers may face the communication gap between themselves and students. To make the learning process smooth, students need to interact with each other as well as a teacher. The interaction between teachers and students is important because otherwise, teachers couldn’t understand the problems faced by students.
Solution: Teachers can conduct online live sessions with students to bridge this gap. They can also use the flipped classroom method or blended learning to overcome this challenge.
Bottom Line:
There will always be issues we will have to face while adapting to something new. The key is to evolve with the technology. With the above objectives and the solution provided, you can manage this obstacle.