Following on from considering the components that will help to structure a lesson for online learning that ensures not just engagement of students but progress in their learning, it is important to think about how PPA is utilised to maximise impact. It is all too common to hear the phrase ‘online teaching is more tiring’. If we can develop an awareness of what is different about online preparation we can once again ensure we are working in a time efficient manner. Online teaching does not require working more, but is does require thinking differently.
Planning the Lesson Content
| Things that are the same | Things that are different |
| The Learning Journey – lessons need clear sequence and each lesson needs to have the same ‘building blocks’, just as it would in class to build knowledge, understanding and skills | Use of technology: the delivery methods for new knowledge, understanding and skills. |
| Modelling new concepts | ‘Transitions’ in the lesson |
| Giving students thinking time | Non-verbal cues not visible |
| The lessons require resourcing | How resources will be provided to the students – no printing, but need to be provided electronically |
| Methods of assessment are needed to check for student understanding and over time retention of understanding | Methods for implementing assessment need altering for an online environment |
| Students require feedback | Methods of providing feedback |
The Learning Journey and Lesson Delivery
The main construct of a lesson is the same, the adjustment is in the process of preparing and thinking of the actions that will need to be taken to deliver the lesson.
When planning a lesson it is only natural to ‘play it through’, and think about what to say and how to say it. With online learning this has become even more important as delivery of an explanation will not be punctuated by non-verbal cues from the students. In a lesson, while explaining, a teacher will be measuring comprehension and confusion from students’ faces and also be aware of anyone who may be losing concentration; they will then adjust their explanation to meet the students’ needs, for example: re-framing the explanation, or pausing for thinking time and questions. It is this unplanned, responsive element that is lost online. Therefore, in planning for the lesson it is important to take even more care than normal to prepare for breaks in the explanation and consider how to scaffold students’ thinking and processing. This is a very slight nuance – naturally we would plan for this, but it is more important when online.
Some key ideas to consider when planning explanations (that we consider anyway even in F2F teaching):
- Make the Learning Journey clear – again another thing that is normal for every lesson, but having real clarity throughout the whole lesson on the purpose of the learning is a great motivator for students. Be clear in how the learning links to prior knowledge and future learning.
- Modelling Concepts – What will these models look like online? Can they be the same as in the classroom? In what ways can technology support the modelling process?
- Thinking Time – Do not rush through, when pausing to give students time to process or complete an activity use an actual clock to measure the time, a silent 3 minutes feels like an eternity without non-verbal cues.
- Key terms – What subject specific terminology will be used? Does it need explaining before the full concept is addressed?
- Length of explanation – if there are too many things to process all at once students will not be able to address any of it, break the explanation up into sections.
Resources
The lesson will still require resources – whether this is utilising presentation software or needing to prepare for a ‘whiteboard and pen’ approach. Most of this can be prepared for in the same way, however extra care needs to be given to thinking about how the delivery will appear to students – for example, students will be following the mouse pointer/pen and not the visual of the teacher gesticulating and pointing directly at the board. Think of the ‘magic pencil’ that used to float across the screen on Words and Pictures in the mid-90’s! Would this have worked if the pencil hadn’t been there and letter just appeared?
Magic Pencil, actually has a second key thinking point, not only the ‘floating pencil’ but consider the construction of the visual – it was actually cleverly prepared to minimise all aspects of extraneous cognitive load, a plain background, clear lettering, and plenty of empty space! Nothing glaringly distracting or irrelevant to the goal – it communicates exactly what the student needs.
Thinking further about resourcing the lesson, there is a bonus of no printing, no going into battle with the photocopier or clearing paper jams! Instead uploading to an online platform becomes the new challenge, and the teacher mantra of ‘practice, practice, practice’ proves itself again; practice and you will get quicker – along with also sussing out methods for speeding things up, for example, ‘reuse post’ on Google Classroom. Design a template to use when posting each assignment and then duplicate and edit rather than writing from scratch each time is also a great time saver.
Transitions
Another key difference to consider in the lesson is ‘Transitions’. The same as in the classroom this is from one phase of learning to another, however this can be quite different in the online classroom. For example, a transition from listening to a teacher explanation to a written piece on a mini whiteboard.
- In a lesson this is: Stop looking at the teacher/board -> pick up pen and whiteboard from desk -> begin task.
- In an online lesson this is: Stop looking at the lesson screen -> change windows to the mini whiteboard -> select the relevant tool to create textbook, freeform, draw etc. -> complete task.
These may seem fairly similar, but when considering familiarity with the equipment, the potential need to keep swapping screens to refer to instructions, use of the chat box to type questions/unmute to ask verbally; the activity takes on a whole new style that students need to learn to navigate; admittedly most learn this very quickly. On the flip side, other transitions, e.g. handing out scissors/glue, may be easier or slightly different; use Google Slides to ‘drag and drop’ instead of ‘cut and stick’.
Use of Technology
The above example also links directly to another key difference, use of technology. This is perhaps the single thing which can make things time consuming, and perhaps be considered the ‘tiring’ bit. Ultimately, there is a LOT of technology out there which could be used to support delivery of online lessons, and this can seem a pretty daunting prospect to think of what could be used. The vital thing is to use technology that enhances the learning experience.
Consider this ‘would your rather’: If you were a student would you rather:
- Attend a lesson that used lot of different technology, but the teacher found it difficult to use and spent ages ‘making it work’ and you did not get to practice your learning properly.
- Attend a lesson that did not use much technology, but the teacher used the technology effectively, communicated clearly what you needed to learn and gave you time to practice it.
Students are joining their online lessons to learn, just as they attend to school to learn; for us to achieve this goal there are some aspects of technology that we must learn to use (e.g. the VLE and live meet software), there are then things we can learn to use that will enhance the learning experience if used well (e.g. Sharing Google Slides for Collaborative work, Visualisers, Google Forms, Whiteboard.fi). It is this ‘second tier’ of technology where we need to exercise control, trying to do everything will be less effective (and very time consuming) compared to learning to do one or two things well. Also, do not compare yourself to other members of staff – we are all on a similar journey in learning to use different forms of technology, and we will all learn at different rates!
Assessment
Then finally in the planning stage the most challenging question – how to know if the students are understanding if the work cannot be seen in real time?! The actual ‘what’ to assess remains the same as it would in the classroom, the difference lies in how to deliver this online. Some ideas have been discussed already – whiteboard.fi and google forms. Google slides also provides a creative way of assessing students, students can be assigned a slide to work on and the teacher can scroll through in real time observing students work and giving live feedback. Perhaps the closest to circulating the classroom so far. The key thing is to make sure the content of the assessment is carefully constructed and the method of delivery is prepared thoroughly to ensure it can be implemented smoothly.
Preparing Feedback
This final phase of PPA, preparing feedback for students; this is perhaps the least different, and from my perspective being online is a brilliant driver of ‘feedback not marking’
Firstly, students are (hopefully) uploading everything. This amounts to a huge workload if we try to read and respond to every. single. piece. individually. In fact, it is pretty much impossible, and we would not try to do this day to day in the classroom. However if we consider why we are asking students to upload their work each lesson it is because we need to see it to help us achieve the goals we want for them:
- We want to be able to help them further their learning.
- We want to make sure they have not got any misunderstandings or misconceptions.
- We want to know they have been thinking, and not just passively listening.
Therefore, we need to see their work so:
- We can adjust the Learning Journey of future lessons accordingly.
- We can identify specific areas of need for groups/individuals.
- We have a collective overview for planning longer term.
So, due to the volume of work uploaded we need to employ strategies that are informative and workload efficient.
- Feedback not Marking. This is vital, marking takes hours, feedback does not.
- Be Selective. In the classroom, we would not try to read and mark everything. Select a specific task to focus on that will diagnose the understanding of each student in the lesson.
- Sample Work. In the same way we can be selective on marking a specific piece of work, it could also work to sample the class. Select a range of students from the class and read their work from the lesson, make a summary of common errors and areas for improvement; address them in the next lesson with the whole class.
- Self-Assessment. Just as we would in the classroom, use self-assessment strategies so that students check their work and instantly make corrections to their understanding.
- Self-Marking Software. An opportunity for using technology to save time! Use software such as Google Forms to create MCQs that self-mark and provide data overviews of class performance. Time invested to create the form will provide instant data to guide the Learning Journey.
Summary
| Same actions/processes | New actions/processes | Actions/processes ceased |
| Planning the Learning Journey | Using the VLE and live meet software | No photocopying/printing |
| Preparing lesson resources | Using other software to enhance the learning experience. | Handing out / collecting equipment and printouts |
| Assessing student understanding | Teaching students to use new software | Circulating during independent work |
| Principles of Direct Instruction | Marking paper copies | |
| Wait Time | ||
| Using previous lessons to inform future planning | ||
| Providing students with feedback |
Things to consider
- Focus on understanding the technology side of things
- Consider whether using millions of ‘whizzy’ methods of delivery are really necessary or whether they are ‘time eaters’ and a simpler method can be used.
- Use assessment methods that inform you of student understanding quickly.
- Be kind to yourself – and think about how you are improving lesson-to-lesson!
Educating Melon 