Students learn through their participation in the attainment of knowledge by

gathering information and processing it by solving problems and articulating

what they have discovered. Each activity below provides students with
opportunities to deepen their learning by applying concepts and articulating
new knowledge and many of these activities also provide the instructor
feedback about the students’ learning.

1. Lack of motivation in online learners

As hard as distance teaching might be difficult for teachers, it’s likely even harder
for students. Students gone from classrooms explicitly designed to support
learning, to bedrooms and kitchen tables where distractions are plentiful and
expert support isn’t always on hand. It’s no surprise that more than a few will be
tempted to opt-out.

Clear, measurable goals are the best source of motivation. 

Set them up on a daily basis to give students something to concentrate on.
Instead of giving them an open-ended assignment and leaving them to it —
which can be tempting when you aren't in the same room — give them a specific
task.:
 the time students should spend on the task
 a measurable or quantifiable outcome (‘each person needs to find five facts on x’)
 a means of accountability (‘these need to be onto our share platform so that
everyone else can see’)
 a due date.

Teachers should think about using gamified apps and programs to motivate
students, particularly in the younger years. Since these are specifically built for
student interaction in self-contained settings, they eliminate a lot of the hassle.

Emoji Slides
This is a great game to play before exams.
Each slide displays a concept or a word or a question. Teachers will share screen and
present one slide at a time. Students have to respond by reacting to the
word/concept/question on the slide with an emoji.
Happy ,  Sad, or Neutral.

If teachers saw A happy emoji from all students, They will move on to presenting the next
slide.
If a few students respond with a sad or neutral emoji, the teacher will stop and explain the
concept or give examples, and then ask them to react with an emoji again.
If the emoji is now happy, we move ahead.
Students can also create their own slides, share their screen, tag a person, and ask them to
react.

Circle of questions
One student starts with a question. For example, “What Literature?” The next student then
responds and asks a question to the person that she / he tags. The next question needs to be
in some way related to the first question. All students get a chance to ask and respond.

2. Technical difficulties with online teaching tools

Teachers must determine whether the students have reliable access to
technology.

There will not always be a secure internet connection or a laptop accessible for
students to use in every home. An initial email, message, or text to parents would
enable them to flag these concerns so that teachers can plan ahead of time to
accommodate those students.

It is also important to note that, despite all the talk about our students becoming
"digital natives," many of them aren't very adept at dealing with unfamiliar
software or using it responsibly. As a result, an initial ‘onboarding' session for
students is a good idea, and teachers should consider sending a brief orientation
to parents via email as well.

Teachers must provide a simple "hotline" for students to report technical

problems. That is not to suggest that teachers can take on a full-time IT support
position – teachers cannot fix all – but it will at the very least warn them to
students who might need special accommodations.

3. Time-consuming resources

For the asynchronous portion, Teachers must post lecture notes/discussion notes ahead of time on
the literary courses and record themselves explaining concepts/terminologies based on the notes.
Teachers can also hyperlink recordings in the notes that they post for students. Students can read
the notes on their device and watch the recordings before they meet synchronously online.  
For synchronous portion, this time is for reviews and discussions. Teachers can use this time for
several activities to clarify questions and confusions, provide feedback, and create discussion
opportunities.

Collaborative worksheets
For review of concepts, we use collaborative worksheets.
Teachers will post a worksheet with several questions (multiple choice, fill in the blanks,
true/false, explain a term, give an example, compare two concepts, etc.).

Students can then open this worksheet on their Microsoft Teams browser and start typing
answers to these questions. Students can see each other’s responses.
They get immediate synchronous feedback.