Let's not be delusional about our offline or online presentation skills. Your pace. The right amount of information fed to the student. Receiving feedback that you are indeed delivering well as a teacher. They are all ingredients to success.
One key thing to remember is that the content (what you say), delivery (how you say it, e.g. voice) and visuals (how it looks) are all equally as important. Don't make rookie mistakes with your online presentation. Here are basic steps to ensure it's efficient and entertaining.
Before the Online Class
First off, help everyone be on time. Nothing is more irritating than sitting online waiting for a meeting to start because one or two people didn't show up. Link your Google Classrooms with Google Calendars. It can help make sure everyone gets there on time and knows the topic. If people do show up late, go ahead and get started so you don't inconvenience the others. Late people can use the software to watch a recording later. Tell your students this: "You can use Google Calendar for scheduling your classes, deadlines, etc. And you can put notifications which you can receive on your phone if you sync your phone."
Email your students the Trello board of the curriculum or your teaching guide so that they know what will be taught on which session. Attach the presentation or notes you'll be teaching within the Trello board itself so everything is organised in one place and they don't keep asking you. We talked about Trello board already on our collaborative tools page here. Make sure notes you send are properly scanned especially if they are handwritten. Cam Scanner or Adobe Scanner are good apps for proper scanning. If you want neater notes and can't send images or PDF, Text Scanner is an app that translates handwriting into text with minimal effort from you.
During the Class Material Delivery
Follow this 3-Checklist model to better present classes online - each class should follow this template to help students follow your logic and to emphasise key points:
1.0. Set Expectations/Agenda of the class
The first section of my presentation deals with... The second … Finally,...
2.0. Emphasis:
Let me repeat, as it’s really a central part of what I’m talking about, …
There are three clear reasons we did this. First, …
This is important because...
2.1. Giving examples:
An example of what I’m talking about is …/ To illustrate...
3.0. Concluding:
In conclusion, it’s clear that …/ To conclude...
Make the presentation entertaining. Just because the presentation has lots of factual information doesn't mean it has to be dry and dull. You can add a lot of flair without making your talk unprofessional. Use stories and humor to make it fun. Not only are people more likely to listen closely, they'll remember more of what you told them. Whatever you do, don't be boring!
How? Encourage conversation. The great part of collaborative softwares is that it allows people to communicate with the presenter and each other during the presentation through messaging, so the talk isn't interrupted. You should encourage your team to do this from the beginning. Watching the online activity will give you a sense of how engaged your listeners are and allow you to tailor your presentation along the way, if need be. We touched on it here.
What language to use online? Pas pense 2 fois, Kreol. Personn pena letemps ale decode English accents ou bien articule so francais bien. Tous zelevs compran Kreol. Coz ou kreol carre carre ou. Pas gett divan, pas gett deryer.
After the Class Material Delivery
The time to start an action-step list is not during the presentation itself. Give time to students to breath for 5 or 10 minutes. Then talk about the homework or anything you had like them to focus on. This is also where you should encourage peer-based and self-directed learning.
End on time. So many students complain about this. People are busy and they have most likely scheduled other activities after this meeting. Show them respect by finishing at the designated time so they can move on. If they still have questions or want more information, tell them they can connect with you later. But let everyone else go. Give everyone the recording link to review the presentation if needed. Then thank all for their time and get to work.
Decide a weekly "Leave time for questions" special class. You can review any written questions that were left unanswered and allow for discussion amongst the team. Don't let the questions drone on or get redundant.
Educators have a myriad of reasons for the slow progress in upgrading skills. A common refrain is the increasing demands on their work time. Unlike earlier times when teaching was much simpler and tools limited to the textbook and the blackboard, teaching today requires far more preparation than ever before.
But as you can see, it doesn't really take much.
Your job is to help students better help themselves.
Again, try to use classroom time online for clarifying on concepts, most of the classroom material should be a homework students do through their own readings.