Challenges & Measures To Attract Attention Of Students During Virtual Class

Swoyan Satyendu May 15, 2020

Closure of schools, universities and educational institutions have migrated millions of students to virtual classes with the help of successful adoption of technology. While the 1st phase of shifting students to the online platform has been accomplished, there are certain challenges that institutions are facing in the second phase of keeping students engaged in these classes because of numerous barriers, like:

Broken Audio and Video due to poor internet connection: India is a country with 4G and broadband, but we still face a lot of internet outrages and poor connectivity across the nation. Millions of students who have currently moved to online platforms are facing internet problems during virtual classes which demotivate them and they lose interest.
One-directional teaching methodology: Virtual classes are usually one-directional to not let some notorious students affect the whole class, but with its pros - it has cons too. The one-directional methodology is straight-out boring and students eventually lose interest.
Lack of an interactive environment: As the classes our one-directional, it becomes impossible to create an interactive environment without losing the attention of the class and disturbing the whole ambience.

The above-mentioned hindrances are leading to witness a decreasing trend in student engagement which is affecting the whole class at once and may lead to a minimum or no learning at all.

Well, as much as we try we can't mitigate all these challenges; however, there are certain things we can do to ensure that we keep the students engaged as much as possible. Here are some tactics that you can successfully apply and follow to keep a check on students and engage them effectively into the sessions without any distractions:

Teach and Monitor: When the students and teachers are physically present in the class it is quite easy to teach and monitor at the same time but during online classes the chances of students getting disturbed increase multifold. To alleviate the disturbance, support from an assistant teacher for every session while the classes are happening can help ensure effective monitoring; and further actions can be taken against students who are disturbing virtually. 
Attendance and Involvement: These assistant teachers can simultaneously take attendance for each session and send a cumulative report to every parent. While the parents are being informed about their child’s activities and presence in the class, the assistant teacher will also urge them to motivate their children to actively attend these classes. 
Assignments and Assessment: The child’s performance assessments will be linked to the classes, as the teachers will conduct an online test for the students that will be carried on the platform after every topic. Apart from online tests, the students will be given home-assignments on whatever topic the student has learned in the class. The students have to complete the task within the deadline set, and the teacher will evaluate the task and assign a score on the basis of their performance in the test and home assignment. All the marks from the tests and assignments will be added to their annual evaluation, and that way the students will take the home assignments seriously.
Words of Encouragement: The teachers will carry out a motivational session for the students to ensure that they understand the importance of studies, and how this time lost is not going to come back. Teachers will try to make the students understand that studying now is going to create a lot of value for them and that this lost time will create a big subsequent impact on their academics.
Revise or Revisit: The recorded versions of the lectures by teachers and teaching resources such as notes are made available to the students post the online class so that even if they are missing out on certain concepts due to poor connectivity or any other reason, they don't really miss out on the learning. 
Personal Touch: While online learning has become an imperative part of today’s learning scenario, it is missing out on establishing a teacher-student-parent rapport. To ensure that the students, as well as their parents, feel comfortable during the process, the teachers are calling and mentoring 10 students every day and also monitoring their progress. This process will further build trust in the minds of parents and children and will push them to actively participate in virtual learning.