How To Develop A Simple E-learning Course

In our Schools and Universities, online courses and online teaching methods are gaining importance every day. More Universities are looking for some kind of financial aid to develop such courses and to train teachers in the specific field. Thus, it is evident that online teaching skill is necessary for a teaching professional in this decade.

In this article, we shall discuss about how to develop a simple e-learning course. Below are the steps to develop an e-learning course that can be used to deliver a lecture inside a classroom. You can follow these steps and develop an e-learning course as a Power Point presentation or a proper course using any available software. The steps explained below are generic and are not focusing on any specific subject or concept.

Before starting to develop an e-learning course, choose a concept or method to teach. It can be a mathematical or a scientific concept or a grammar exercise or a historical event. Narrow the topic as much as possible and provide only the necessary content. Do not deviate or dump the course with unnecessary sentences or paragraphs.

An online course should be in crisp format with less content and more graphic representation on the screen. During the lecture, you can explain the concepts in a more detailed manner and ask the students to take notes.

To develop an e-learning course:

Step 1

In the first slide, provide the introduction to the topic and explain about the sub-topics that will be covered in the course.

Step 2

In the second slide, provide the objectives of the course. There can be 3 or 4 objectives per topic.

Step 3

In further slides, explain each sub-topic in separate slides with supporting graphic representations.

Sub-topic slide:

• Provide introduction to the concept of the sub-topic


• Provide bullets and numbering to explain the concept in detail


• Use graphic representations such as images and icons to explain concepts and processes


• Use animations to display the content and graphics

Step 4

In the final slide, summarize the concepts that are discussed in the course. Ensure that the summary points tally with the objectives.

The important advantage of developing an e-learning course for a lecture is the feasibility factor that allows the lecture to be mind-boggling with necessary graphic representations. This graphic support can add inevitable value and meaning to the concepts and can inculcate interest among the students due to high level understanding.

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The Education System Of The Economic Giant

Education is an organized learning process that happens in an institutional manner with the help of an educator, as per the societal norms. It provides an opportunity to learn properly. It plays a vital role in the civilization process of human being.

In the modern day context, education opens the doors of opportunities for pupils who receive proper mentoring. But the US education system is facing a different situation. It is up against many crucial problems that can obstruct its potential to deliver. The major problems include teacher attrition and unequal school funding.

Teacher Attrition

Teaching profession is a bitter-sweet situation. It is a profession that is both demanding and rewarding. It is tied with overwhelming amount of pressure and responsibility as well as satisfaction.

The US education system is facing the problem of attrition of teachers that is increasing in an alarming rate. Teacher attrition creates problems in education budgets and student learning process. In case of education budgets, $7 billion per year is being spent on the recruitment and retention process alone. This amount can be otherwise used to spend on other education resources for the schools and the students.

Teacher attrition also denies students from receiving high quality teaching due to the replacement of experienced teachers with the fresher candidates. This leads to substandard mentoring.

Unequal School Funding System

In the United States, Public schools are being funded by the federal government, state government, and local organizations. As nearly half of the funds are sourced from local property taxes, the system generates large funding differences between the wealthy and the impoverished communities. Such differences exist among states, among school districts within each state, and even among schools within specific districts.

Compared to other countries, United States faces huge difference in the quality of school buildings, facilities, curriculum, equipment for instruction, teacher experience and qualifications, class sizes, access to auxiliary professionals, and other resources. It would surprise most US citizens to learn that disparities such as these are simply not tolerated in other developed countries, where public schools normally receive equal funding for rich and poor communities alike. The funding is usually allocated on the basis of student enrollment numbers.

The above discussed problems cannot facilitate a smooth education process for the welfare of an individual and for the American society. So, the funding and the faculty system should be organized properly for the education system to serve properly for the society.

Source: http://www.getteachered.com/blogs/featured-articles/education-vs-teachers/

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5 Non-conventional Ways Of Teaching High School Students

Have your students become bored in the class? Have they lost all their enthusiasm in books and learning? Are you not able to get their attention at all? Then, it’s time that you revamp your teaching methods. Let go and let the students do something they want to do. While learning, these teaching methods can also inculcate some important life and job skills in your students.

Follow these 5 non-conventional ways of teaching in your classroom and see the difference in your students’ learning process:

Quiz Competitions

• Prerequisites – Prepare questions and back-up questions, in advance, from what you have taught to your students so far.


• In the Class – Divide your class students into teams and conduct the quiz. Give a time limit to answer each question. 


• Benefits – This method can promote team work, decision making skills and time management skills to your students.

Class Exhibitions

Prerequisites – Allot topics for students to work on and exhibit. Help them throughout the process and teach them about their work during the process. 

In the Class – Let the students exhibit their work and explain. Also, ask them some simple questions about their work to further their knowledge in the subject. 

Benefits – This method can promote creativity and the ability to explain from what they have learned.

PPT Presentations

• Prerequisites– Train the students on the Power Point Presentation tool and allot subject topics.







• In the Class– Let the students display and explain their presentations. Ask simple questions to the students at the end of the presentation. You can also use different tools like this to teach the students.


• Benefits– This method can help students to bring out their designing skills and creativity.

Songs and Stories

Prerequisites– Provide topics for students to write a song or create a story using the subject matter. 

In the Class – Ask the students to sing the songs and tell the stories. You can encourage the students to enact their stories like dramas.

Benefits – This method can create interest in the subject. It can enhance creativity and enthusiasm about the subject.

Debates

• Prerequisites – Provide a topic for the whole class to debate. Let the students choose their side in the debate.


• In the Class – Encourage the students to speak out loud and argue for their views. Guide the students whenever necessary by asking questions to them. Provide a conclusion for the debate.


• Benefits – This method can enhance oratorical skills among students and let them stand for their view.

While preparing to conduct theses activities in your class, make sure to let the students know about the day of the activity, in advance, for them to prepare well. At the end of each and every activity, congratulate your students for their active participation. Encourage them to perform either solo or in groups. Focus on the theme of learning in all of the activities. All the best and have fun!

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Factors That Can Affect The Student Learning Process Inside Classroom

There are many factors that can affect the student learning process, especially inside a classroom where prolonged attention is required to grasp a concept in a very short period of time.

Let us discuss about those factors that could affect the learning process inside a classroom:

Too many of Jargons in the explanation

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo – This is a grammatically correct sentence in American English. Believe it or not, this is what a student gets in a classroom if he or she does not understand the lecture.

One of the reasons that a student gets easily bored in a class session is the inability to understand or connect with the subject. This may happen if the student is not able to understand the meaning of the context in question or if the concept is too ‘alien’ from the student’s perspective. This is mainly because of too many technical terms in the context of the explanation which can drastically affect the students’ ability to grasp the concept.

Teachers should try to explain such difficult terms during the initial class sessions and make it a point to reiterate the same terminologies in order to keep the students’ minds refreshed. 

Very Strange Concepts

As said, alienation of a concept can turn the students’ interest off. To avoid this, teachers should try to explain a concept to the students with an example that they can remember.

The examples can be selected from everyday activities that would help a student to understand the concept and be attentive in the class.

Information Overload

Even if the lecture is very simple and easily understandable, students would get tired after a certain period of time. Some teachers would start teaching in a classroom in a relaxed manner, without focusing on the core subject, to get the attention of the students. But, it is also important to give a small break to the students in between the teaching session. This may be difficult for some teachers to interrupt their flow. But, they should also consider that if the students are not able to concentrate, understand and ‘follow’ the teacher, the lecture would become unproductive.

Thus, teachers should avoid teaching continuously for, say, 40 minutes. If possible teachers can opt for humor as a teaching method for the whole session to grab the attention of the students for prolonged classroom sessions.

One-Way Communication

A good lecture is considered successful only when it is interactive. One-way communication is another important reason that makes students contribute less towards the session as well as makes them less attentive. This also avoids active participation and learning on the students’ part.

There are some unavoidable factors that can make a student less interested in the class or towards education itself, including physical, emotional, and environmental factors. If a student is physically unwell or emotionally disturbed, he or she may not be able to concentrate in the class, at all.

If the environment at school or classroom is unfit for learning, a student would definitely struggle to learn.

But a teacher could resolve issues under his or her control and make use of the opportunities available inside the campus and the classroom to grab the attention of the students. Teachers can also follow some of the simple teaching strategies to improve their performance in the classroom and reap the rewards of a best interactive learning session.


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Teaching Methods That Facilitate Learning

Learning is a continuous process. A person can be a learner throughout his life. But, teaching is a quality that only some of us possess. A good teaching ensures learning. History has seen some of the great teachers in various departments across the world. This includes the renowned teacher-student hierarchy, Socrates – Plato – Aristotle – Alexander.

Historically, teachers have practiced various teaching techniques that are used even today in our classrooms. These techniques concentrate on the efficiency of a student’s learning capacity. During various periods in the history, the teaching methods have gone under constant change. Nowadays, gadgets have occupied significant place in conveying the subject material. But, teaching and learning is always the same. Even through a gadget, only a teacher teaches a student which will never change.

In this article, we shall look into some of the core teaching methodologies that can be used to help students learn.

Teaching by asking questions

This method triggers the students’ nature of curiosity to make them involve in the learning process. By questioning students and encouraging them to question, “Why?” and “How?” the teacher can inculcate and enhance the curiosity inside the students’ mind.

Curiosity can be defined as a strong motivating factor for learning. It is the first and foremost reason for human beings to start searching and researching about things around them. It is also the reason, children learn quickly.

A teacher should concentrate to bring out this quality in a student. If this can be perfectly achieved, the rest of the learning process can happen by itself.

Teaching by providing experience

This kind of teaching can be relevant to practical experiments where experience plays a major role. When the students do the experiments directly using their hands, learning becomes inevitable. More practice leads to more experience. But, it is very important to ensure that students progress during every attempt.

Teaching by facilitating observation

Students learn through observation. This technique can be used by a teacher to teach students using models. This observing technique is mostly used in science education. Students are asked to observe a chemical process or a specimen in biology or a model describing a mathematical concept.

Teaching by facilitating association

Using this method, concepts can be taught to students by associating it with their effect. A scientific concept can be efficiently taught by teaching its effect and applications. Thus, the student can learn by associating the theory with its practical application.

This method of teaching is very effective to help students remember the subject and concepts they learn in the classroom. This method can also help them to apply the theoretical concepts into real life situations. 

While enhancing the students’ learning capability, it is also important for a teacher to know about the factors that affect students’ learning process. This effort can eliminate major obstacles and can naturally enhance the students’ learning potential.

We shall discuss about this in the next article.

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