Author: Kevin Juliandito Suhartono

The past few days have seen increasing numbers of schools and universities across the world announce that they are moving to online-only learning. Hundreds of thousands of teachers are busy working to move their face-to-face lessons online. Designing online courses takes significant time and effort. Right now, however, we need a simpler formula. Here are 14 quick tips to make online teaching better, from an expert in online learning. 1. Record your lectures – don’t stream them If students are unwell or are struggling with internet access, they will miss a live streamed lecture. Record videos instead and send them to your students so that they can watch in their own time. 2. Show your face Research has shown that lecture videos that show instructors’ faces are more effective than simple narrated slideshows. Intersperse your slides with video of yourself. 3. Keep videos short Videos longer than 15 minutes can cause issues of slow downloading and learner distraction. If you have more to say, record two or three short videos. 4. Test out slides Make sure you test slides on a smartphone before shooting your lectures so all text is readable on small screens. Font sizes, colours, template designs and screen ratios can be double-checked. 5. Use existing resources … It is unrealistic to expect that you, on your own, will produce a semester’s worth of high quality videos....