DEVELOPING YOUR TEACHING

VOICE ONLINE
COMMUNICATION AT A DISTANCE

Your teaching voice will depend on your values and opinions, as well as the institutional policy in place at your college or
university. It is also open to change according to the context you are teaching in - and especially in shifting from face-to-
face teaching to online.

You need to be aware of the constraints and affordances of the online teaching and learning context in general. Online
or blended learning offer much flexibility and a chance to work more independently away from college or university
premises. However, it offers less or no face-to-face contact with colleagues and students. There is also a lack of visual
cues in online classes. Furthermore, students require regular access to a computer or device, as well as good internet
connectivity; and technical issues can occur when teaching or learning online.

You and your students will require familiarity and confidence with the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) / Learning
Management System (LMS) that is being used at your institution.

You may even have the chance to choose between what online teaching platforms you use. For instance, Microsoft
Teams may suit your institution’s requirements, or you may wish to complement it with Canvas which allows different
types of quizzes or a wiki for collaborative tasks.

It is important that you encourage questions and listen to students’ voice and feedback regarding your online teaching
tasks and practices so that you can reflect and develop.

SETUP 1: YOU ARE TEACHING IN A VIRTUAL CLASSROOM (SYNCHRONOUS

Greet your students and encourage them to greet you and each other. Put on your web camera and
encourage your students to do so, if broadband connection makes it possible.

Explain to your students how you would like them to speak and take turns. Most virtual classrooms
have a “raise hand” feature. Your students might not be aware of the affordances of the online
environment you are using, a short tutorial before the class can be helpful.

Explain how you would like them to ask questions. You might give them microphone rights all through
the class, however, this can cause echo and be disturbing, so consider giving microphones only at
certain times.

Explain how you would like to use the chat window.

Don’t be afraid of silent pauses, students need time to process your instructions and carry out the
activities.

School of Languages and Applied Linguistics | The Open University | October 2020
Allow time for catching up.

Check understanding, progress and involvement frequently. You might use a short quiz, an opinion poll,
or open-ended questions, e.g. “What’s your opinion on …?” “Which point/sentence/activity did you find
the most difficult/easy/interesting/funny… and why? Try to avoid closed questions like “Do you
understand it?”

Pay attention to the lack of visual cues, you might not pick up on difficulties you would in a face-to-face
classroom. You might mitigate this by inviting students to ask questions at all times and by checking on
their understanding frequently. You can also use a set of emoticons, e.g. to express agreement or
understanding, confusion, etc.

Break down the tasks into small chunks, the class might work better.

Give plenty of visual support while explaining the tasks.

Also make sure students understand the different teaching and learning methods you use, e.g. explain
why and how they should work in breakout rooms, for instance, to practice speaking in pairs, work on
tasks in small groups, prepare something to present to the rest of the class.

It might be useful to remind your students of the dates and times of synchronous classes.

Consider asking your students to prepare for the classes, this might refer to the teaching content e.g. by
sending them a task sheet; or can be a technical setup.

Make sure your students know where they can find information, worksheets, recorded classes, etc. on
the class website, if there is one. And that they know how to contact you.

Too many “additional” materials and links can be daunting and confusing. Keep the online environment
as simple as possible.

SETUP 2: YOU ARE POSTING A WORKSHEET OR A POWERPOINT

All instructions normally given orally in the classroom need to be communicated in writing, usually via
email, forum, social media or other platforms or in short screencasts or videos, or within the worksheet
itself.

Instructions and explanations should be provided in small steps as students will be working on their
own.

Consider that you are not there to explain/answer questions on the spot: try to foresee difficulties and
challenges. Imagine you are in the classroom, what are the most likely questions you would get?
Consider providing examples and sample answers where appropriate. If you have the facilities, you might
use a critical reader or student to read the materials and flag any issues they see.

School of Languages and Applied Linguistics | The Open University | October 2020
SETUP 3: YOU ARE TEACHING IN A FORUM (ASYNCHRONOUS TEACHING)

Greet your students, you might upload a short welcome audio or video. Also encourage them to greet
you and each other. If you don’t know each other introduce yourselves. If you find it appropriate, you
might create a “fun facts” video about yourself and ask them to do something similar, it is important that
everybody feels comfortable about it.

You have to establish a netiquette so that students are respectful and thoughtful towards each other and
each other’s comments.

You have to manage students’ and your own expectations, e.g. explain that working online does not
mean that teachers are available 24/7. Explain when you will be answering their questions and what your
turnaround time is.

In the online context both teachers and students can feel ‘disembodied’ from each other. It is important
that students feel part of a learning community and teachers play a central role in developing and
enhancing this community. Consider how you can build connections with your students in this learning
setup, and how you can help them connect to each other.

You might think of yourself as a facilitator who enhances students’ participation and engagement rather
than a teacher standing at the front of a classroom.

Create and share a task or study plan so that students know the key dates and times. Make sure they
have enough time to carry out the tasks.

Collaborative tasks, where students work with each other on an exercise or project can work well in a
forum. They can comment on each other’s contribution, negotiate and come up with a shared output.

Consider that a forum allows for more interaction, but not in real time. Also explain how much
participation you expect in the forum discussions.

Think of how much control can be given to students in using the forum – although this will depend on
students’ age, level and the context. For example, in replying to posts, ‘liking’ posts, or even designing
tasks and activities for each other, e.g. making a short narrated ppt presentation on a specific study topic;
preparing a worksheet or a simple quiz for the others.

Allow for self-reflection by assigning self-reflection activities.

Short and long audio and video recordings or screencasts can address specific points, e.g. difficulties
that arise, specific language points, detailed instructions.

It is important that you manage your online presence. You can post frequent announcements or
reminders in the course forum (or send by email or post on social media),

Timely and strategic feedback is an essential part of asynchronous teaching and remote learning. This
might be general feedback for the whole class in the forum or individual feedback in a private message,
email, etc. You can share model answers too.

Make sure your students know how to use the feedback they get. Encourage them to ask questions on
the feedback.

You will find that the more you teach asynchronously (and online in general) the more confidence you
will gain.

School of Languages and Applied Linguistics | The Open University | October 2020