Step-by-step Guide on Creating Live Classes

Because of the rapid spread of COVID 19 during 2020, many aspects of our life changed greatly. One of the significant changes was in the industry of education. Do you guess why? 

People always tend to learn something new and interesting. And life is all about learning. Accordingly, people always find ways to complete this process and get the best possible benefit.

When people started making online actions and completing processes through the internet, education becomes one of the most comfortable industries that is possible to fully realize online. 

Although some specialists still hesitate about choosing online classes vs traditional ones, e-teaching is the future of education.

Softwares such as Zoom or Skype has proven to be comfortable tools while connecting to the learners and implementing the teaching process. 

However, in some cases, they take too much time to inform the students about the upcoming class, fix a time, present details, remind, and so on.

If you are interested in learning more about online live classes and the way to conduct them effectively, then you should go on reading. Below, I am going to introduce a step-by-step guide that will help you make the process come true and get real profits online.

Step #1 Identify the Difference between Courses and Live Classes Online

These days people tend to buy online courses and learn a new profession or improve their knowledge through online courses. There are lots of platforms where education providers sell their courses.

Live lessons, however, are a little bit different and require an approach from another perspective. You may have heard about two ways of teaching: asynchronous and synchronous. 

The asynchronous method refers to the process when the students learn on their own schedule and without a real-time trainer or instructor. All the tasks, including courses, tests, quizzes, etc. may be implemented any time as long as the course is active.

However, in the case of synchronous teaching, the participants (teachers and students) need to communicate and discuss the points together either by meeting or through a video call. So, the teacher and the learners need to be online at the same time in a specific hour.

If we consider from this perspective, online courses are considered to be asynchronous while live classes are synchronous. Yet, you do not need to worry about the method yet, cause it may be changed throughout time.

Step #2 Choose the Best Teaching Format

You have a choice between two types of live classes: either webinar or meeting. In general, these types may be very similar but when going deeper, there are some differences.

During a webinar, you record a live stream and start a lecture or any kind of presentation. The learners and participants don’t need to share a screen or take part in the call. They are just listening to and getting knowledge.

On the other hand, the meetings pretend a connection between two sides: teacher and learner(s). Such meetings may be one time as well as several times. 

For instance, you may start online training, create a live classroom, and schedule lessons a few times a week. Such pieces of training may take months and the participants get notifications and join the class every time.

Step #3 Create an Impressive Lesson Plan

How do you organize your traditional classes? Surely, you have a plan according to which you manage the lesson. Just like it, you need to create a plan for your live classes as well. Sometimes it takes even more consideration as the time is fixed and you have to manage the process effectively and in time.

Consider what points you are going to explain, take into account the complexity of the topic and the time required to introduce it. Then organize tasks, discussions, and similar activities depending on your scope. 

Have a clear image of the overall lesson in front of you. It will help to become confident and evoke trust among the learners.

When creating a plan, take into consideration the learning goals of the students and do your best to help them meet these goals. To go on the right way, answer several questions:

- Who is going to take part in your lessons?   
- What will your course objectives be?   
- How will you help the students achieve their learning objectives?

Having answered these questions, you’ll know your exact students and understand ways to realize their expectations.

Step #4 Choose the Best Platform Possible

Some people organize their live classes through Skype or Zoom. However, if you are an education provider who wants to be professional and besides live lessons offer other features as well, you are highly recommended to create your personal platform.

These days there are many website builders that offer affordable pricing plans to develop your website and offer services to a wide market. Uteach is one of these platforms. It is risk-free and you may start for free right now.

Here you get an opportunity to conduct live lessons, organize webinars, come up with online courses, publish different formats of educational material, present tests, etc.

As far as the live lessons, you may create a timetable where you will introduce the upcoming classes with detailed descriptions, dates and times, and any other information you find necessary. Students may check out the timetable and “book a seat” to take part in your lesson.

Yet, there is another feature. If you have a specific number of students who should join the class or at least will be interested in it, you may invite them to the class. 

All you need is to present their email addresses in the invitation field and these members will get invitations in form of email letters. 

If you like what Uteach offers, you may start for free and test the functions.

Take Your Chance

Step #5 Schedule a Practice Meeting

Before starting your official teaching meetings, test the platform you choose and schedule a practice meeting. You may ask some of your friends or relatives to join and check out how good the platforms work, how you manage to organize the process and time. 

Practice the camera, microphone, light, voice, screen sharing functions, and whatever else you will need to use during the real classes.

Also, try the in-meeting chat. Sometimes you don’t hear the students because of technical issues. And, in order to talk to you, they need to write. This chat is also used to send instant messages, required files, etc. It helps to organize everything in one platform.

Thanks to this practice meeting you’ll clearly understand how much time it will take for you to organize the technical part and how you manage the time during one lesson. Accordingly, you may make changes to the lesson plan or its length to control the process.

Step #6 Choose the Right Equipment

Once you have already practiced a test lesson, you know all the drawbacks and this step is to fix all of them to offer the best possible result to the audience. It should be very high and effective so that the students do not hesitate to choose online.

The most important pieces of equipment to focus on are:

- web or video camera   
- good quality microphone   
- proper lighting equipment

Do you see? All the points are related to tools that help to provide a better quality of lessons. However, if you prefer only to introduce Slideshare presentations then you may rely on screen recording tools such as Screencast o Matic. As for the presentations, Google slides is a good choice.

Step #7 Actively Involve Students

No kind of service or product is appreciated until it reaches the target audience. Your teaching services are not an exception. You should use any kind of channel to engage students and involve them in your live lessons.

You should let the potential learners know about your upcoming lesson, tell them the reasons to choose this lesson and the benefits to expect from it. Potential students should clearly understand why they need to take part in this lesson and what it will give them.

During the lesson try to engage the participants. Ask questions, offer topics to discuss, and do something related to make the participants come back again. To make this work, you may:

- Organize small groups or pairs. People like to be engaged in group activities. This makes the process more interesting, motivates the learners, and extends their capabilities.

- Offer live polling. Submit questions with a single choice or multiple ones during the live meeting. 

Step #8 Fully Understand Your Platform

Whatever platform you choose, you should master its functions in order not to appear in an uncomfortable situation. Even if in case of any technical issue, you should immediately realize what is wrong and how to solve the problem.

On the other hand, the full image of your teaching platform may become a source of motivation. You know all the available functionality and may think about engaging activities, interesting tasks, making use of all the features.

When choosing a platform, you should already know the main features it offers. If you haven’t still chosen a platform you may schedule a free demo and learn all the features Uteach offers. Our specialist will show you everything in detail and answer all your questions during a live meeting.

Do not lose your time.   
 

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