We’ve reached the finale of our 3 part series of the Ultimate Virtual Class Guide for Enrichment Schools! In Part 1, we covered what to do pre-class. In Part 2, we covered tips and tricks during class. We certainly hope that you are enjoying your online teaching experience and that these guides have been helpful along the way. Now in Part 3, we turn toward a crucial, but easily overlooked, period of the virtual teaching process: post-class.
As instructors and educators, it is part of your craft to constantly build, improve, and strengthen the curriculum to give students the most fulfilling and enriching experience possible. Utilizing the post-class period is one of the best ways to do this. Here are our recommendations on how to best use your time post-class to further enhance your virtual classes.
Get Feedback & Reevaluate
Part of the post-class experience is gathering feedback and going back to the drawing board to make adjustments. The best way to do this is right after the class when it is fresh in everyone’s mind:
- Get feedback from your students: You can do this by sending out a survey link (Google Forms or Survey Monkey have free versions) with evaluation questions on your performance. Be honest with your audience that you, like them, are also navigating through different adjustments. Consider making the survey anonymous to ensure unbiased feedback.
- Auto-Evaluate: Compile a list of things that went well and apply them to the next class. Similarly, compile a list of what didn’t go well and switch it up.
- Go back to the curriculum outline you made: In Part 1, we walk you through the importance of a curriculum. This document is only useful if you make adjustments as time goes on until you feel as though you got it right. Perhaps you need to adjust time allocations? Were some parts of class faster than you had anticipated? Slower? This will help keep a better pace for your future classes.
Finli Instructor Tip: Prior to class, ask a student or parent to stay on after class for 5 minutes and provide direct feedback.
Consistent Scheduling
Be consistent in your scheduling and updates to your students. This is key – getting into a routine will help everyone get used to and look forward to virtual classes. Double-check your calendar to make sure that all your students have received the invitation link for the upcoming week, send out reminders, and ensure that you are set up to be paid digitally.
Note: Finli’s software can help you go digital with your enrollment & tuition collection – and we are providing it for FREE during the pandemic to help. Schedule a 15 min demo with us today!
Class Homework & Make-Up Sessions
- Consider creating a small library of supplementary recorded classes: This is good for multiple reasons. First, this helps in practicing your content and getting used to the camera! But secondly, it ensures that you can keep your class top of mind with students in between classes. These do not have to be very long; 5-12 minutes is perfectly fine.
- Make-up sessions: Like non-virtual life, virtual family life is busy! If a student cannot make a class and needs to reschedule, we recommend that you have a weekly make-up class for students who weren’t able to make the scheduled classes.
Whether it be launching your first virtual class, or improving upon an existing program, we hope that this guide acts as a springboard for you to reach greater heights in your virtual instruction. At Finli, we’re here to give you all the tools you need – whether it be access to private corporate clients for additional revenue through our #standupforsmallbusiness program, or the payment management system you need to go digital and collect payment easily from your families.
🗣 We’re hosting a webinar on June 25th at 10:00 AM PST: Avoid Legal Pitfalls of Online Instruction: Q&A with Nano Law Group. Register here.
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