Find The Flexibility To Adapt
This is valid both for students and adults that want to enrich their knowledge. They can now choose to study a subject they are passionate about and tailor their learning experience. However, with the rise of the internet, more and more eLearning platforms have been developed. People now have more opportunities and possibilities than ever to choose a program over another. Online learning is therefore a new challenge for teachers and speakers. In a world where everyone competes for the attention of learners, it is important to know how to grab and keep it. If people will be distracted during your courses, that means the learning experience should be tailored more to what they are looking for. This is important also during a time when the attention span of learners is only about 8 seconds. Creating captivating and challenging content and finding games for engagement can be the solutions for grabbing and keeping your audience’s attention.
Visuals
In a society described by flashy ads wherever you go, there is fierce competition for attention. This, on top of the rapid advancements of technology, has decreased people’s attention span. Visuals are those elements that grab the attention of the audience immediately. They are a nice, colorful, and effective way to send complex messages.
The era of long chunks of texts is over. No one has the patience necessary to read long texts unless you manage to hook the students. It is important to add something more to the information you want to send, and this is visuals. Like this, it will have a bigger impact and the attention of the students is grabbed and kept.
Active Participation
Many speakers and teachers see the online learning experience as something dreadful. They miss being in physical contact with students and their audience, but flexibility and the high power of adaptation are needed. Even though you no longer are in the same room with your audience, the connection still exists. Yes, to make online lessons effective, teachers and educators need to change their teaching style.
Active participation is what engages your audience. Avoid seeing online classes as a monologue, but rather a dialogue. Asking questions and inviting the audience to answer them can lead to new perspectives. Moreover, if the topic is interesting, others will join the discussion too. There are custom papers on online education that say these questions, and discussions help students retain information better and also apply it.
Bring Controversies To The Table
Active participation may sound easy to do, but actually capturing the attention of your audience from the beginning may be difficult. So, how can you make some students get involved during online classes? By bringing controversies to the table. You can choose related statistics or facts that can startle a discussion.
Even though some will not participate actively with replies, they will surely pay attention as something new is happening. The way you handle these discussions is also important. Make sure to adopt a logical strategy and encourage your students to express their opinions.
And if the topic drives more controversies than you have expected and it is suited to your classes, you can organize a debate. Or, ask students to express their opinion in the form of an essay.
Stories And Emotions
The online learning experience can offer students some learning opportunities they did not have before. Tailoring the teaching experience so that the emphasis is put on the students is essential. And the way you send some information is also important. As you no longer physically interact with your audience, you may find it challenging to establish a bond.
You can do this by introducing a new way to share information and send messages: through stories and emotions. These two grab the attention of any audience immediately and from there it is up to you to keep it. Build powerful and emotional stories that help learners to connect with you. And if you find some of your past experiences to be relevant to the topic, share them. Opening up in front of learners has long been seen as a vulnerability and something teachers avoided. But these stories that have the power to evoke emotions allow learners to remember and understand them better.
Stories often come with morale or a message that learners need to draw conclusions. And if you allow them to draw their own conclusions, it will also keep them engaged and attentive.
Conclusion
Online lessons are the newest form of education that will gain more and more momentum. Teachers, speakers, and educators alike need to find the flexibility to adapt to these new educational formats. Grabbing and keeping the attention of the audience might be perceived as more difficult than ever, as the attention span of people is decreasing.
However, there are a few tricks that could help any educator make its online lessons more attractive and entertaining. Choose to add visuals to double the impact of your message, to create stories that evoke emotions, to encourage active participation by bringing controversies to the table. Learners are attracted by all these, so make sure you make good use of them.
Do not be afraid to open up in front of your learners and share some of your past experiences. This will help create a bond between you and them.
