MEETING THE NEEDS OF LEARNERS THROUGH ONLINE LEARNING

You might not think about it, but it is possible to implement a learner-centred approach to learning in your online classroom. Whether a student has started their educational journey or is already enrolled in higher education, more and more teachers are turning to the learner-centred teaching method, and for good reason.

While there are many reasons for adopting a learner-centred approach to learning, the most prominent reason is that it better suits today’s needs. Online learning is probably the most ‘modern’ of the learning methods, although it does come with its own set of challenges.

Let’s look at how you can meet the needs of your students with online learning with a student-centred approach.

Student-centred learning: the basics

As a teacher using student-centred teaching, you will need to put your students and their learning needs at the heart of everything. To do this, you will need to follow three principles: student choice and voice, teaching as a facilitator and educational technology.

In an environment with a learner-centred approach, learners cease to be passive absorbers of information and instead become active participants in the learning process. Whether you are talking about kindergarteners or high school students, every student contributes to their educational journey.

Facilitating learning and educational technology

As a teacher, you must also move from being a keeper of knowledge to facilitating learning . If you give your students more sources of knowledge, they will start asking more questions about what they are learning. You must not only answer these questions, but also guide your students to new questions and encourage them to find the answers themselves.

When it comes to educational technology, whether you’re working with multiple educational applications or an LMS, it plays an important role in learner-centred education. With technology, you can choose your approach to different learning situations using the learning data collected through educational technology.

Online learning and student satisfaction

We know for a fact that the best way for students to learn is by doing. They are most engaged when they do something new, and student-centred learning allows for a lot of doing and active interaction between students and teachers depending on their needs.

An online learning environment needs to be as safe to ask questions as a physical learning environment. Your students need to be confident that they will not be ridiculed for asking questions, and when they get the right answers, they will make progress.

Your students will also need instant feedback. This means checking the message board and forums in the online classroom as often as possible for queries. If you can’t do this in the evenings, try setting specific times for your students to ask their questions with the assurance that you will respond quickly.

Using the Educator, a premium SLMS

The Social Learning Management System (SLMS) uses the traditional aspects of an LMS (learning management system). It combines these with social media (social streams, live streams, chat, groups, gamification etc.) to accelerate learning. The educator is an SLMS, and offers you many resources to meet all the needs of your students through online learning.

Students naturally respond well to resources like social media as they use social media for most of their lives. This is what makes a platform like Educator so effective.

Final thoughts

One of the most important aspects of effective online learning is the human connection. Online learning establishes some distance between the student and the teacher, which is why it is so important to maintain a close learning relationship with the students.