Online education has witnessed a substantial increase in the number of learners in the recent past, who have chosen online medium for meeting their learning needs.
The same trend can be seen for instructors who have either transitioned to online medium completely or are in some way using it to deliver learning along with the traditional methods. The increased adoption of online education can be attributed to the ease of use, and flexibility that it offers to both instructors and learners.
The enabler for online education is technology. With a plethora of education technology solutions available to instructors, it can sometimes become hard for them to choose the right solution for their teaching or training needs. Nothing dampens an online instructor’s enthusiasm and drive like complicated or difficult-to-use software.
Undoubtedly, the selection of the right software or platform is crucial for effectively delivering learning. Every platform comes with different features and capabilities. Hence, deciding the right platform for your teaching or training needs requires a careful analysis of the software features.
Here we list six must-have features of good online teaching or training software, which can help you choose the right platform for your individual requirements.
Versatility
The versatility of the software or platform decides the type of online teaching or training activities that you can do. You need to take into consideration the level and type of interaction that you normally have with your learners and choose the software accordingly.
Sometimes, you may need to include polls or quizzes, and other interactive elements in your course to engage learners. You may also need to have live audio and video communication with learners during your online class. The platform you choose must be versatile enough to provide you with access to such features, and more in an effective way.
In addition, since instructional content comes in various formats, you need to make sure that the software or platform supports content in all the widely-used formats, such as PDF, Microsoft Word, presentation, audio, and video, just to name a few.
The WizIQ Virtual Classroom, an award-winning online classroom, has useful and innovative features, such as whiteboard, live audio and video communication, text chat, polls, screen sharing, breakout rooms, and content sharing, among others. These features enable instructors to engage learners and deliver a holistic learning experience.
Measurement of teaching effectiveness
Effective teaching can be simply defined as a set of activities that foster learning. Having in-depth knowledge is not enough to be an effective educator. In addition to having deep understanding of the subject matter, an educator needs to be cognizant of the factors that affect the learning process, which include the manner of content delivery, courseware design, learner engagement, and more. It is crucial for educators to know the abilities and specific learning needs of their learners. An instructor’s effectiveness can be gauged by measuring the degree of learner engagement and understanding how content is being consumed.
WizIQ is an innovative platform that allows instructors to build their online academies and get actionable information about their courses, classes, and content using the Insights feature. This powerful feature enables educators to get insight into learners’ activities by providing them with reports which cover information, such as content consumed by each learner, live classes attended, and the percentage of course completed to keep a tab on the number of dropouts. Instructors can use this information to refine their course content or courseware design, improve their teaching approach or methodology, and do more to increase learner engagement and enhance learning outcomes.
Global Reach
One of the significant factors behind the manifold increase in the number of instructors opting for online mode is a wider reach. Using the online mode, instructors can reach out to learners across the globe, which can’t happen with the traditional teaching methods. There are many online teaching platforms with a varying number of users. As an instructor, you should choose a platform, which has a sizable number of active users worldwide and features that are designed for global users.
WizIQ users include 4.4 million learners in 200 countries and 400,000 instructors in 100 countries globally. There is no dearth of opportunities to connect with new learners and instructors. It expands your reach as an instructor in the true sense of the word, and helps you become a global educator. Moreover, the WizIQ Virtual Classroom is built for global users as it supports 19 languages, which means that you can teach learners without fretting about the language barrier.
Content Security
Educators work hard to create their instructional content, which is their intellectual property. It is natural for them to be concerned about content security as information on the web can be accessed and used by everyone. Content security remains one of the biggest concerns of instructors looking to teach online. One of the ways to claim content ownership is by controlling the dissemination and access of content so that it’s accessible to only the intended learners.
Content security is one of the salient features of WizIQ. Instructional or course content is always hosted on the secure WizIQ server, which uses encryption to hide your activity on WizIQ from other users on the web. Usually banks and financial institutions employ this kind of network or web security. Anyone who is not enrolled in your online course or class will not have access to your content.
Brand Identity
Venturing into online teaching space has become very easy but the biggest challenge for an educator lies in creating a distinct identity of his/her education brand. The trouble with the online content (and your brand) is that it can easily get lost in the sea of content already available on the web. So, it is extremely important for educators to have a positive and solid digital footprint. Part of the problem though is that not everyone knows how to create and manage that digital footprint.
WizIQ addresses this problem. It gives you an absolute control of your brand and enterprise by allowing you to build your own online academy which is an exclusive space accessed only by your learners and co-instructors. With customization options, such as academy logo, custom web address, and more, your online academy or enterprise gets a unique identity, which truly sets you apart from the competition and enables you to carve a niche of your own.
Mobile learning
Smartphones and tablets are radically transforming how we access content and stay connected. We have instant access to information and expertise – from informal cooking lessons on YouTube to online courses. More and more data is being consumed on mobile devices and education is getting interspersed with our daily routine. Mobile learning takes online education to the next level.
WizIQ Online Academy brings m-learning to your learners who can access your online academy on their mobile devices using Apps for Android and iOS. The WizIQ Apps allow learners of your academy to access your instructional content anytime, anywhere. With Online Academy, learning never stops.
As pedagogy and learning needs change, learning tools also evolve. With online education landscape changing rapidly, educators and learners are adopting new technologies to suit their learning and teaching styles. As more and more people are joining the online bandwagon owing to ease of use, scalability, flexibility, and affordability of the online medium, choosing the right platform or software continues to remain a crucial factor in the success of your teaching or training business.
