Challenges you face when teaching online

 Although online learning has a lot of benefits, it poses several challenges as well:

1. Lack of technology and internet connection 

 Nowadays, most people are facing internet problems especially with the economical crises in Lebanon, also, not all students have the tools necessary for online learning like laptops, some may be sharing a laptop with their siblings so it might not be available for them to use when needed.

     2. Computer knowledge

A lot of students and teachers don't know how to handle online learning systems and steaming or how to deal with the whole process of starting a video meeting and connecting with students and how to download materials the teacher send for students, etc... this whole process can be unbearable for them if they were not fully trained on dealing with it. 

   3. Privacy and confidentiality 

With technology development, cyber bullying increased as well as hacking, and students at younger age are not well prepared to face such crimes and secure their profiles against hackers. Thus, they are at high risk of exposing to it. Not to forget, even on educational sites or tools dangerous content might appear to them and they wont know what to do. 

Tools that can be used in online assessment

 Due to technology advancement, teaching in schools has largely adjusted to online podiums, where online classes often replace traditional classroom teaching. 

Online assessment should have a broad report of each student's achievement to help identify differences in learning.Where traditional assessment make it difficult to record and evaluate the performance of the students, online assessment is fast to mark the students' work and provide immediate feedback on their grades. Also, it can be reached to students who lives aboard, they are not required to physically appear in the classroom to do the tests, this provide great opportunity for students to learn at prestigious schools even outside their country. In addition to that, a lot of online assessment tools are cost-free, and time saving since teachers don't have to write it down and then print it, and later on, mark each test by themselves. 

Several assessment tools are available for teachers to use in online assessment and that are very effective at evaluating students performance and keep the parents updated with their kids' achievements and progress, some provides templates for quizzes and tests for different teaching levels and subjects as well for summative and formative assessment, all for free, such as:

1. Quizlet, for both types of assessment. 
2. Google Forms, for formative assessment. 
3. PollEverywhere for summative assessment, quick and fun. 
4. TestMoz, supply several templates that are automatically graded and ready to be applied.
5. Mentimeter, for fun summative and formative assessment.
6. Moodle, it can provide the parents with updates regarding their kids progress.
7. Flubaroo, combines both google forms and spreadsheets builder to give an assessment tool etc...      

A teaching/learning experience I won't forget

 As a chemistry major newly graduate I was so excited to pass the information I learned in the university to students and deliver the concepts in an easier way to help them understand better. So when I started tutoring high school students, one of my students kept expressing her hatred toward chemistry and that she never understood it, and that she only study it because she is obliged to in order to pass the class. Therefore, I decided to relate everything we learn in chemistry to real life examples, to prove to her the importance of learning chemistry and how much it is used in our daily life. One of the lessons I taught her was oxidation/reduction reactions, where I have collected different examples on reactions that occur in the environment around us like iron rusting and asked her questions regarding why does it happen and how it happens, thus building her own knowledge with my mentoring and relating the concepts to rel life situations. She was never this satisfied about her knowledge and understanding regarding this subject before. She passed her tests with a good grade and a change in her point of view toward the subject. This proved to me that my method of teaching was successful and that I was able to show them the reason why we need to study chemistry.  

EDUC561 Class

 1. What kind of skills I am learning in this course?

•     How to integrate technology into my teaching methods to make it more fun.
•      How can I replace traditional tools( papers and whiteboards...) with more advanced technology ones ( google forms...).

2. What do I find useful in this course?

• Personally, google sites and blogs are very useful for my professional career development. 
• As a teacher, google apps made my teaching easier and more fruitful because it provide visual effects for the student that will make the concepts more clear, thus grabbing their attention. 

3. What I wish was different in this course? 

•   Taking this lesson online, so that I can have a better internet connection.
•    Providing more templates/exsercises regarding online tools like mentimeter, pad-let... so that we can practice them more and discover more about them.