For the longest time, I could see no way to connect online teaching with Twitter. Twitter was like some annoying, large exotic bird. Oh, I could hear it squawking, alright. I could see it hopping around my backyard. But I was far too busy with my online teaching load to bother making friends with a wild blue bird. (more…)
Every online teacher will meet a difficult student now and then. We know this comes with the territory when you teach online. But an unpleasant exchange can still be surprising – and even distressing. (more…)
When you teach online, many of your skills and achievements go unnoticed. Your colleagues don’t see you often. They don’t really know that much about you. And your students read your emails, and respond to your feedback. But overall, they know less about you than your colleagues do. This kind of invisibility is certainly frustrating. But even worse – it can ...
When you teach online, it’s vital to let your real personality shine through. Authenticity and honesty help to make a genuine connection with your students. It’s a terrible idea to try and be something you’re not. Your students don't want to see a sweaty man in a tight jumpsuit impersonating a legend. (more…)
Not every adult learner in your online classes is a digital native. Plenty of online students can go for hours without checking their iPhones. And these learners see going to the library to borrow books as perfectly normal. So when students like these enrol in an e-learning course, they have different needs from digital natives. (more…)
Tutoring online naturally involves fielding a lot of student questions. Some days, in fact, it feels like that’s all you do. And these calls for help can be problematic. They can take forever to answer. They can be repetitive and exhausting. And they can get in the way of the other core business of tutoring online. When you’re feeling harassed and ...
Teacher quotes are not like self-help slogans. You know the ones – we’ve heard them so many times, they’ve lost all meaning: Life is short, do what matters Change your mind, change your life, or Follow your dreams. These are not inspiring calls-to-action; they’re a wave of white noise clichés we’ve been tuning out for years. Quotes about ...
A Referencing Guide is Not a Book of Spells. But try telling new online students that! Many see referencing as a kind of dark art – difficult to master, impossible to control, and ever so slightly sinister. That Reference List may come out looking alright. Or it might show up as a monstrously deformed creature with ears on its elbows. ...
All online teachers have superpowers. What are yours? By harnessing the power of your personality - your very own X factor - you can achieve two worthwhile results. (more…)
Teaching online can be incredibly demanding. And it’s easy to forget this is the best job in the world. (You love it, remember?) But that To Do list has a life of its own. It never seems to shrink, no matter how many emails you answer, or how many papers you grade. (more…)
Hi there. I’m Dr. Liz Hardy, and I help make teaching online easier, by sharing real-world teaching tips that work.
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For the longest time, I could see no way to connect online teaching with Twitter. Twitter was like some annoying, large exotic bird. Oh, I could hear it squawking, alright. I could see it hopping around my backyard. But I was far too busy ...
Every online teacher will meet a difficult student now and then. We know this comes with the territory when you teach online. But an unpleasant exchange can still be surprising – and even distressing. (more…)