What role does social media play in college learning for teachers?

Social media was known to be a barrier between stents and learning. It was only used for chatting and uploading pictures for fun just a few years ago. This has drastically changed (especially since the pandemic) when we moved towards virtual learning. This same social media is also in use by the students and teachers today, to exchange knowledge outside class premises.

A wide variety of websites and platforms have are available with fascinating tools to aid teachers in educating their students. Hence, teachers who have students wondering who will take my online class for me can assist students’ education. There are multiple ways websites and applications help teachers.

Progressive Teaching:

Statistics show that students find hard to retain simple classroom lectures. Most students fail to score well in their tests for two main reasons. They do not grasp what is taught or they simply forget. Although, teaching out of the classrooms due to social distancing has done more good than harm.

It has caused teachers to use teaching methods other than the traditional written and oral lectures to deliver knowledge. The new, creative ways of teaching help teachers convey information more efficiently.

Teacher-student Connection:

Teachers can now keep in touch with the students outside the designated hours of class. This increased accessibility allows them to reach students for several important reasons. Teachers can send homework online through social media. Students can access this any time of the day. They can also share any important information related to their course and answer students’ queries. This is especially useful around the time of exams as students have a lot of things to ask their teachers. A time-saving technique is to respond to all general queries in one go through announcing the guideline.

Delivering Lectures:

Unlike the psychical settings of classrooms, social media does not restrict the number of students. Social platforms like Facebook is used professionally by hosting live lectures to an unlimited audience. Students can easily save and replay these lectures as per their convenience. This helps students who might have missed out on a certain part or joined late. Not only this, lecturers can allow students to carry educational discussions in their class group.

Online Meetings:

This feature has saved precious hours of the day for teachers, administration, and parents. Teaching is one of the most demanding careers as it consumes a generous amount of time and effort. Due to this, scheduling one-on-one meetings takes a toll on teachers, requiring them to spend more hours back at school. Hence, when talking about the role of social media, it is impossible to ignore the ease of conducting meetings online. Additionally, this has encouraged the majority of the busy parents to attend their child’s meeting on the go and exchange feedback.

Creativity in the Classroom:

Social media gives teachers the opportunity to explore their creative talents while making learning fun for students. Online tools such as Slideshare, Youtube, MS Teams, and even Canva are popular platforms for creating and sharing visual content. This method of learning is great for students who find it hard to concentrate during lectures. Students can easily understand and remember online learning material which is engaging.

Increase Productivity:

Social media enables teachers to save time through improved accessibility. Dedicated teachers can use this time to prepare the learning material and lectures. The accessibility also promotes the exchange of feedback between students, their parents, and teachers. This can help teachers offer better support and help. Social media also makes lesson planning easier by providing sources and materials relevant to the curriculum.

Motivate Students:

You can encourage students through various forums by sharing positive posts. Many young students who are struggling in life look up to their teachers for inspiration. Optimistic posts can uplift the spirits of students who are minorities or those with certain disabilities. Positive feedback along with the celebration of students’ efforts also make a huge difference. For this reason, institutions prefer to increase their presence on social platforms to engage more students online.

Make extra money:

While teaching requires a lot of hard work, it does not necessarily pay well. Nevertheless, educators can make extra bucks from recording and uploading their courses. Online courses are one of the best ways to earn as it only involves uploading the course once and gradually accumulates students willing to pay. Uploading free lectures on a YouTube channel works too. Although, they must be appealing enough to gather sufficient audience for monetization.

Monitoring Students:

Understanding students’ progress can help teachers instruct and guide students accordingly. Improving their performance also helps teachers in designing methods according to their students’ needs. There are many websites available that also help with creating and saving student portfolios. As a teacher you can also use social media platforms to create polls to receive students’ opinions on particular subjects.

Online Assessment:

Assessing students have never been more effective since the use of online tools. It saves administrative efforts and reduces checking particularly for multiple-choice questions. Furthermore, the work is done faster and so it takes less time for students to get feedback on their scores. A great advantage of online quizzes or exams is the flexibility. As a teacher you can easily assess students on the go, without any restrictions of specific time and locations. A few great tools to help with online assessments are Google Forms and Quizlet.

Social platforms have changed the way we teach and learn. Teaching is no longer limited to the four walls of the classrooms. With time, we are predicted to permanently move to virtual learning due to the numerous benefits it has to offer. Most students now suggest it does not matter who will take my online class for me due to the innovative technology available for their education. Consequently, universities and colleges are encouraged to make use of the advantages social media has to offer us. The dependency on social media is no longer unhealthy as it empowers teachers to use various methods of teaching resourcefully.