Student interaction is a vital component of a successful online kids activity center. It builds social skills, enhances learning, boosts confidence, creates a sense of community, and encourages creativity and critical thinking. By incorporating interactive activities, discussion forums, live sessions, collaborative tools, and supportive practices, you can foster meaningful interactions and create a dynamic, engaging learning environment.
Tune in to know more on this.
[00:00:00] Welcome back to the Joyous Women Podcast. I hope you are enjoying and learning from these series.
[00:00:08] Today we are exploring a crucial aspect of running a successful online kids activity center which is
[00:00:16] the importance of student interaction, making your students interact in your online classes.
[00:00:23] We will dive into why is it necessary and what are the benefits that it will provide and how you can do it as in,
[00:00:31] what are the practical tips that will help you to foster meaningful interactions in your online classes.
[00:00:39] Let's get started. First and foremost I would like to discuss why is student interaction in your online classes even necessary?
[00:00:49] Why should you even have the student interaction? You know the first and the very important point it enhances learning.
[00:00:57] Active participation and interaction makes your learning engaging and effective while children interact with their peers and teachers
[00:01:07] they are more likely to understand and retain that material because they are constantly sharing their knowledge and their learning
[00:01:14] and thus they retain the concepts. The second is definitely it builds your social skills.
[00:01:20] Interaction will help the children to essential social skills like let's say communication, empathy and teamwork
[00:01:27] when you know you ask them to unmute only when you announce their name or maybe to listen to what the other person said
[00:01:35] these kind of communication skills will develop and help them in the longer run
[00:01:40] and these skills are definitely crucial for the overall development and future success.
[00:01:45] Third it definitely boosts their confidence. Interacting in a supportive environment helps children build their self-confidence
[00:01:53] they feel comfortable when you know they are expressing their thoughts, they are asking questions
[00:01:58] and even they are participating actively boost their confidence.
[00:02:03] Fourth I would say it is creates a sense of community because they are you know feeling belonged to, they belong
[00:02:11] they feel that you know they are a part of this entire network wherein they have their peers and their instructors
[00:02:17] who help their learning experience become more enjoyable so they you know start getting a sense of belongingness towards the group
[00:02:27] gradually. First day the sense of community building and belongingness won't come up but gradually when they do activities
[00:02:35] with each other that sense of community comes in up. And fifth is an unsaid thing it creates
[00:02:42] it encourages creativity and you know builds that creative thinking because through discussions and collaborative activities
[00:02:51] they are encouraged to always think creatively. They learn to solve problems, they share their ideas and they thus explore different perspectives
[00:03:00] so through these five points I basically cover as to why is the children interaction so essential and a critical part for your online classes
[00:03:10] now the main question how can you do that? How can you foster student interaction?
[00:03:17] See first and the very foremost thing is that you as an instructor as a teacher need to understand that it should not be a one-way communication
[00:03:28] that you know you are non-stop speaking, speaking and your child is just listening. Ask them to participate actively
[00:03:35] that could be through typing into the chat box through you know unmuting them at times and asking them to respond
[00:03:42] through asking them to speak what they learnt in the previous class so these are the few things that can help them.
[00:03:48] Now how you can do that is first is interactive activities like planning activities that will require
[00:03:54] let's say their participation and collaboration it could be some games, it could be group activities, some interactive role-playing
[00:04:01] this could be there. Second you can always have discussion forums wherein online discussion forums
[00:04:08] will help them to you know share their thoughts they will ask their questions and they will engage into conversations basically
[00:04:16] and this provides a space for them to interact outside of the scheduled class times. I mean they can discuss that post after the class
[00:04:25] third is into the live sessions how they can do it. Into the live sessions you can when you are having your video calls
[00:04:34] you can have dynamic conversations built in and you can use options like breakout rooms, shared documents, virtual whiteboards
[00:04:44] and into the breakout rooms when they are going you can ask them to share what were their learnings
[00:04:50] and this definitely is one of the main process of how you know they can actively participate other than on a daily basis
[00:04:58] breakout rooms can be done on a weekly or a gradual schedule that you decide and next I would say is you know always encourage them to participate
[00:05:09] because the students were just sitting and they are not responding, they are not switching on their videos
[00:05:16] they are not answering to your questions there are quite higher chances that they are not learning
[00:05:22] and if they are not learning there is no point for them to you know even pay and come for your online classes
[00:05:29] so if you genuinely want the outcome of your classes to be effective, if you genuinely want that the students learn what you are teaching
[00:05:38] then you need to focus absolutely on their active participation and I always encourage my students to you know put their cameras on
[00:05:47] and once their cameras are on you can see are there any distractions in their background, are they focused, are they concentrated to what you are mentioning and teaching them
[00:05:56] and you can just gorge and sense how focused is that child and if he is not you can quickly tell their name
[00:06:03] XYZ do you have a question may I answer it, may I help you on this is the concept clear so this way is you can on a regular basis you know foster their interactions
[00:06:15] practical tips I would say now few of the practical tips would be you know icebreaker question like you know recent activity workshop of mine
[00:06:26] I had done an icebreaker question as in before they came into my day one class I had sent them on a WhatsApp text saying that be ready with your intro
[00:06:35] and I had given them four five pointers as in your name, your city, your hobbies and your age
[00:06:40] so icebreaker activities is before they are coming tell them that this they need to prepare and the pointers so that they are encouraged they feel connected to the group when they are coming
[00:06:53] and they just come and speak up interactive polls and quizzes could be one of them so let's say you are on some day five six of your workshop
[00:07:02] and you have seen their participation you have seen that enough value exchange has already been there so at the let's say fifth sixth day you can share a poll with them
[00:07:12] that are you learning so far are you enjoying your learning it can help them quizzes also you can prepare a Google form and you can ask them to participate in the quiz
[00:07:22] you can pick up some random questions for five of them keep it a very short quiz not a lengthy one and I would suggest if it's just a multiple type of a quiz that is all the more better
[00:07:32] so if in that quiz they can answer so that will also re foster their learning peer teaching is third wherein you know you can ask them to share amongst both of them
[00:07:43] the third of them as to what did they learn in the previous class feedback loops is yet number four wherein you can regularly ask your feedbacks on to what they learn
[00:07:54] what I recently practiced is on every workshop day of mine I asked them to share what did they learn what were their key takeaways and that helps them to gradually you know
[00:08:05] because when they are putting their learnings into pointers and sharing it with you or on the group it reinforces what they learned
[00:08:13] and as a celebrative celebrate their participation is another practical tip as to how you can do it is who encourages what encourages their participation is
[00:08:26] acknowledge their participation and gamification is the best you know this I learned from my mentor whenever you gamify anything the learning the participation leads to a higher execution and a higher result rate
[00:08:42] so gamify whatever you are doing whatever you are teaching gamification could be if you do this you would be rewarded with this that you know that I am not saying it has to be into monetary term only
[00:08:53] it could be any form of rewards but it should be kind of a carrot dangling in front of a rabbit that yes I want to have it so always gamify your concept
[00:09:03] so in this podcast we discussed as to why is online interaction important how you can do that I mean how you can foster students to actively participate and we also discussed few practical tips
[00:09:17] so I hope you have understood that student interaction is a real vital component when it comes to the success of your online kids activity center
[00:09:26] and I would also say that towards the end that you know it will help build in their confidence and it will rather ensure what you taught has reached their mind
[00:09:39] and they have understood it completely yeah and towards the end thank you so much for tuning into today's episode of joyous women podcast I hope you genuinely found it insightful and helpful
[00:09:50] until next Tuesday keep fostering connections encourage interactions and spreading joy through your kids business journey
[00:09:58] and as I always say do remember so cheng it to definitely hug a cheers to motherhood cheers to joyous living God bless thank you