{"id":8597,"date":"2020-06-22T15:43:46","date_gmt":"2020-06-22T13:43:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eu.shop.wacom.eu\/wacom-infochannel\/?p=8597"},"modified":"2026-06-05T09:29:38","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T16:29:38","slug":"how-to-design-the-perfect-online-lesson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/how-to-design-the-perfect-online-lesson\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Design the Perfect Online Lesson"},"content":{"rendered":"Teachers around the world are adjusting to moving lessons online. It can feel intimidating as you learn to handle the new technology. But there\u2019s an opportunity to design great lessons that enable students to learn without being in the classroom.\nCreating the perfect virtual lesson shouldn\u2019t feel different from your usual planning. At the centre of everything is the purpose of the learning. Choose online activities carefully to achieve this learning goal.\nLet\u2019s look in detail at the key elements of your online lesson.\n<h2>Purpose of the lesson<\/h2>\nStart with the objective. This lesson should fit within a scheme of learning. There needs to be a clear goal in your mind.\nAsk yourself:\n<ul>\n \t<li>Why am I teaching this?<\/li>\n \t<li>What is the point of this lesson?<\/li>\n \t<li>What will students be able to do after this lesson that they couldn\u2019t do before?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nThink about the purpose of the lesson before planning activities, programs and platforms. It\u2019s easy for learning to be lost when you get distracted by the virtual resources available.\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-8574\" src=\"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wacom-infochannel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2020\/05\/1_Wacom_Mind_MapLarge-890x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"474\" height=\"213\" title=\"\">\n<h2>Planning the lesson<\/h2>\nStart your lesson by revisiting prior learning. Use simple recall games, low-stakes quizzes or question starters to help them remember key information.\nBreak the rest of your time into small sections. There should be a mixture of modelling and independent practice. Signpost the learning so students see the purpose behind every task.\nOnline games and activities are great for making lessons engaging. Just choose carefully to make sure they deliver your lesson objectives. Watch for targeted ads, in-app purchases or paywalls and always follow your school\u2019s online safeguarding policies.\nRemember time for reflection. This doesn\u2019t have to be at the end of the lesson. It could come after smaller tasks. Platforms like <a href=\"https:\/\/teams.microsoft.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Microsoft Teams<\/a> allow you to create worksheets, collaborative discussions or share a quiz to measure success.\n<h2>Consider time limits<\/h2>\nIt\u2019s easier to manage students\u2019 time when teaching in person. You can spot when they\u2019re struggling or need a challenge. This is much harder when they\u2019re distance learning. Help them manage their workload by giving clear expectations for tasks.\nYou could use:\n<ul>\n \t<li>Time limits: <em>Answer as many questions as you can in 5 minutes.<\/em><\/li>\n \t<li>Word counts: <em>Your answer should be around 200 words.<\/em><\/li>\n \t<li>Amounts: <em>Choose three questions to answer.<\/em><\/li>\n \t<li>Points: <em>This question is worth 5 marks.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\nAssume it will take them longer than normal to complete tasks at first. Open-ended challenge questions are useful for any early finishers. Give a time limit for the whole lesson to help them judge how long to spend on it.\n<h2>Familiarity is key<\/h2>\nCreate a familiar structure to online lessons with flexibility within that framework. It takes time for students to learn how to use new technology. A fixed routine will help them feel confident.\nAlways set lessons using the same platform following a consistent schedule. Don\u2019t choose a new program to use every lesson and allow time for them to adjust to changes. Create a set of \u2018go-to\u2019 websites and apps you know can support a wide range of lessons and make these your first choice where possible.\n<h2>Create challenge<\/h2>\nStudents learn differently. This is challenging enough in the classroom, but difficult when working virtually. Your lessons need to have extension opportunities to stretch confident learners.\nA good challenge task is never just more of the same. Instead, let them apply the learning in a new context or work at a deeper level. Make your extension tasks open for all students and prepare to be surprised by who tries them.\n<h2>Support with learning<\/h2>\nOnline learning lets you get creative about how you support struggling students. Providing a scaffolded support for them can be as easy as \u2018click here for a clue\u2019 or a link to a video.\nIdeas for scaffolds:\n<ul>\n \t<li>Links to websites<\/li>\n \t<li>Simple presentations and voiceovers<\/li>\n \t<li>Video demonstrations<\/li>\n \t<li>Voice prompts<\/li>\n \t<li>Word banks and glossaries<\/li>\n \t<li>Visual images close to the text<\/li>\n \t<li>Tick lists for tasks<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nStudents need to see what you\u2019re expecting from them.\u00a0 Your virtual lessons should include ways to demonstrate what successful learning looks like.\n<h2>Assessment and feedback<\/h2>\nTell students when and how you will give feedback. Moving online doesn\u2019t mean giving a personalised response to every task if you weren\u2019t before. Being clear about what you\u2019ll mark and when the students will receive this feedback will let them know what to expect.\nThere are many ways to give online feedback:\n<ul>\n \t<li>Class feedback: Record a message for all students to watch or use a collaborative space on a platform like <a href=\"https:\/\/support.microsoft.com\/en-us\/office\/use-onenote-class-notebook-in-teams-bd77f11f-27cd-4d41-bfbd-2b11799f1440\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">OneNote Class Notebook<\/a> on Microsoft Teams.<\/li>\n \t<li>Individual feedback: Annotate work using a tool like <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/7e16ahVR2jk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Wacom One<\/a> or create comment boxes.<\/li>\n \t<li>Peer feedback: Add work to a shared platform and assign students to mark each other\u2019s work using a mark scheme.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nAsk students to share how they felt the lesson went. Adding a tick box option is a simple way to gauge confidence levels and identify those in need of challenge or support.\n<h2>Think about access<\/h2>\nConsider what you can do to ensure all students have the same access to your lesson. Choose technology that works well on different devices, is free to access and doesn\u2019t need large downloads or printing. It\u2019s essential to try activities before you set them to make sure they work as you expect.\nConsider creating a simple \u2018how to\u2019 user guide or record a video to show them what to do. Sniping tools (\u2018shift + windows + s\u2019 on a PC or \u2018command + shift + 4\u2019 on a Mac) let you capture pictures to make your instructions clear.\n<h2>Final Thoughts<\/h2>\nAs teachers get to grips with new technology, it\u2019s vital that lesson planning does not become time-consuming. If you take longer to plan a lesson than the student will spend doing it, you need to make adjustments to keep your workload manageable.\nMany lessons you\u2019ve used in the past can be quickly adjusted to suit virtual learning. The vast array of resources online makes it easy to plan activities without having to make everything yourself.\nDon\u2019t be daunted if you\u2019re not familiar with virtual lessons. Keep it simple and focus on the learning; you\u2019ll soon get used to setting tasks online.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":8598,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2656],"tags":[131,554,555,79,2285,410],"class_list":["post-8597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-education","tag-microsoft-onenote","tag-microsoft-teams","tag-teachers","tag-virtual-lesson","tag-wacom-one"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}