Distance learning support
Top tips for online delivery
As schools in the UK have closed due to coronavirus, we know many of you are now teaching remotely. To support you and your learners as much as we can, we’ve put together some useful guidance and top tips for distance learning.
Choose your virtual classroom
It’s easy to tell if students are engaged while you’re in a classroom, but how do you get this same level of engagement in an online lesson? The first thing you’ll need to do is find a reliable online platform or learning management system to help you communicate with your students. There are lots of options available to you to carry out online delivery.
Tips for using Microsoft Teams during distance learning
Microsoft has put together some helpful advice for getting teachers and students started with Teams, ensuring remote learning can be as effective as possible. For further support, read this Microsoft blog post that provides information for teachers who want to get their online classes started soon as possible using Teams.
Pick the right resources to support your learners
Having access to the educational resources you need to help teach your online curriculum and being able to share those with learners at home is important. To help with this, we’re offering free access to many of our digital resources for the duration of the school closures. This will enable you to access student-facing materials, which you can then share as part of your online class or for your students to work on at home with their parents or carers:
- For primary schools, free subscriptions to ActiveLearn, an online learning world with everything a teacher needs, including numeracy and literacy resources, planning tools, games, activities and assessments.
- Free access to Carol Vorderman’s The Maths Factor, proven to improve numeracy through lessons, activities and games.
- For secondary schools, free subscriptions to ActiveLearn, providing teachers with the tools and resources to personalise teaching and learning for key stage three, GCSE, A level, BTEC Tech Awards and Level 3 qualifications.
Alternative resources
There's a plethora of online tools and resources available for online teaching, from video resources and podcasts to online magazines and member associations. Here are 10 online resources we suggest for school teachers.
Guidance for read alouds of Pearson resources
We understand that during the school closures, many of you might be reading aloud or sharing content with your students from our books and other resources in your online classrooms.
To ensure you're fully compliant with copyright laws, please follow our guidance.
Getting started with distance teaching
With such a short amount of time to prepare, you might be feeling a little overwhelmed and not sure where to begin. Take a look at Tips for moving a class online quickly. Here you will find a few questions that will guide you through the first steps of implementing your online teaching.
Getting online learning started with Office 365
Read this Microsoft blog post that provides further information and support for teachers who want to get their online classes started quickly using Office 365.
Explore Google’s distance learning resources
Google's resource hub discusses best practices for distance learning, including useful tips for engaging students with online teaching, support for enabling online lessons with Google Hangouts and guidance on how to build interactive lessons.
Create a supportive environment for your learners
Although some learners may already be familiar with online learning, most have not experienced a situation where all learning and teaching is completed remotely. From setting clear expectations of learning to seeking feedback from your students, there are many ways you can support your learner to adapt, take a look the Seven strategies for effective online teaching.
You can also share resources and tips with your students such as this on how to be an online learner.
Look after you and your students' wellbeing
Feeling a certain amount of concern or worry is natural when we encounter difficult or unsettling times. Take a look at our dedicated wellbeing space for useful hints and tips concerning wellbeing .