Notes of an online teacher

Quite a long time ago, we began work on uznai.ru - a platform where you can conduct online classes ("webinars") and lessons. There is a lot of work ahead, however, now we can draw some conclusions.
During the test operation, we taught various courses there, including my “ Web at the service of business ”, and clarified the following patterns in the behavior of the public:

• Online lessons discipline students very much (like regular trainings and seminars): among those who signed up for an online course, many more people complete their studies in an acceptable time frame than among those who decide to listen to the course on record or buy a book.
• It is possible to attract the attention of the course participants so that within an hour they are almost not distracted by external stimuli and listen to the teacher. However, for this you need to create special motivation among students, support it and prepare excellent presentations and lesson plans.
• Even if the schedule of online classes is known in advance, and the participants are warned in advance about the classes, no more than 30% of the participants enrolled in the course attend classes. Many expect to see classes in the recording, but here the probability is even less (non-urgency syndrome).
• Students rarely ask questions on the material and are usually not ready for a question-answer session after class. This, however, repeats observations from ordinary lectures and seminars.
• Paid online seminars additionally motivate users: the response and effectiveness of training at paid seminars is higher.
• It’s easy to recreate the atmosphere of a classic lecture, a seminar online, but rather difficult - psychological training with group work and deep involvement. However, judging by the new software market and technology development, the solution to this problem is a matter of several years.

Recommendations to teachers is a separate big question that can be discussed for a very long time (if in the West enough attention is paid to this topic, then we have very little; it is enough to compare Russian and Western electronic courses). However, I would like to immediately give a couple of recommendations to the participants of online seminars:

• Before the workshop, prepare a pen and paper (yes, in this case, traditional “paper” tools are more convenient) for recording questions and notes.
• Before the seminar, think about what questions you would like to solve at the seminar. Write them down and check at the end of the seminar, before the Q & A session. If something remains unclear, ask a question.
• Immediately inform the teacher about a problem with sound or other technical troubles. He probably does not know about them, and you will be very useful.
• Turn off large downloads and torrents before starting :)
• Try not to be distracted in the process of training: just start, and half of the webinar will pass by. It is better to draw little devils on a piece of paper in boring moments.
• Do not try to decide that it is not necessary to attend online classes if they are on the record! The point is not only that a live teacher will explain incomprehensible material to you, but also that “delayed motivation” significantly reduces the likelihood that you will someday take time for this seminar - especially if they accumulate.

Enjoy your training and useful courses!