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Taking courses online has become a widespread and popular method of learning this past decade. Many adult learners have turned to taking advantage of online courses for the flexible schedule and the opportunity to advance their careers. However, teaching adult learners can create many different pros and cons compared to teaching younger students. Introduce the additional component of teaching adults online adds additional brick walls to climb and ensure the student is able to learn and thrive in a virtual setting rather than a physical setting. In this essays I hope to offer some advice on how to teach adult learners in an online setting. One of the first things that is important about teaching adult students online is communication. Communicating with students online may pose many difficulties compared to communicating with students in-person. Students may feel less obligated to ask questions online compared to asking questions with a real life teacher. Therefore, it is important for teachers to foster good rapport with students and support adult learners with maintaining their motivation to learn. So it would be a great idea if the teacher is able to frequently keep up students by any means necessary. Choosing the best platform to communicate with students is also important. Some companies like VipKid, Cambly, and EF Education First offer platforms for students to communicate their students efficiently. However, this is not always the case. In this scenario, some teachers may turn to general video conference platforms like Skype and Zoom. There have also been instances where teachers have created blogs to effectively communicate and share information with their students. I believe that conducting a diagnostic test prior to beginning the course is very important for teaching adult learners online. Having students complete a diagnostic test will be very important to learning what the student already knows from previous learning and their language capabilities. This diagnostic test will enable a teacher to see what areas the adult student will need to improve on in order to succeed in the course. Another important factor in teaching adult learners online is understanding that teaching online necessitates patience and time. Since courses are not taught in person, it is important for lessons to have the same impactful information that a lesson would have if a student were to take the course in person. Therefore, it is important for ESL teachers, especially new teachers, to do as much research as possible and manage time efficiently. The last and most important factor in teaching adult students online is collecting feedback from students. When a teacher decides to get feedback from student’s questions such as, “What do students need English for? How will they use the English language? What would the students like to learn? “, can be very essential in creating a direction and syllabus for the course. Taking this direction and incorporating feedback from students can create an open and stimulating environment for students to learn and feel like they are a part of the course. Feedback enables a teacher to see what students want to know and how a teacher can improve in their teaching abilities. In my online teaching career, I plan to implement all of these tips in order to improve teaching online as well.
