May 5, 2023
Best Practices for Creating a Virtual Lesson Plan [+ Free Online Templates]
Teaching online classes may seem like a daunting prospect at first. How can you ensure you’re imparting information successfully without being able to interact with students face-to-face? The key to online teaching success lies in drawing up a thorough virtual lesson plan. We’ve got some handy tips and tricks to help you do just that, and a few free lesson plan templates as an added bonus!
How To Create a Virtual Lesson Plan
There are a few vital steps to take when drawing up your lesson plans. Be sure to do the following:
Schedule Lesson Planning in Your Week
Set aside time in your day specifically to plan your lesson(s). Lesson planning can’t be a rushed job, otherwise, you'll end up with a nonsensical class structure that leads to you fumbling during the class and wasting valuable time.
Unfortunately, we can’t say exactly how much time you need to allocate to lesson planning, but if you teach virtual classes regularly, you’ll figure that out after you’ve done a few planning sessions and taught a handful of classes. That said, try to allocate a few hours over your weekend to plan one week’s worth of lessons in one go, and revise each day’s plan the day before the scheduled class.
Alternatively, carve out about one to two hours to plan a single lesson. Of course, the more time you can dedicate to lesson planning, the better, but a couple of hours should do the trick (we wouldn’t recommend less than an hour per lesson).
Get To Know Your Learners
Staring at a screen and listening to a teacher talk for hours on end can be incredibly boring for students, so you must figure out what will capture their interest at the beginning of the lesson to get them hooked. Then, determine what in-class activities will appeal to and keep students engaged, and build these into your plan.
It’s also critical to discover what their baseline knowledge of your subject(s) is like. Finding out what their strengths and weaknesses are will help you establish which learning areas or topics will require additional focus. You can get this information by asking them to fill out a survey and test them through a quiz.
Set Objectives Ahead of Time
Think about what you want to get out of the lesson and write that down in your virtual lesson plan. What must your learners understand, be able to do, or have finished by the end of the lesson? These goals will help inform the content you cover and how you explain and demonstrate concepts.
You can use your curriculum’s learning objectives as guidance here. Remember, though, that each class is an individual stepping stone towards a bigger picture, so every lesson plan must tie into long-term learning goals.
Maintain Consistency
Although variety is the spice of life and you definitely need some to keep students interested, you should still make sure that all your class plans follow a similar outline, in the case that you teach the same class frequently. Include an introduction, body, and conclusion (of sorts) to your lesson plan so that the class follows a logical structure.
Use this same framework throughout so that both you and your learners know what to expect. Routine is essential for online learning! Speaking of outlines, it’s a good idea to give your students a weekly agenda ahead of the week’s first class that explains what will be covered in each class.
This document should also note any corresponding additional material learners need to cover, as well as the necessary assessment and due dates. Add a checklist, as ticking off boxes is very satisfying for everyone involved and a great motivation to keep going!
Build in Discussion Time
Ensure that you allot some time at the end of the lesson for the class to discuss the work you just covered. This is a good chance for students to ask questions and for you to clear up any misunderstandings or elaborate on topics. Roughly 10 minutes should suffice, so, if your class is 1 hour long, the rest of the content in your lesson plan must be doable in 50 minutes.
Establish Assessment Metrics
You’ll need to decide how you’re going to measure your students’ progress. What kind of assessment tools and formats will you use? Will there be in-class tests in addition to take-home assignments? Will you use a discussion board for group participation purposes? The answers to these questions will help you establish if you need to work in-class assessments into any of your lesson plans.
Utilize Visuals and Online Learning Programs
Most people learn better when there are visuals to help them understand the material, so make sure your lesson plans include some! Explanatory videos with visuals that match the audio are incredibly effective teaching tools that you can use instead of just speaking at students. You can make your own or source relevant ones from the internet.
When it comes to pictures, graphs and diagrams are all well and good, but interactive, moving images and graphics are better. Online whiteboards allow you to draw concepts as you explain them, the same way as you would in a traditional classroom. They’re especially helpful for subjects like Math and Science.
There are numerous virtual learning tools and platforms like Moodle and Lessonspace that enable you to share your screen, share resources, and facilitate communication. Make sure to include their use in your lesson plan(s).
💡 Lessonspace tip: Save time and energy when preparing for your next lesson by re-using your virtual lesson plans and other resources! Create an interactive lesson on the Lessonspace whiteboards and save the content into your Resource Library. You can then easily import it into your next lesson with a click of a button!
Review the Lesson
Take a few minutes in the evening to think about how the class went. What worked and what didn’t? Use these insights to adapt future lesson plans for improved results. Also, get feedback from those who matter most: your students themselves! Give them a weekly, fortnightly, or monthly survey to understand what they’d like to see changed or kept the same.
Even if you taught just one lesson on an ad hoc basis, it’s still a good idea to ask your learners what they thought about the class so that you can enhance your online teaching going forward.
Free Virtual Lesson Plan Templates
We know that’s a lot of information to take in! So, to help put it into practice, here are a few free online virtual lesson plan templates.
Class VR
While Class VR specializes in VR headsets, they also offer a host of virtual reality (VR) lesson plan samples.
The New York Times
You might not think of a newspaper when looking for lesson plan templates, but this publication has made a range of teaching resources available to educators needing an extra hand.
Khan Academy for Math
The world-renowned education organization has shared lesson plans for Math classes from third grade to senior year.
Final Thoughts
Mapping out your content and strategy for online classes can be tough at first. But, as long as you set aside dedicated time for it, do your research, keep lesson plans consistent, and reflect, you’ll be acing online teaching in no time!
Remember to take a student-centric approach by ensuring you choose material and assessments that will appeal to learners and help them in areas where they may be struggling, and give them an opportunity to voice concerns, ask questions, or share ideas.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you teach a virtual lesson?
You’ll most likely live stream the class to students via the internet, meaning you’ll film yourself teaching and students will watch you in real time. Chances are, you’ll use an online learning platform like Lessonspace to do it.
What are the 3 types of lesson plans?
Detailed lesson plans cover every single aspect of the class, while semi-detailed plans give an educator a general theme for the lesson but leave room for adjustments on the day. Understanding By Design plans focus on the lesson’s learning objective and structure plans around it.
What are the five 5 steps in developing a lesson plan?
Determine learning objectives.
Incorporate learning exercises/activities.
Include assessment type.
Decide the lesson’s sequence of events.
Include a lesson conclusion.
Where can I find free online lesson plans?
A quick Google search should give you the answers you need, but Hey Hi has a few more resources in addition to the ones we listed a little earlier on. And, of course, Lessonspace can help you create online lessons, too!