It has become very common online -everything, in the last couple of weeks. From Webinars, meetings, yoga sessions to a meditation retreat, this pandemic crisis has affected every single one of us. Unfortunately, it was very hard to predict this unprecedented scenario. However, it has been a wonderful relief to explore the unlimited sources that exist online nowadays.

Although the first week of my online course was face to face, I was not able to attend. Therefore, every single one of my classes has been online. It has been three or four so far – and I am loving it. I must admit, I was a little bit skeptical about the whole process at the beginning. I had so many questions as: How are we going to practice pronunciation? Am I going to have direct conversations with other students? Is my Wi-Fi going to be efficient enough for three hours?

I was unaware of how the application ´´Zoom´´ works. It has so many tools I never thought about and that I have been learning through the course. My favorite three tools you can use are:

The professor can share her screen, and she can make corrections or add texts to it. Therefore, she can correct grammar exercises that way. Moreover, she can also add a ´´white page´´ she can use as a board.

The students can be separated by the host into ´´break out groups´´ to practice speaking exercises (I found this very cool). The professor can jump in and out to answer questions.

Lastly, we can even have reactions and virtually raise our hands to answer specific questions! It often happens that we are all in mute while listening to some explanation. If you have any questions, you can click the raise-hand button, and the professor will call you out to speak. Isn’t it great?

The more classes we have, the easier it gets. Fortunately, I have not had any problems with my Wi-Fi neither.  

If you are in an online course and you did not know about any of these tools, feel free to explore it or discuss it with your professor!

😊