Since the pandemic came into our lives, many things have had to adapt to the new reality . A topic as important as education could not be the exception to that, so this also had to modify its dynamics to continue classes.
The main change that education had was that it had to adapt to a virtual modality in order to continue and in this task, social networks served perfectly. Such is the case of WhatsApp, which is used by many teachers today as a platform to teach their classes. If you are a teacher who must adapt to virtual classes, surely you want to know how to do it and that is exactly what we will discuss with you today.
How to Use WhatsApp to Give Virtual Classes? -Online Classes
Index( )
- What do I need to give virtual classes on WhatsApp?
- Create or have a group
- Configure the functions in the group
- Set the rules in the group
- What ideal tools for classes does WhatsApp offer?
- Share audios, videos and photos up to 100 MB
- Only administrator interventions
- Open the chat from time to time
- video calls
What do I need to give virtual classes on WhatsApp?
It may seem a bit obvious, but the first thing you should have to teach on WhatsApp is a mobile phone with acceptable specifications that allows you to use the application all day without headaches such as running out of space or crashing.
If you already have a mobile with these characteristics, what follows is to configure your WhatsApp in such a way that you can keep everything organized to give your classes.
Create or have a group
The easiest way to be able to give your classes is to create a WhatsApp group where all your students are, because that way communication with them will be easier. If you teach in several courses, we recommend that you create a different group for each of them where the names according to the section or subject they will teach.
Configure the functions in the group
The first thing you must establish are the settings of your WhatsApp group and privacy to teach. You have to include all your students in the group, none should be left out.
When all the students are already in the group, establish simple configurations such as only the administrators being able to speak , at least this during times outside of class, since that way the group does not become overloaded with messages.
Another thing you should do is deactivate the temporary messages option , because if it is activated, after a while the messages that are sent will be deleted from the group. This could be negative for the students as they would lose the opportunity to review important information from the group.
Set the rules in the group
You can use the group description to set the rules that everyone must follow . The rules depend a bit on the methodology you use as a teacher, but we recommend that you start by establishing a time when all the members of the group can speak.
In addition, you must set basic rules such as always maintaining respect among all, not talking in the group about topics that are not related to classes or things of that style.
What ideal tools for classes does WhatsApp offer?
WhatsApp as a social network offers some things that are perfect for teaching online. It is not that the functions are made for classes, because that is not the purpose of WhatsApp, but these options allow them to be used in a very effective way to teach online classes.
Share audios, videos and photos up to 100 MB
In WhatsApp you can send files with a weight of up to 100 MB . This allows you as a teacher to send your students videos of the explanations of the topics to study, photos of books, PDF files, or things like that.
In addition, voice or audio notes are a very good tool that allow you to effectively explain the topics to your students, so this is a good option for classes. However, we recommend that you do not send very long notes , try to send voices of less than 2 min each so that it is not tedious for the students to listen to the explanations.
Only administrator interventions
As we mentioned above, WhatsApp groups have an option that only administrators can send messages . That works very well for you to close the group and that you, the teacher, are the only one who can write, because that way the group is not overloaded with messages.
Open the chat from time to time
Nor can you make the group a channel where only you talk, since interaction with students is also important, so it would be good to open the chat from time to time so that your students can talk, but making sure that it is only for class topics. .
video calls
Another effective way to be able to give classes on WhatsApp is by doing your explanations through video calls. The application allows you to make video calls with up to 8 people , which is not much since most courses have more than 8 students, so you might be a bit short.
If that is your case, we recommend that you use other platforms for video calls such as Zoom or Gmeet and share the access links to the conferences through the group.
