6 reasons we love online learning

Sarah Dillard

We know that for many people, the thought of online education takes them back to 2020, bringing up feelings of isolation, boredom, and dread. Zoom lectures to a sea of black screens. Breakout rooms where no one talked. A school day without anything that felt like meaningful human interaction to teachers and students alike.

Yet, this was also the year that, here at Kaleidoscope, we came to embrace online learning—a modality that now feels woven into our existence. In-person and online teaching & learning each have distinct advantages, and we get more out of them when we leverage their unique strengths rather than try to directly translate the practices from one to the other. 

Six things we love about teaching & learning online:

1. Diverse classrooms. Online learning allows us to build more diverse classrooms. Rather than pulling from a narrow geographic area (or those who can afford to transport themselves to one), we can build classrooms where students of different races, ethnicities, religions, economic backgrounds, and countries of origin can gather in the same space. Each student brings a unique perspective and set of experiences to our classes—together, a kaleidoscope—in a way that is nearly impossible to replicate in person. And our classes thrive precisely because of this range of perspectives. As Social Sciences for Social Problems student Malia Chavinson says of it, “This class was an opportunity to learn to talk to people and be okay with disagreement…especially for this generation, I think this is so important.”

2. Focus on instruction and student experience. Since we are not meeting in person, we are not in charge of scheduling facilities, making hard copies, or managing food allergies. We can instead put this time and mental bandwidth into the one thing we want to be best at—developing & delivering transformational learning experiences on ideas & skills that matter. 

3. The chat. When I ask people what they miss most about online learning, the #1 response is “The chat.” We use a lot of small practices that help us get the most out of the chat, like asking everyone to share their starting thoughts before a group-wide discussion. The chat provides a low-stakes entry point into participation for students who might otherwise be hesitant to talk. If scaffolded correctly, it can then help students become more confident sharing their opinions verbally: in summer 2022, 93% of our students reported feeling more comfortable participating in class discussions after taking one of our classes. And while the chat may be harder to replicate in person, we have an idea we’re excited to try: using mini whiteboards like the chat, not just as a place to respond to a teacher question but as a place to comment, question, and respond throughout class.  

4. Breadth of participation. Poorly designed online classes are less inclusive than in-person ones. But well-designed online classes can be far more inclusive than in-person. There are so many strategies, practices, and tools—from polling tools like Mentimeter to sticky-note tools like Google Jamboard—for soliciting the opinions of the full group and then using that input as a jumping-off point for conversation. Yes, this is possible in person too, but a lot of these strategies involve tech tools that feel more seamless in an online setting. Inclusive classes mean more engaging classes, as a greater mix of students share their perspectives—for example, the “relatable and vulnerable conversations” that Identity & Prejudice student Naesha Jonathas said were her favorite part of class. But breadth of participation is also breadth of learning: when more people are doing more work, more learning is taking place.

5. Visibility of student work to the facilitator. We generally have students work in a Google Suite product like Slides or Docs that allows us to quickly toggle from one piece of student work to the next while they are working. We can quickly see trends, comment with feedback, or find exemplars we want to lift up to the full group when we debrief after an activity (another way to get hesitant students talking!). This strategy can (and should) be brought into in-person classrooms by having students work on laptops, but we’d call that in-person online teaching—online is still providing the edge. 

6. Recorded sessions. There are so many things you can do with recordings: clip them to build a repository of great instructional practices, file whole class sessions to give new teachers a reference point for teaching the lesson, create a library of student project presentations, and more. All of these contribute to improving our courses and teaching, one of our most highly valued practices as an organization. 

If there’s anything you love, or even just like, about teaching or learning online, we’d love to hear about it! Send us a DM on Instagram (@kaleidoscope.education) or a tweet to our founder @dillardsarah.

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