Whether you are teaching absolute beginner, intermediate or advanced learners, learning how to create online lesson plans can help you provide better learning sessions for your students.
1. Determine the students current level of understanding
Before you can think about what to teach your student, you need to determine what they already know and what areas they need to develop. This can be done through a quiz, previous assignments, introductory questions to your online tutoring session, or a trial lesson.
Depending on where the student is in their learning journey, you will want to incorporate different learning activities. Beginner students may need explanation, intermediate learners may need some guidance and advanced students are likely needing challenging, real world practise.
You should always be working from the level that the student is currently working, not on their age or year level.
2. Create your objectives
An objective is what you want your student to be able to do by the end of your online lesson. Objectives should be clear and direct, and written from the perspective of the student. For example:
Beginner: Identify 5 new vocabulary words.
Intermediate: Apply mathematical formulae to solve problems.
Advanced: Analyse a topic and explain a position.
These should include action verbs such as: explain, identify, solve, compare, create and demonstrate.
3. Break your lesson into sections
Breaking your online lesson into sections can help make it easier to follow and understand. For example, a 60 minute online lesson could include the following segments:
1. 5 minute warm up or review.
2. 15 minute explanation of a new topic.
3. 20 minute guided practice session.
4. 10 minute independent activity.
5. 10 minute review, summary and feedback on the lesson objective.
The timing of your sections can be adjusted depending on the subject being taught, as well as the complexity and difficulty of the lesson, as well as how well the student is managing with the content being taught.
4. Provide relevant materials
When teaching online, it is important to choose appropriate resources and materials for the lesson. Materials can include whiteboards, slides, worksheets, educational videos, diagrams, quizzes, reading passages, and other relevant resources or activities. Materials should be chosen based on the objective, and what the student needs to practice and understand.
For beginner and intermediate students, it is best to use simple diagrams, videos or resources to ensure they can understand. Advanced students may need more detailed examples, case studies, research materials or other advanced resources.
5. Practice alongside explanations
When teaching a new topic it can be tempting to spend the majority of your time explaining or demonstrating, but it is important to ensure that the student has the opportunity to practise and apply the new skill or knowledge.
A useful structure for teaching a new concept is:
Explain the topic → Demonstrate the skill → practise together → independent practise → review.
This can be applied to almost any topic or task. For example, when teaching a new grammar rule, first explain the rule, demonstrate a couple of examples, then complete a few examples with the student, and finally have them try an example independently.
6. Include questions and activities
Using questions as part of your lesson is a great way to keep students engaged and ensure they understand the content being taught. You could include a variety of question types including retrieval, understanding, application and evaluation questions. You could also incorporate quick quizzes, polls, role plays, collaborative online activities and whiteboard practise sessions.
7. Adjust the lesson difficulty
Your lesson should not always be the same difficulty. If the student can complete tasks quickly and accurately, it is a sign they may be ready for a challenge, but if they are struggling it may be sign that they need more support or review before continuing with the lesson.
A good structure for adjusting difficulty is:
Basic explanation or example → guided example or task → standard practice activity → challenging application activity.
This format allows the tutor to meet the individual needs of each student, and can help provide appropriate opportunities for practice and mastery of the new skill or knowledge.
8. Review the learning objective
At the end of the lesson it is a good idea to review what was covered so you can see how much progress the student is making. This could involve completing a small quiz or task to demonstrate what they have learnt, or an exit question. You may also want to ask the student if they can explain what they have learnt in their own words.
It is important to make some brief notes at the end of the session about what the student has learnt and understood, as well as where they may need more support or review. This can help the tutor develop the next lesson plan and determine what the student may need to review or revise before moving onto new content.
9. Create a follow up assignment
If you are working online, it is a good idea to provide a small assignment or task as a follow up to your lesson. This could include an in depth practise task, a task to help the student demonstrate their understanding, or some independent revision notes to review.
The assignment should also be appropriate for the level of the student. For example, an assignment for a beginner student may include vocabulary practise, while an intermediate student may need application practise, and advanced students may need to complete an in depth analysis or extended answer task.
An Online Lesson Plan Example
Here is an example of a simple online lesson plan, which can be adapted to suit your specific needs and requirements.
Student level: beginer, intermediate or advance
Topic: topic being taught
Objective: outcome of the lesson
Materials: slides, worksheets, videos or resources that will be used
Activities: explanation, guided practice and independent practice activities
Assessment: quiz, task or exit question
Assignment: follow up practise
Tutor notes: progress and next steps
Final Thoughts
Creating effective online lesson plans starts with understanding who you are teaching and ends with reviewing what they have learnt. Creating clear learning objectives, using appropriate materials, incorporating opportunities for practice and review, and adjusting the difficulty of tasks can help tutors provide engaging, relevant and effective lessons.
A good lesson plan does not need to be complicated, and often just includes simple, clear instructions to help the student understand what they are meant to be learning. By following these simple steps, tutors can create engaging online lessons that encourage learning and development.
