Communication is so different in online teaching, those organic conversations with students that happen during and after in-person teaching don’t really happen in the same way and you might find as a result you’re having more student queries...1/

...on things they don’t understand than ever before. One part of addressing this online is designing-in ‘checking for understanding’ activities...2/

...Some are reticent to do this - it doesn’t fit with their idea of developing independent learners and a more progressive view, but the role of an educator is to ensure that everyone understands...3/

...Learning online can lead to feelings of isolation and so anxiety over not understanding something can be heightened. Arguable there’s greater ease to communicate this and it leads to lots of 1-1 student queries to answer...4/

...Designing in activities that seek to check understanding are one way to help strengthen student learning and help you gauge where students are at so you can adopt manageable & sustainable teaching strategies to address it...5/

...Ultimately if you’re not proactive in checking for students understanding then you might have to spend a large amount of time redressing that reactively...6/

...Powerful learning strategies such as retrieval practice and spacing can help inform your design and how you shape activities and ways to effectively and efficiently both check and aid student understanding and learning...7/

...Related to this - one of the pitfalls of online teaching is too much linearity such that nothing gets revisited or reviewed, some interpretations of design approaches like storyboarding can perpetuate this - always going forward and never going back...8/

...You don’t get self regulated learners without activities that seek to foster that and gauge understanding. Good educators ask questions - if you just deliver and disappear then it’s bad for learners and bad for you...End/