What is a virtual lesson?
A virtual lesson is any class held online. It’s an innovative way to bring students together in a virtual environment.
Objectives of a virtual lesson
Virtual lessons let you:
- Provide better accessibility to education
- Increase inclusivity
- Get more face-to-face time between educators and students
- Gain a worldwide reach
- Scale your course or school
- More opportunities to introduce media and collaboration tools
When should you run a virtual lesson
Virtual lessons are best for:
- Leading cohort-based courses
- Running masterclasses
- Offering alternative learning methods
- Leveraging breakout groups for peer-to-peer collaboration
- Live peer support
- Low-cost education programs
How to use this template
Here are the agenda blocks included in this template:
1. Hello 👋- How are you today?
Time: 3 minutes
Tools: Flashcard Deck, Timer
Let your students enter the virtual classroom and get settled in. While you're waiting for everyone to arrive, do a quick check-in by asking everyone to show how they're feeling with the emoji wheel flashcard.
💡Tip: You can add more icebreaker questions for your flashcards in the Toolbox section!
As an alternative, you can also ask them to share how they're feeling through a GIF in chat.
Invite a few students to queue up and share why.
👉 Pro Tip: Get them ready for class by sharing a welcome message while they're in the waiting room!
2. Reminder: Rules of engagement ⚡️
Time: 2 minutes
Tools: PDF Presentation
Share the rules of engagement PDF with the class so they're aware of how you want them to interact in the session.
3. Topic intro: Let's watch & learn 📺
Time: 15 minutes
Tools: YouTube
Begin your class with some pre-recorded materials, a presentation, or a YouTube video explaining the topic.
We included a sample video: Habits of Original Thinkers, Adam Grant.
Make sure that you record this so that students who are not in class can still catch up asynchronously!
4. Quick poll
Time: 5 minutes
Tools: Poll, Timer
After the video, poll your students to check on their understanding of the material.
Invite a few students to queue up and share why.
5. Breakout time 💬
Time: 15 minutes
Tools: Breakout
Get the students to discuss and work in smaller groups to strengthen the analysis and understanding of the topic.
Give them specific instructions and time to complete the exercise, as well as concrete tasks to finish in the breakouts.
👉 Pro Tip: Make use of the following in breakouts:
- A task checklist to complete
- Broadcast message for instructions
- Ask them to click on 'Ask for help' if they need any
- Open up a tool where they can summarize their learnings (you can use either Google Docs/Slides, Miro, or MURAL)
6. Share back 📣
Time: 10 minutes
Regroup as a class and take some time to debrief about what they discussed, and ask questions about the activity. Give each team two minutes to share.
7. Q&A: Ask anything 🙋♀️
Time: 5 minutes
Tools: Poll, Timer
Give the students time to ask anything that might be unclear to them, or share their opinions and thoughts about what was just discussed.
If some prefer to stay quiet, encourage them to type in their questions in an anonymous poll.
8. Summary & see you next time 🙌
Time: 5 minutes
Tools: PDF Presentation
Summarize the key points of the lecture and the discussion/questions the students had.
Provide context on what you'll be discussing next class, and how this session leads up to that.
Keep it fun with a soundboard/reactions goodbye at the end of the class!
Some post-session reminders:
- Download the list of class attendees, recording, and chat transcript in the Recaps in your Dashboard.
- Make recording and class materials available for students
- Send a follow-up thought-starter, reading, or homework
About the creator
Anamaria Dorgo is the Head of Community at Butter. Her mission is to create a space where facilitators, workshoppers, trainers, design thinkers, and innovation and strategy consultants can team up, share best practices, tackle challenges collectively, and accelerate their careers together with like-minded people. 🙌
