Since February 17, I’ve been teaching 11th-grade humanities writing to students who are self-quarantined in China. Our teachers were in the same position several weeks ago that U.S. teachers are in now—we were expecting to teach in classrooms in Beijing. Now we’re teaching virtual classes remotely from our homes in China and countries around the world. We had about half a week to prepare for online school, including setting up a digital platform that none of us had ever used before.

For the first few weeks, we needed to be very flexible and patient. Everything we would have done in person took longer virtually as we learned to navigate online learning. But we’ve worked out many kinks and are now engaging our students in high-quality learning experiences online.

Since our students have stopped physically attending school, their Chinese classes happen in real time following the regular schedule, using a Chinese app. Our international team teaches using Moodle, an open-source learning platform that has the ability to do live video conferencing with digital whiteboards and break-out rooms. We also use it to give students feedback, do partner and group work, and publish class materials—things that can be done through Google Classroom as well.

Here is some of what we’ve learned so far about teaching students who must stay home. Start by continuing to use lessons that are clear and simple, and don’t introduce new programs for teachers and students to learn if you can help it.

Asynchronous Teaching

Our international teachers are on four continents across eight time zones, so most of our classes are asynchronous, meaning our teachers post assignments and recorded lessons and students complete work at different times. Teachers respond using a rubric, comments, and sometimes recorded video or audio feedback through our online learning platform.

Most of our teachers have at least three live classes each week in addition to the asynchronous classes. This helps build community in the class, engages students, and makes the learning more interactive. Some teachers have found it more effective to teach live classes daily.

It’s Not All About Screens

It’s easy for students to spend a lot of time in front of screens for their online school. As much as possible, we’re assigning students tasks that get them up and moving and away from their devices. We’ve also been working out ways to have students continue to create art without screens.

Videos: A first-grade class recently had a homework assignment where students needed to describe a pet. One boy’s mother video recorded him while he used descriptive language to introduce the audience to his two cats. Students can also write and perform plays, or create and cook recipes and conduct interviews, and submit these assignments through video.

Workbooks and drawing: Many of our classes at school intentionally used workbooks and paper-based tasks instead of laptops to reduce students’ screen time. We’re continuing this by having students complete some assignments on paper, taking a picture of their completed work, and uploading the photo to submit the task. Similarly, our art classes are continuing to have students work on drawing, and they are taking pictures of their work to submit it to their teacher and share with the class.