Adapting your teaching for online or hybrid learning doesn’t mean starting from scratch. Many tried-and-true instructional strategies from traditional classrooms—especially block schedules—can be successfully transitioned to a virtual environment.
This guide outlines practical approaches to keep students engaged, manage pacing, and maintain connection during longer virtual class periods.
Pacing and Structure for 90-Minute Block Online
- Keep Live Sessions Focused: Avoid lecturing for entire block periods. Instead, keep live video sessions to about half the class time and reserve the remaining period for independent learning assignments. Break live sessions into two or three distinct tasks to maintain a manageable pace.
- Plan for Additional Wait Time: Virtual communication and processing require more time. Pause for a few seconds longer than you would in a physical classroom to account for student processing time and minor technology lags.
- Incorporate Asynchronous Days: Designate specific days for independent student work, supported by clear instructional videos that outline standards, learning targets, success criteria, and a daily agenda. Use this time to host private “office hours” via sign-up forms, giving students a low-pressure space to ask for individual help.
- Use Warm-Ups and Bell Ringers: Start every class with an immediate task. This hooks students, introduces the day’s topic, gives in-class hybrid students a focused start, and allows you to manage attendance and admit virtual students from the waiting room.
Instructional Delivery and Engagement
- Model Tasks with Short Videos: Record brief instructional videos (such as walking through how to annotate a PDF on an iPad) to explain assignments. This allows students to manage their own learning by pausing or repeating instructions as needed.
- Vary Technology Intentionally: Mix online discussions, assessment tools, multimedia albums, documents, polls, and interactive links. However, stick to one or two main apps consistently to avoid overwhelming students.
- Provide Opportunities for Interaction: Begin live sessions with low-stakes chat questions or icebreakers (such as sharing pets, favorite music, or daily goals) to prepare students to collaborate.
- Use Whiteboard Activities: Check for understanding and brainstorm concepts as a whole class by using digital whiteboard features to create word webs or collect student responses.
- Incorporate Breakout Rooms: Facilitate small-group collaboration by assigning specific roles (such as timekeeper, typist, and spokesperson). Keep breakout sessions timed (typically 10 to 20 minutes) and check in briefly while giving students space to work independently.
Student Well-Being
- Take Breaks to Look Away: Prevent screen fatigue by following the 20-20-20 rule (looking away every 20 minutes at an object 20 feet away for 20 seconds). Schedule short breaks between activities during longer sessions to allow students to stretch and rest their eyes.
- Design “Off-Screen” Processing Windows: During longer periods of digital work, intentionally build in 5 to 10 minutes where students step away from the device entirely to read a physical book, sketch an idea on paper, or write in a notebook before returning to their screens.
- Encourage Movement Breaks: Integrate quick physical resets into the middle of a session—such as standing up to stretch, doing a quick desk yoga pose, or taking a short lap around the room—to help combat the physical stagnation of sitting in front of a monitor. With some creativity, you can even play OCBeachTeacher Original Trashketball™ games in an online class by having students shoot their “trashkets” at home.
- Foster a Low-Stress Digital Culture: Explicitly remind students that technical glitches happen and that perfection isn’t expected. Normalizing tech hiccups and allowing grace for connection issues significantly lowers anxiety in digital spaces.
Wrapping Up the Block
Teaching during extended class blocks—whether in a traditional classroom, a hybrid model, or a fully online environment—requires a shift from passive consumption to active, intentional engagement. By breaking periods into manageable segments, varying your instructional tools, and prioritizing student connection and well-being, you can transform long blocks from a daily endurance test into a dynamic learning experience.
The secret isn’t trying to recreate a traditional school day pixel-by-pixel online; it’s about using the unique structure of the digital space to foster student independence, critical thinking, and balance.
What strategies have you found most effective for keeping students engaged during long class periods? Share your tips and ideas in the comments below!
