Ways to Plan Extracurricular Activities Online

“Committing time to extracurricular activities during these trying offers students of various age groups and backgrounds a sagacity of normality and also, social connection amidst these indefinite conundrums.” When it comes to the extracurricular activities, “discontinued” and “canceled” has become and has been the recurrent catchphrase during this pandemic. But now that the educators have a commotion of emergency under their hands — and many are lagging online than in person in some form – It should be increasingly tried to improve convenience for students to engage in this new virtual code amid the novel circumstances. The So-called ‘Online Era’ provides a great sum of options concerning education, collaboration on projects, as well as contributions campaigns. While many of them are organized by the institute themselves, keen to provide suitable outlets for their student’s interests, some activities can be performed independently.

Planning Extracurricular activities

Planning Extracurricular activities can be a challenging and yet bracing task. Plus, Virtual events can also turn out to be a cost-effective means to connect with other professionals. Through the COVID pandemic, a lot of networking and social life shifted online, and virtual event commerce is currently thriving. It is much obvious that the spirit of online extracurricular activities cannot serve to be a substitute to physical old-style extracurricular activities – these two can also be seamlessly complementary, for example, in the instance of creating a Project Report. This task requires in-person cooperation at the editorial grounds, as well as inputs from external collaborators who create relevant matters for the report.

The extracurricular activities can include:

Student Government – Students would mature and enlarge their headship skills to embody the benefits of their peers.
Webinars
Language Clubs – Different Language clubs, such as Tamil, Spanish, Telugu, French, etc., can give participants a platform to practice the language, learn about the regions that speak them, and explore the diverse components of culture and history.
Demos
Book Clubs – Participants read and converse books with peers that increase their love for reading. Participants are exposed to various genres and learn to have insightful converse.
Masterclasses
Q&As
Panel Discussions
Virtual conferences
Institute-wide gatherings
Art and skills Related Exhibits and Competitions.
Debates and Extempore
Academic Activities and Competitions

It is important to follow the SMART approach while planning the activities.

Goals and Guidelines

Understanding Audience

Quality and quantity of content should be such that attracts the participants to focus on.

Choosing Activities

It is pertinent to plan what kind of activities can and cannot be planned online, such as certain Physical and Contact Games cannot be planned online, but Debate competitions, language clubs, discussion forums can go online.

Duties and Volunteers

The host, the duties to create a joining link, coordination, interaction, grievance handling, management, presentation, timeframe planner, and duty to hold communication and be in touch with the resource persons and the delegates, etc. duties need to be distributed among the moderators. The volunteers can also be asked for help and assistance for things to go smoothly.

An event team needs to be drawn, and the members should be tech-savvy

Strategize

There are too many variables and moving parts to take into account. Hence a proper strategy must be drawn for linearizing the extracurricular activity and preventing all of it from going south. The specifics of the activity, along with general parameters, must be kept in mind before and during the creation of the strategy.

Choosing Platform

There are numerous platforms available for event management. Make sure they do not have time or participant limit less than necessary. It is also made sure that the platform chosen is accessible to all, and there is no issue related to running the event. For example, if someone needs to present their screen, then it can be done without hassle. Picking the best option for minimal glitches and crashes is important. Various platforms can be:

Google Meet
GotoWebinar
Cisco Webex
Microsoft Teams
Zoom

Format

One or a combination can be chosen to be implemented in the extracurricular activity, subject to the specifics and the needs.

Single Presenter
Dual Presenters
Forum/Panel

Choosing Time

Time management of the event needs to be thorough. It must also be made sure that the timings don’t clash with the essential activities or other co-curricular activities that may limit participants from joining.

Develop an Agenda

A clear agenda with the timings properly marked should be provided and should include any relevant links or information for ease of participants to plan accordingly.

Moderation of Event

It should be made sure to have adequate moderators on hand to keep things under control. Some pupils other than participants can also volunteer for this handling and management-related chores.

Post-activity follow-ups

Make sure to inform your participants about how they can access activity-related resources. A common group on any chat platform widely used, such as WhatsApp, can be made, with all the participants, for conveying any information before and after the event, such as reminders, surveys, assignments, etc.

Dry Run

A Dry run can be done to make sure all things go in tandem, and there are no technical or management issues to be taken into consideration.

Engagement of Audience

Some activities that involve active participation can be planned to Encourage participants to focus, communicate, interact and ask questions. Participants can also be asked to keep their cameras ON to increase the interaction domains.

From short to large scale, and among various classes of activities, these unprecedented times have made mentors and planners reimagine from scratch how to plan and run these kinds of activities in virtual arrangements along with having them abide by the contact limiting Covid-19 protocols. Panning these kinds of activities in the virtual arrangement has provided a sense of linking and normality during such times when many feel solitude and stress.

Frequently Asked Questions:

How does socialization in Extracurricular online activities work?

Socialization in the online classroom is vital to a student's growth and emotional development, and Virtual Events can offer real-time communications between teachers and pupils on online platforms. Students, their family members, and Teachers can also meet and get to know each other on field trips and other special in-person events.

How can one choose the right online extracurricular activity?

It, more often, depends on what makes the majority of pupils interested and instills a sense of enjoyment! Different activities can help develop different soft skills like reasoning, logic, team spirit, and research abilities. It can be discussed about the various options for extracurricular activities that can be planned for students to join. It's also good to try and explore something new!

How can the engagement of participants be increased?

It should always be encouraged that the planners admit and embrace those forms of communiqué that the participants/students feel comfortable to engage more freely with. They should be given space and time to put their views in an orderly manner.