Teaching: How much demonstration should there be when teaching online?

The amount that you choose to demonstrate in an online class experience will depend on the circumstances of your online teaching.

For example:

• If you are teaching an advanced group of students who you know very well and who have been practising with you online for a while, perhaps you might demonstrate a little but offer more verbal cues throughout the class, as they may feel very comfortable with your cueing at this stage in their practice and may not need the visual demonstrations so much. 
• If you are teaching a group of beginners and you are using an online platform where you can see all your students on-screen during the class, you might demonstrate a lot of the class, so students have a visual guide, but it will also be very important that you watch your students and offer verbal cues in order to be sure your students are safe. We also know that watching our students can help us as teachers to know which cues to offer next based on what we are seeing from the students in our class.
• If you cannot see some or all of the students participating in your online class then perhaps you demonstrate the entire class and offer cues, modifications and variations while demonstrating everything. This might also be the case if you are pre-recording a class for students. 

Depending on the student's level of experience within their practice, and whether the students are primarily visual or auditory learners, will perhaps determine whether they are able to move through the class by simply listening to the audible cues, or whether they will need the visual demonstrations in order to fully understand the cues and guidance being offered throughout the online class. This is something you will have to navigate as an online teacher and has been an adjustment many yoga teachers have had to make in the last few years. Every teacher will have their own suggestions based on their own online teaching experience and the types of students they are teaching. 

Remember that this advice is based on online teaching only, and is not based on in-person classes or based upon the criteria for the purposes of creating your practicum.