5 Tips to engage students in your online class

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been felt by many in the education field and educational institutions have been forced to activate their distant learning plans that for many have been in “pilot” status. Now, in our attempt to fly the plane while it is being built, educational leaders will have to create strong structures to ensure that students are getting access to educational experiences that will support them in their development. In addition, they will have to be considerate of the varying home contexts of their employees as they try to balance work and family responsibilities.

I recently participated in my classes at the University of Pennsylvania for my doctoral program that were modified to be online and I experienced first hand what many students will be encountering for at least the remainder of this school year. There are many challenges, starting with the student having a quiet space where they won’t be distracted. Considering the differences between each student’s physical learning space, the facilitator of the class has to be strategically engaging. To achieve this, the level of planning for teachers and professors will have to change and be raised to a higher level of sophistication in order for students to interact with the information and with one another in a productive manner.

While access to technology and web resources is a topic for an entirely different article, those who are able to implement Skype, BlueJeans or Zoom should consider the following tips to engage students in the content of class.

As a former middle school and high school teacher, I depended heavily on my physical presence, not only to “engage” students, but also to “gauge” students’ interests and attentiveness to the topic. Now teachers will have to find other ways to redirect, praise and connect learning so that students want to participate in class. Proper preplanning will be essential in this new virtual education landscape. Here are 5 Tips to engage your students in your online class:

1.) Strategic use of the discussion board: This tool has the potential to be used for strategic “stop-and-jot” opportunities for teachers/professors to engage students in specific topics or points being made in the moment. For example, a teacher could say: Take 3 minutes to respond to the statement… or Lets stop the video here and everyone jot down your reaction to her/his thoughts on… or Which statement on the discussion board do you agree or disagree with and why?

2.) Use of Videos: Because these platforms allow you to share the presenters’s screen, showing videos as a group can be another way to keep students engaged from a distance. Instructors can also use the discussion board to have students answer strategic questions that could help them process the information while watching.

3.) Student-specific questions: While this may take some pre-planning with regard to knowing your students (or reviewing student bios) and connecting the topic to that person’s context, it could engage students more and keep them on their toes. As the lesson progresses, it could be a goal to ask every student at least one question or purposefully engage them with a follow-up question to a comment in class.

4.) Guided Questions for breakout small group sessions: For any tasks that may requires students to go to small groups (great feature on Zoom!), teachers/professors should consider very strategic questioning and deliverables for the time spent. One way that this could work efficiently is by either predetermining group leaders or reporters or even having groups elect one to report out to the whole group. With each task, there should be very specific time expectations especially when it comes to share-out and discussion.

5.) Encourage student to student interaction during the session: One way that professors could engage students to participate is to ask the class to generate various questions to students in the class. Most students should know each other pretty well already, so this could be a great way to develop a more supportive learning community.