The Six Knows of Teaching Online: Know How to Engage

Know How to Engage: Student engagement is difficult to measure. Historically it is assumed that if students learn, and prove so on formative or summative assessments, they must have been engaged. But, we know that adult students are not blank slates; they come into the learning situation with their minds already filled with a great deal of constructed knowledge (Perkins, 2014). If your students do not know everything about your particular subject, they may enter with some precursor knowledge or at least knowledge on how to find answers to their questions. We cannot be sure that content learning happened in your class or somewhere else. Therefore, student engagement should not be measured purely on student performance, but also on student interests in individual learning activities throughout the synchronous time you have together. 

Many faculty worry this means they have to perform in some way or make every activity fun, but engagement can come in many forms. Students can be engaged through a personal connection to content, viewing immersive images or other media, working in small groups, participating in enlivened discussions, or through the gamification of certain elements of your course content. The important part is that you connect activities to the learning objectives and make that connection clear to students (Stolovitch & Keeps, 2002). Studies show, providing students with autonomy in their learning, through selecting their assignments or choosing who they work with, can also increase engagement (Pink, 2012). 

Unfortunately, student engagement in online classrooms can be more of a challenge than you think. The very technology that is often such a distraction in on-ground classes is now the technology necessary for students to merely show up for class. Learning how to use the technology as an asset instead of a distraction is key. The beauty of online education is the ability to bring websites designed to engage students right into the virtual classroom. Faculty who use the technology to their advantage this way will be better off than those who do not. 

The most important aspect of knowing how to engage students online is accepting the fact that old models of lecture-based instruction have seen their time. Research suggests without genuine connections in online learning environments, students are more apt to tune out than in traditional, on-campus environments (National Academies, 2017, p. 182). Therefore, lecturing with powerpoint slides is not advised. In online classes, teachers often lack the ability to see the body language and cues they are used to in on-ground classes that help determine “whether the class is following their explanations, taking notes without thinking, or merely putting on an attentive face” (National Academies, 2017, p. 182). Knowing how to use technology to notice those cues is an important aspect of knowing how to engage. 

→ Pro tip: Instead of focusing on when students are not engaged, plan to engage from the start. The best formula for this is to allow for small group work and collaboration with peers. Faculty should learn to facilitate learning experiences instead of always feeling responsible for them. I call this being actively passive. Spend the majority of your time setting up learning activities in advance of class and use class time to allow students some autonomy in the learning process.

For more tips on engagement, check out our enrichment seminars - Core Seminar #2 in particular focuses on student engagement in the online classroom!

References:

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2018). How people learn II: 

Learners, contexts, and cultures. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: https://doi.org/10.17226/24783. ISBN 978-0-309-45964-8

Perkins, D. (2014). Future wise: Educating our children for a changing world. San Francisco, 

CA: Jossey- Bass. ISBN 978-1-1184408-3

Pink, D. (2009). Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us. New York, NY: Penguin. ISBN 978-1-59448-884-9.

Stolovitch, H. & Keeps, E. (2002). Telling ain't training. Alexandria, VA: ASTD Press. ISBN 978-1-56286-328-9.