Education is a powerful tool to turn the tables around in one’s life. It transverses a person from nothing to everything! It enhances a person from a lower status to be influential, celebrated idols around the world. While it helps a person to create a strong self-identity and explore their skills and fields of interest, it is now identified as a necessity, and it always has been, which is why we prefer the younger generation to have a quality education. As technology has upgraded every aspect of our lives, it has predominantly been advantageous to education. After the emergence of the internet and wireless devices, education now doesn’t necessarily require real-world classrooms and face-to-face learning. For instance, The COVID-19 virus has an obvious global effect on education, that urged the need for innovation and adjustment.
It compelled everyone to maintain social distancing and put traditional classrooms into a vulnerable spot. But technology always comes for the rescue! The Global e-learning market has currently risen over the roof where students meet teachers under one big virtual dome. This turning point was very transitional enough to face cultural shocks and technology shocks. Many devoid gaps were created, such as the availability of compatible technology for some schools, the education gaps between tech-savvy students and tech illiterates- some who are even technophobic. But getting used to technology to assisting students in grasping quality education is good news, and it bridges many of these gaps.
Online Learning
Online learning refers to a virtual classroom where students and teachers meet via the internet to teach and learn. In recent months, online education has been gaining more importance. Given below is a quoted statement posted about eLearning statistics by a research done by the Syngene research team in 2019.
“Online learning emerged as a safe and viable option for education continuity as the COVID-19 pandemic turned personal and professional worlds upside down. Even before the pandemic, the global eLearning market was already seeing a massive annual global growth. It is expected to reach $336.98 billion by 2026, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.1% from 2018 to 2026.”
Therefore, the number of online students is increasing too, but they get distracted easily. Young students who are now educating online must be missing a little mischief: Note-passing in class with funny doodles of their teachers and peers, sending a paper rocket now and then, and whatnot. Sometimes after students sit for an online class, they would say ‘I was too sleepy to listen to my teacher’ or ‘I muted the class so that I can play my video game’. These answers are aftereffects of ineffectual online teaching techniques. Hence, online teaching classes don’t allow close supervision on every child, grasping the student’s attention via the internet is comparatively challenging. Which is why you must learn a way to guide your students in a way their engagement is encouraged and value-adding for their online experience.
Read this article to familiarise yourself with ‘10 Proven Ways to Increase Student Engagement Online’ that will help you adjust your delivery in such a way that encourages students to participate in your online classes readily.
10 Proven online student encouraging ways
Generally, Students engagement depends on four main elements. Once these elements are all met by the student, he/she is ready to engage with the online class full-heartedly. The four elements are:
- Emotional Preparedness
- Active Participation
- Skill Development
- Performances
These elements must be met if you are a teacher- online or offline. If you are an online teacher, use the 10 points below as a guide to help you grasp the student’s engagement in your class.
1. Creating a reliable first impression
Authenticity plays an essential role in building a boring-free environment for your students. If you are a solo teacher, a group of literates or an institution, your past, your experiences, your achievements and a brief introduction of your methodologies must be delivered to the students to create a static platform for your students. You can circulate this information via social media, a website or mobile applications so that the students would feel safe under your guidance. The reliance built with your introduction is significant to grasp the student’s attention and to sprout curiosity in the students’ minds.
2. Readily Accessible
Accessibility plays a key role in student engagement. Creating a good environment for the student is as important as gaining their trust and recognition. Every student who qualifies to sit for the class should be given access to the lesson material, and the freedom to share their ideas equally. You can use inbuilt navigation options to make lesson scrolling easier, use coloured tags, create videos with embedded captions, use a cloud that can be easily accessed by your students. You can also open a portal for your students to share ideas, submit assessments, collect assessments … the easier, the more engaged the students would get.
3. What is the first step, the next step and the final step?
Planning every aspect of your class is very important. Especially if it’s a class for teenagers or preschoolers, no matter how hard you try, you can’t hide ill-preparation from your students. And planning would show your enthusiasm to teach, which will automatically motivate your students to learn. Pre-plan your lesson’s content that must be covered per day, keep track of the short breaks that you must give to your students, the study materials that must be shared and not, the time that is allocated for question-asking and clarifying doubts and all other in-class activities.
4. Student-oriented approach
Traditional classes always practised teacher-oriented learning methods. This method lacks elasticity, or in other words, the students would be allowed to learn at their own pace and break out of the chain of uniformity. Student oriented classes are always seen as a more flexible and preferred mode by many students. Blended learning models is a very agreeable approach for students to be engaged more with their education.
5. When is the break?
Students do not like uniformity at all. They would always need a distraction to get back on track, which is why you should give them a change without diverting them from the lesson. A planned distraction! You can provide them with 5-10-minute breaks for them to refresh their breaks every half an hour. But you must be aware of the session slots, and the duration of the interval depends on the age of the students and the content of the lesson.
6. Relevance is key
The teacher’s delivery should be clear, simple and apprehended by the students. As long as what the teacher says is understood by the students will not be too lost or too bored about the class. Meaningfulness and relevance of the lesson are very important. They would want to engage themselves to something that they can understand rather than something that sounds like Greek for them.
7. Use virtual tools
This is the shortcut for getting the students engaged in their online studies. It facilitates all four elements of student engagement. The teacher can use numerous virtual tools that upgrade the student-teacher experience to be easier, accessible and convenient to both parties. Given below are five digital tools:
- Web portals – can be developed to help the students to perform actively and participate in the class
- Visualisation tools – use gamified features in the class, in pop quizzes, in-class presentations and assessments to increase student’s attention
- Chat forums – Students can easily ask for questions and clarify doubts with their teacher
- Online Assessment software – Students can collect tasks, submit assessments and use plugins to check their eligibility before submission
- E-payment/Online Payment – Students can make their payments easily via websites if the teacher equips a convenient tool to collect monthly fees
8. Influential Visitors
Be innovative. Welcome guests who have already learned what your students are learning applied that knowledge and become prominent public figures. This way, students will be inspired to be curious to know more and be aware of the opportunities they will get if they are actively engaged in your class.
9. Emotional engagement
Keep track of the students’ emotional readiness to participate in the class. This way, you will be more inclined to the students’ well being than pushing them to learn something that they are not prepared to understand. They will feel comfortable when you understand them more than a student who sits in class.
10. Feedback and Adjustment
The feedback of the students can be gathered through an online survey form; you can develop a personalised survey easily via Google Forms. This way, you can understand student demands and adjust your delivery. Understanding the student’s perspective of the class is more important than what you think is best for the student.
These are the ten most important points that are noteworthy for you to increase student engagement in your online class. To conclude, you have to make sure that your students are:
- Emotionally available to focus on class
- Easily accessed by the teacher and vice versa.
- Curious about what they are learning
- Acknowledged by the teacher equally
- Comfortable in the online class
Since online classes are not entirely practised by many institutions, getting in-tune with the trend would take some time, patience and effort. But once an online class is set to affiliate teachers and students effortlessly, these classes inherit numerous perks compared to old-fashioned classes, which is why this article has assisted you in understanding how to study your student’s behaviour and invest their engagement in your class easily.
