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Increasing Student Engagement Using Podcasts by COFA.online

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Increasing Student Engagement Using Podcasts by COFA.online

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https://youtu.be/n_as7U1ogqQ

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6 Ways to Increase Student Engagement Online

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6 Ways to Increase Student Engagement Online

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One of the main challenges that instructors face when teaching an online course is student engagement. Traditional classrooms provide a space for student and instructor to engage face-to-face frequently and actively, the same level of interaction can not be replicated when instructor and students are separated by a computer screen. Outside distractions can also become an issue because students can attend their online classes anywhere; in their own living rooms, in a bustling coffee shop or even on-the-move if they're using a smartphone or tablet.

The difference between an online class and a lecture theatre ultimately boils down to proximity. What can you do to increase student engagement in online classes when you don't get to see your students in person? This blog post aims to guide you through some activities and tools that can help your online class stay active and focussed on your course.

1. Introduce Yourself

First contact with the students of an online course should be before the class officially begins. Students that may be new to the world of online learning will probably have questions about the course and how to get started. Rather than waiting until the beginning of the course to get bogged down in the deluge of student emails, it can be helpful to anticipate the things that students will need to know in advance to provide them with a welcome pack that is sent out before the first session. Whilst this requires some preparation and work up-front, it will save lots of time and effort once class officially begins and again the next time the course is due to run.

The most unproductive use of an instructor's time is to spend it answering basic questions in the first few sessions, so an email welcoming students to the class and answering their most common questions will be invaluable. It could also include some valuable extras, such as a copy of the syllabus and a few tips on how to get the best out of online learning.

2. Provide Orientation

Not all students who enrol will be familiar with distance learning and may find familiarising themselves with the LMS quite tricky. Set students up for success by providing them with a step-by-step video tutorial detailing how to get started; including how to log in, how to navigate the system and where to upload assignments. Students seem to have a better grasp and retention of content if they're able to see it and have an opportunity to actually do it. Offering this orientation as a video to guide them through the process is something that will only need to be done once as it can be re-used for future online courses.

3. Be Active and Engaged

As the adage goes, "out of sight, out of mind" - online classes can sometimes slip the minds of students. Some may forget about a scheduled session, where others may forget about key pieces of course work and may not log in for days or weeks at a time. This kind of behaviour causes students to become disengaged, inactive and it may lead them to miss deadlines. Encouraging active and engaged behaviour from your students will help give them a nudge in the right direction when it comes to remembering when the sessions are. This can be as simple as requiring students to log into the LMS a certain amount of times per week, to actively monitoring the LMS on a daily basis and emailing any student that hasn't logged in for an extended period of time.

4. Respond Promptly

Engagement works both ways - if students are expected to check in with the instructor and the course material, instructors should be available to respond in a timely fashion to any queries or messages regarding the course. Even if an answer can't be provided in detail straight away, addressing that the query has been received and will be dealt with quickly leaves a really good impression with students as it shows that they are seen as important.

5. Adopt New Techniques

There are plenty of techniques that can be adopted in a virtual classroom to keep your students interested in the course, even when they're not sat in front of a computer. Try releasing short podcasts (or 'microcasts') of around 5 minutes in length. These can be particularly useful to break up long lectures into manageable chunks for students to digest, but can also be designed to be stand-alone, brief discussions of specific parts of the course. This can be particularly beneficial for classes that are mostly student-led with little instructor interaction.

Gamification is another fun way to motivate and engage students. Even if the rewards are really simple, such as accruing points, this method encourages a bit of healthy competition within the class environment. Gamification ties in really well with an online class as the instructor is able to track the progress of students, so it may be an idea to set some tasks around additional content that is stored in the LMS. Examples of this include assigning extra points for watching specific videos, or reading key texts that are useful, but are not included on the syllabus.

6. Fast Feedback

Giving effective and regular feedback supports and helps the learning process for the student. Specific feedback based on evidence lets students make informed decisions on how to improve their work. Compliment the things that go well and offer solutions for problems rather than focussing solely on criticism. Feedback helps students gain a clear understanding of where they stand with their instructor whilst promoting confidence and safety in their learning environment.

As mentioned above, feedback should be left promptly. The Internet is an environment of immediate feedback and this is expected in eLearning. If it takes too long for students to attain proper feedback it could discourage students from further participation.

Conclusion

Student engagement is more than just listening. If students are not engaged fully or actively participating in the learning process, it's highly unlikely that they will understand and retain what is being taught. By constantly monitoring the level of student engagement, it is possible to consciously work to increase the amount of time that students are involved in learning, which can then result in greater success in teaching. Engagement with the learning process ultimately drives students to become invested in the course and their own academic growth.

Tags: elearning, training

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6 Ways to Increase Student Engagement Online

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One of the main challenges that instructors face when teaching an online course is student engagement. Traditional classrooms provide a space for student and instructor to engage face-to-face frequently and actively, the same level of interaction can not be replicated when instructor and students are separated by a computer screen.

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https://goo.gl/5sSj25

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How to integrate Google Keep with Google Docs

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How to integrate Google Keep with Google Docs

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http://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-integrate-google-keep-with-google-docs/

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Every so often, Google does something that makes you nod and ask, "Why didn't they think of this sooner?" Such is the case with one of their latest additions to Google Docs. Earlier this year, the great Google decided it would be a good idea to integrate Keep into Docs. If you're a power-user for both tools, like myself, you probably did a small amount of rejoicing when you first saw the feature available. If you have yet to see it, let me take a moment to introduce you.

The addition of Keep to Docs means a couple of things. First, Google Keep has officially been labeled as part of the Google Suite of tools. Second, it is now really easy to keep notes for a document you are working on. Along with the Explore feature, Google Docs has become a seriously impressive tool for business, education, and just about any other purpose that requires note keeping as you write.

The addition of Google Keep only works in Google Docs, so if you were hoping this would cross over to Sheets, you're out of luck. With that said, let's have a look.

Enabling the feature

The first thing you must do is enable the feature. Open up Google Docs and then click the "Tools" menu. You should then see an entry for "Keep notepad" ( Figure A).
Figure A
Click on that entry and, if this is your first time opening the Keep notepad, you will be prompted to enable the feature ( Figure B).
Figure B
Click on "TRY IT" and the Keep notepad will open in your document ( Figure C).
Figure C
Benefits of using Keep over comments

You might be asking yourself, "Why bother adding another feature, when there's already a comment system?" There are actually a number of reasons why using Keep notepad would be a better choice. First off, your notes will automatically sync with Google Keep on all of your devices. This means anytime you think of something to be added, you don't have to worry about opening the doc first; you can simply open up Google Keep and add your notes. Another benefit can be found when working with larger documents. Documents that reach 60K words and beyond tend to get very bogged down when the comments feature is used. With Keep notes, you can open and close those notes as needed, so there's no chance the document will become a challenge to use. Keep notepad also allows for easy addition of notes into a document, which is incredibly handy. To do this, just click on the menu button (three vertical dots) associated with the note you want to add and then click "Add to document" ( Figure D).
Figure D
Finally, the ability to search your notes makes it very easy to reference multiple notes in Keep, without having to scroll through an entire list. It should be noted that the search feature does integrate with Keep tags. So you could tag certain notes to be used with a specific document to make them easily searchable within Docs.

Caveats? What caveats?

Honestly, I'm having a really hard time coming up with a caveat to this new feature. It works so well, and integrates so seamlessly into Docs to make your work significantly easier. There's really not a single negative to be found - unless maybe you're not a fan of Keep in the first place.

A feature you will keep

Trust me on this one; if you are a Docs power-user, you will definitely enjoy the integration of Keep and Docs. This might well be the best addition to Docs I've seen to date.

Also see

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How to integrate Google Keep with Google Docs - TechRepublic

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Every so often, Google does something that makes you nod and ask, "Why didn't they think of this sooner?" Such is the case with one of their latest additions to Google Docs. Earlier this year, the great Google decided it would be a good idea to integrate Keep into Docs.

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"All you need to do your best work, together in one package that works seamlessly from your computer, phone or tablet."
https://gsuite.google.com/

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Carleton University's Engaging Online Students

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Carleton University's Engaging Online Students

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https://mediaspace.carleton.ca/media/Engaging+Online+Students/0_w1vaa7d6

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Engaging Online Students - Carleton University Mediaspace

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massive open online courses shawn graham lectures (education) tracey pennylight james skidmore distance education school buildings maureen connolly caption complete franco taverna human communication period of study engagement university of toronto teaching facilities blended and online teaching patrick lyons education and upbringing carleton university online learning university of waterloo body language interaction brock university anne trepanier conversation

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Back to School with Annotation: 10 Ways to Annotate with Students
https://web.hypothes.is/blog/back-to-school-with-annotation-10-ways-to-annotate-with-students/

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"Lit Genius is a community of scholars–and a crew of heroic hearts–devoted to annotating great literature."
https://lit.genius.com

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"The easiest way to engage your students with videos. pick a video, add your magical touch and track your students' understanding."
https://edpuzzle.com

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"A flipped classroom approach to using video for igniting student discussion and engagement."
https://flipgrid.com
From Workshop: https://flipgrid.com/4151da

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"Storybird lets anyone make visual stories in seconds." https://storybird.com/

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Storybird - Read, write, discover, and share the books you'll always remember.

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Become a better writer with Storybird's creativity tools. Online courses, challenges, and reader feedback will help you improve your writing.

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"Industry insights your peers are reading"
https://www.edtechupdate.com

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Industry insights your peers are reading. The very best industry content from the EdTech Update community.

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Beyond the Discussion Board: Using Online Tools to Increase Student Engagement

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Beyond the Discussion Board: Using Online Tools to Increase Student Engagement

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https://youtu.be/9INVsMsFyH0

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Beyond the Discussion Board: Using Online Tools to Increase Student Engagement

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Tony Dykema-VanderArk Online discussion forums can be a great way to get students "talking" to each other outside of class, but they aren't the only way to encourage interaction and engagement beyond the classroom walls. This session will review some other free tools that can make it easier for students to collaborate, for teachers and students to communicate, and for classes to build community.

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"Trusted by millions of users to create and share screen recordings"
https://screencast-o-matic.com

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Uploaded by Robyn Charlton on 2016-02-02.

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https://coi.athabascau.ca/

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"The easiest way to create and collaborate in the world"
https://www.padlet.com

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"Live, Interactive Audience Participation"
https://www.polleverywhere.com/

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Coordinator of E-Campus Faculty Engagement, Miami University
mayorr@miamioh.edu