how to keep students engaged in a course

^{Teaching strategies to ensure student engagement}

1. Begin the lesson with an interesting fact. Did you know that the brain disengages when it thinks it already knows something? ...
2. Exude enthusiasm and engagement. Enthusiasm is contagious and, at the very least, entertaining to watch. ...
3. Encourage connections that are meaningful and relevant. While having your own enthusiasm for a topic is a good start, it isn’t enough to keep the students engaged in the ...
4. Plan for short attention spans. Students, especially younger ones, have a relatively short attention span. ...
Address different learning styles and multiple intelligences. Every student has their own way of learning and their own set of strengths and weaknesses. ...
Converse with students — don’t talk at them. Teaching isn’t just about what you teach and which activities you lead the students in; it’s also about how you teach ...
Turn lessons into games. Students learn best and are most engaged when they are having fun. ...
Turn lessons into stories. Storytelling is another highly engaging strategy to use in the classroom. ...
Maintain close proximity and eye contact. Have you ever noticed that you can “feel” it when someone is looking at you? ...
Offer choices. Students, like most people, enjoy the opportunity to have choices. They like knowing they have control over some aspect of their learning.

Full Answer

How do you increase student engagement?

Apr 14, 2020 · Class participation strategies Popsicle stick names -- Write every student’s name down on a popsicle stick and pop it in a spare mug. When you need... Think-pair-share -- A classic for a reason, the think-pair-share technique challenges students to think about the answer... Wait time -- There’s ...

What do students need to be engaged?

Check in with your students and ask how the course is going, if they feel engaged, how they feel about the workload, or what changes they might suggest to increase engagement. You can do this by creating your own anonymous survey that you ask students to complete.

How to increase student engagement?

Jan 31, 2022 · You can also promote ownership by having classroom jobs students take responsibility for completing. For example, jobs may include sweeping, putting chairs up at the end of the day, cleaning the whiteboard, or handing out papers. Ownership can help create a sense of community in your classroom, which can promote student engagement. References

How to engage unengaged students?

Mar 26, 2020 · Engage your students by segmenting lectures into shorter sequences. DEDP lecture segments are less than 15 minutes long... Check comprehension by asking quick questions that test whether students understood the key lesson in the short lecture... Walk through step-by-step examples. When shifting ...

Check in with Your Students

Get to Know Your Students. You can cultivate a sense of belonging among your students, even in large courses. One way you can learn more about your students is asking them to complete an interest inventory at the beginning of the semester using the survey tool in Moodle or Blackboard.

Build in Interactions

Check What They Know. You can prompt students’ retrieval of course concepts by using iClicker questions in a face-to-face course or Zoom polling for online synchronous sessions. If you’re conducting class online asynchronously with recorded lectures or videos, consider making those lectures interactive and posing questions by using H5P in Moodle.

Bring in the Real World

Social Scavenger Hunt. Students find real-life examples of particular concepts covered in class (images, videos, articles) and share them in a Moodle or Blackboard discussion board or another platform. In their post, they must explain why the example reflects the concept.

action starters

Action Starters are all about getting your students to implement and apply what they just learned. What activities or resources can you provide to help them take these actions?

make it stick strategies

Make it Stick Strategies are designed to help students review, retain and reflect on what they have learned and reinforce habits that actually create long-lasting behavior change.

engagement amplifiers

Engagement Amplifiers significantly increase the likelihood that your students consume the content, follow-through on it, and interact with other members to boost confidence.

create a community

Creating a community for your students, such as a forum or Facebook group can be a great way to get people more engaged with both your content and each other.

gamify your course

I know, I know, it sounds kind of technical huh! But, adding gamification to your online courses allows you to boost engagement using techniques that reward your students for reaching certain milestones or taking specific actions throughout the duration of your course.

competitions, giveaways and challenges

Competitions and challenges can be a really great way to keep your students motivated and digging into the content. Depending on the type of course you have (live vs self-paced) running a competition or challenge during the length of your course can improve engagement and get members taking action on your content.

Tapping into Interests

It’s important for educators to know their students well, and that goes beyond simply knowing their academic achievements. Learning about other aspects of your students’ lives, such as their hobbies and interests, can help you develop relationships and rapport. It also allows you to tailor learning activities to your students’ interests.

Making Connections

It’s not uncommon for students to question why they’re learning something or wonder when they will use that knowledge in the future. Promote engagement by making real-world connections in your classroom.

Offering Choices

Promote curiosity and motivation in your classroom by building choices into your students’ learning. This may include allowing them to choose from a range of topics to research and explore within a subject.

Ownership

Promote engagement by creating a sense of student ownership in your classroom. You can accomplish this, for example, by allowing your students to contribute ideas to the physical set-up of your classroom. Discuss together how to arrange the furniture or how to organize the books in the reading corner.

Why do you ask students to submit questions?

Asking students to submit questions or concepts in advance can help avoid awkward lulls and pace the time. Teachers can request students to submit questions aimed at broad concepts to lecturers, and to submit questions on specific homework problems to teaching assistants, to best utilize each instructor’s expertise.

Why do you record all lectures?

Record all instruction, even live lectures, so that all students can watch or rewatch it (especial ly important for students in different time zones). When presenting, be sure to describe any images or graphics for students who are blind or have low visibility.

What is the benefit of in person classes?

In-person courses benefit from interactions with peers, instructors, and teaching assistants that can provide a sense of community and motivate students to learn. Online courses simulate these interactions through discussion forums.

What is remote learning?

Remote learning requires high levels of motivation, focus, and organization. There are some steps you can take to maximize students’ engagement and ensure that all students have equal access to material.

Why are frequent exercises important?

Frequent exercises also give students more opportunity to apply lecture material. Research shows that such repeated quizzing can improve student outcomes. Furthermore, classroom studies have shown that students who were frequently quizzed learned more and reported greater satisfaction with the course.

Should teachers set aside time for homework?

Teachers should set aside some of their time (or a teaching assistant’s time) to practice exercises or problems similar to the homework problems. For instructors working from home without a board to write on, many tablet apps allow them to record themselves working on a practice problem .

What is the best strategy to use in the classroom?

Storytelling is another highly engaging strategy to use in the classroom. This practice, which has been around since the beginning of history as we know it, engages both the emotional and logical areas of the brain. With multiple areas of the brain being activated, the hearer is better able to engage with and remember the information embedded within the story.

Why do students have choices?

Students, like most people, enjoy the opportunity to have choices. They like knowing they have control over some aspect of their learning. Having choices puts the student in the driver’s (or passenger’s) seat. This responsibility means that they’re no longer merely recipients who can mindlessly sit back and enjoy the ride. Instead, they are responsible for sitting up, taking notice, and making intentional decisions about which direction their education will take. Choices can come in the form of deciding which topic they want to learn about, how they want to learn it (which activities they want to do), or how they want to present what they have learned.

How long should a kindergartener focus on a task?

Studies suggest that: Kindergarteners (ages five and six) are able to focus on an interesting task for 10–30 minutes. First-grade students (ages six and seven) can focus for 12–35 minutes.

How long should a first grader focus?

First-grade students (ages six and seven) can focus for 12–35 minutes. Second-grade students (ages seven and eight) can focus for 14–40 minutes. And so on. With teaching, it’s better to keep the lower number in mind when planning and executing your lessons.

Is it possible to give each student what they need?

Every student has their own way of learning and their own set of strengths and weaknesses. It’s impossible to give each student what they most need at every moment. However, if you include a variety of activities from some of the categories below, you can ensure that you’re giving everyone at least one thing that works for them.

Is every strategy effective with every student?

In teaching, not every strategy will prove effective with every student. For this reason, it is good to carry around a big bag of tricks that you can pull from when student interest starts to waver.

How to get students engaged in learning?

Students are more engaged in learning when lessons are relevant to real-world application. Tie literature to essential questions that help students understand life. Choose books in which they can see themselves or their culture present. Try passion projects or genius hours.

How to engage students in learning?

In order to engage students in learning, they need to experience the excitement of retaining new information. When learning is tangible, or measurable, students tend to be more motivated. Part of my teaching philosophy involves incorporating brain-based learning approaches whenever possible.

Why are anchor charts important?

Anchor charts are effective because students can help create them, and they anchor learning so that students can refer back to them long after the lesson is over. EL and all students benefit from word walls, especially when they are interactive. 10. STOP AND JOT.

Why is color important in learning?

Color brightens moods, lessons, and learning. There’s something about color that intrigues us and helps us to remember what we learn. Students can color-code elements of a paragaraph when writing. Color can also help students understand book diet and book fit.

How to maximize engagement in a classroom?

To maximize engagement, whenever possible, ask students to work together to share ideas about what they are reading, to revise their writing, to respond to one another in verbal and silent discussions, and to partake in research projects. 19. TRY A PODCAST. Podcasts require a different type of listening.

Is "engagement" the same as "fun"?

And…. Engagement is not the same as “fun” or even “entertaining.”. Engagement means students see the value of the learning and are mentally engaging with the information, actively thinking, forming meaningful associations. Their thinking is challenged.

How does interrelated learning affect students?

Research suggests that incorporation of some interrelated activities in any teaching pattern can significantly boost students’ engagement. This engagement is done emotionally, cognitively and also behaviorally — thereby positively influencing the learning and knowledge of students.

Why is competition important in teaching?

Competition is a great way to motivate students to learn better or to make them engaged in learning more naturally. When a teacher develops a sense of competition among his/her students, it encourages the students to do what is needed to remain ahead of others.

Why are teachers leaving out traditional learning patterns?

Such measures are adopted to encourage student engagement in learning at a better level, make them exert more effort in learning and to make them excited to accomplish their learning goals.

What happens if you wait too long to give feedback?

However, if you wait too long to provide feedback, the moment gets lost and the student fails to connect the feedback with the required action. However, the feedback focus should always be based essentially on the good learning areas of the students — area in which they are performing well.

What is the purpose of instructional management plan?

This will help in promoting specific thought patterns (between teacher and students) and in achieving desired learning goals effectively.

What happens if students fail to recognize low performance areas?

And if students fail to recognize such low-performance areas, they fail to improve their learning. Such situation discourages them and often disengages them from their course.

Can students be engaged in learning?

Some research suggests that students cannot be engaged in learning up to a satisfactory level if they fail to consider their learning activities worthy of putting efforts or investing time. To consider the worst, they may disengage with the course entirely, as a natural response.