Tips To Increase Student Engagement in eLearning
Today, online learning has become an integral part of the educational system. This is because it offers students unlimited access to high-quality education material at their own convenience without having to worry about location or time constraints.
Learning online has also proven to be an effective way to teach a wide range of subjects, from the sciences to the humanities. However, some learners are more engaged than others, and you need all of your students participating actively if you’re going to have an effective learning experience as an educator or instructor.
This article provides some tips on how to get students engaged in online learning so they can gain the most value from their educational experience.
What is Engagement?
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, engagement means "the action or state of being deeply involved". Engagement can be defined as a process or state of connecting or becoming involved with people, objects, ideas etc.
Student engagement can be defined as the extent to which students are involved in academic activities that require their mental or physical presence. It is important because it has a great impact on student achievement. With highly engaged students, teachers can expect better learning outcomes like improved attendance rates and better job performance.
Main Challenges to Overcome in Online Learning
One of the main challenges associated with online learning is that students can easily fall into a routine and take courses without putting any effort into them. To put it bluntly, they just show up and click next until they have completed an entire course.
As a student, you may be asking yourself: Why should I bother? Unfortunately, students often feel there is no way for them to get credit for what they do not know about a subject matter.
However, not having enough information does not excuse laziness on your part. Some students will struggle with fully grasping certain concepts in your class because their educational background is slightly different from yours or because English is their second language.
It is important to understand these struggles in order to find ways around them so students will feel engaged throughout your online classroom.
Finally, one more challenge relates directly to technology itself: sometimes there are technical difficulties which keep some students from accessing certain websites during scheduled lessons.
If you want all of your potential students to succeed in your class, then find ways around all these challenges so you can maximize engagement!
Tips To Increase Students Engagement in online learning
Make the courses interactive
Since students are typically interacting with a computer rather than engaging with a live instructor, it’s up to you—the elearning agency and instructor—to find ways for them to become engaged with what they’re learning.
One way is by adding interactivity and games into your courses. The gamification of online courses is becoming an increasingly popular way for online learners (particularly millennials) to stay interested and engaged throughout their coursework.
And while educational games have always been highly effective at helping people learn, adding interactive elements such as gamification makes it easier for learners to see how their actions lead to better outcomes.
So keep things fun by adding some kind of interactivity or game element to your course. Examples might include: video-game-like activities that test users' knowledge; multiple choice questions that allow users to see instantly whether they're right or wrong; digital badges earned when successful performance criteria has been met; links in lessons that bring users directly to supplemental content outside of class time; and more.
If used effectively, these technologies can help adult learners further develop key skills – from critical thinking and problem solving to listening and collaborating.
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Ease Them Into It
There’s a difference between creating an engaging online learning experience and overwhelming students with a single, super-interesting activity. Find ways to ease students into your coursework by giving them less challenging activities that gradually increase in complexity.
This will help students focus on new concepts while reducing mental fatigue that occurs when they are presented with too much information at once. For example, you could start out by asking students short questions at the end of each video or module then slowly build up to more complex activities like group projects.
Eventually, they will reach a level of comfort and be able to complete longer assignments without feeling overwhelmed—and have time left over for fun!
Develop strong relationships with your students
It’s important for students to connect with you as a person when they are learning from you. To do that, it's best practice not only to promote yourself as an expert on your field but also who you are outside of teaching—your hobbies, pets and favorite places.
This will help make you more relatable to your students and allow them to create a bond with you through personal conversations and experiences.
Provide digital certificates
While you might not realize it, there’s a chance that online learners may be shortchanged by not receiving formal recognition for their achievements.
Recognition and praise are powerful motivators, so they can help keep students interested in completing coursework. They can also encourage students to continue learning outside of class—and even inspire them to enroll in higher-level classes at your institution.
If you're trying to make your online offerings more attractive, consider offering digital certificates upon completion of a course. It's an easy way to boost credibility without breaking the bank.
Create A Community Around Your Course
While online courses offer access anywhere at any time, they also lack face-to-face interaction. Students often say that part of why they enjoy taking classes in person is because of all of the connections made between classmates and teachers (and most classes have these kinds of community events already built into their curriculum).
Provide opportunities for interactions between your students by giving them forums where they can discuss topics raised in class, share projects or ask questions about things that confused them throughout your course. This will strengthen your relationship with each student individually, encourage collaboration between peers and help foster a sense of community around online education overall.
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Tips To Increase Student Engagement in eLearning
Give Them Something Tangible To Work Toward
Many online learners fear failing. They worry their grades won't matter, they'll fail without knowing it or feel isolated without seeing fellow students face-to-face every day. If you want to engage your online learners and get them excited about taking your course, one great way to do so is by offering tangible rewards such as badges, credits toward future courses or discounts off products within your own ecommerce platform/company store.
Badges can serve as badge insurance against failure; credits will give them a goal beyond simply completing your course; and discounts show that you recognize what they need coming from an offline classroom environment—community support and encouragement!
Create a Comfortable Space
Nothing takes away from learning like an e-learning environment that’s uncomfortable. While you may not be able to change your students’ circumstances, a big part of your job is making them feel at home in a classroom (online or off).
With that in mind, think about how you can set up your space so it feels more like a learning center and less like an office. Add on some personal touches—like artwork or decorations that mean something special to you and your students—and plan ahead for any technical difficulties with backup solutions (like downloadable documents) so everything runs smoothly for both teachers and students.
And make sure all of your online activities are geared toward letting students express themselves.
Consider setting up a group on social media
Social media is a great way to increase student engagement in online learning. You can set up a group, such as Facebook or Twitter, where students can connect with each other and ask questions.
Try sharing assignments and posting additional information that you think might be helpful. If you are feeling particularly bold, try starting a Twitter chat (or Google+ hangout) where you discuss some of your strategies for online learning.
This helps with understanding because it shows how instructors apply their ideas practically instead of just talking about them. It also demonstrates how much instructors love their job and want to share it with others!
If a student misses class, they can still check out what was discussed at another time—which means they are more likely to attend class in person next time around! As an added bonus, those discussions online will lead many students to start using social media on their own. This helps spread awareness about elearning agencies without having to put much effort into promotion.
Conclusion
Engagement is an important factor that affects student achievement in online learning. Educators can increase student engagement in online courses by incorporating various strategies into their elearning design. These strategies include using multimedia material, utilizing social media tools, including activities that stimulate critical thinking and problem solving, encouraging student-teacher interaction, and offering opportunities for practice and reflection. By doing so, educators can help their students achieve better learning outcomes.