“When we teach online, technology is a mediator between us and the students. Because of this intervention, the way in which we understand and experience the phenomenon of student engagement changes.” (p. 211) Claire Howell Major makes that observation in her new book, Teaching Online: A Guide to Theory, Research, and Practice.
She then proceeds to outline what makes engagement more difficult when students aren’t physically present. When we teach in a classroom, students are more or less a “captive” audience. That physical proximity makes the class a group that comes together for a specified time to exchange information and ideas. That all changes significantly in an online environment.
“In many ways, some of the control and authority of engagement shifts from teachers to students in online courses.” (p. 212) Students decide when they’ll be in class and whether they’ll attend to course material or let any number of possible distractions sidetrack their attentiveness. Moreover, seeing whether students are engaged is also more difficult when students aren’t visible to the teacher. Without eye contact, facial expressions, body postures, or any physical presence, it’s difficult to tell if they’re engaged or doing something else. For all the teacher knows, they could be folding clothes or vacuuming. Student engagement is enhanced by connections with the teacher—a friendly smile or a greeting when the student arrives in class, for example. It’s much more challenging for teachers and students to form a bond and to experience each other’s presence in online courses.
To overcome the difficulties, Major offers six strategies that online teachers can use to cultivate student engagement.
- Use student-led pedagogies “In student-led pedagogies, faculty are less central and have less authority and control over students. Students, in turn, take up opportunities to be active agents in their own learning.” (p. 214) If the teacher isn’t there to answer questions in lecture and students are responsible for exploring the material via small-group, online discussions, there are reasons for them to exchange ideas and information with each other, and that makes engagement much more likely.
- Use pedagogies that involve students in the learning process Typically, teachers make all the decisions about what and how students should learn. But that doesn’t have to be the case. Students can be involved in a variety of ways, from making selections from a collection of possible readings to suggesting assignment details to establishing due dates and penalties. Obviously this can happen in any course, but it’s an especially effective way to get students involved in online learning situations. Besides engaging them, making decisions that affect their learning develops greater awareness of their learning.
- Use pedagogies that enable students to connect their personal interests to course content This is about the ever-present need to make course content relevant. Teachers know that it’s relevant, but students often don’t see why they’re being asked to learn what they’re learning. All students bring experience and knowledge to their courses; adults especially come with a large repertoire. Teachers can tell students how and why the content is relevant, but it’s much more powerful when students make the connections between what they know and what’s being taught. In an online course, assignments that get students to make these connections are more engaging and bring greater, longer-lasting benefits. Once they see how the content relates to them, the need to learn it becomes more apparent.
- Use pedagogies that simulate reality If an activity feels real and authentic, it’s more likely to engage students. So rather than telling students the result of a classic experiment, share the hypotheses and have them predict the results. Challenge them to use what they’ve learned about the content to make those predictions. Or students can read a case study and then offer suggestions about resolving the problem or difficulty. If what students are doing feels like the kind of work done in the discipline, that can do much to promote their engagement.
- Use pedagogies that have students creating authentic products “These are activities that are contextualized in real life, rather than decontextualized to the classroom.” (p. 219) They are activities that feel like they have real-world relevance. If students are asking each other potential job interview questions and then offering feedback on each other’s answers, that feels valuable. It’s preparing them for what they’ll likely have to do. “In short, students become more engaged when working on assignments that lead to meaningful products having value beyond the course.” (p. 223) And here the online environment offers rich creative possibilities.
- Use multiple and varied pedagogies that require documented student action “Pedagogies that demand breaking up the traditional long lecture session with brief, active learning assignments, sometimes referred to as punctuated lectures, have a solid base of evidence to support their efficacy at improving student engagement, and ultimately learning outcomes.” (p. 223) Student engagement remains higher if students regularly have to take action. Listening and reading can be very passive activities, especially as many students practice them.
Cultivating engagement in online courses is not difficult; it only requires focus on making the students active participants in their learning.
Reference
Major, C. H. Teaching Online: A Guide to Theory, Research, and Practice, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015.
Maryellen Weimer is the editor of The Teaching Professor.
