Engaging Students

Plan Your Course | Build Your Course | Engage Students | Assess Students | Ensure Accessibility

In the section:

• Designing student learning activities

Designing student learning activities

In online delivery it possible to provide engaging opportunities through active learning strategies. These include:

• Discussions
• Collaborative Group Projects
• Presentations
• Breakout discussions

Active learning and student engagement activities are possible in both synchronous and asynchronous environments. There are numerous benefits of using active learning activities to engage students:

• Motivates students to be engaged learners
• Increases content knowledge, critical thinking and recall of course content
• Allows for inclusion of different learning needs
• Gets students involved in higher order thinking such as analysis, synthesis, creative thinking, adaptability, problem-solving, etc.

To facilitate your thinking about active learning and student engagement:

• Connecting and Interacting with Your Students Online (webinar recording)

If your course has a lab component there are specialized tips and strategies for designing virtual offerings:

• Virtual Labs for Online/Remote Courses

Key Concepts:

Facilitating Discussions

Consider:

• Start by creating shared norms for participation and setting the stage and tone of the class discussion.
• Allow students to suggest / contribute to the ground rules for online discussions
• Provide prompts or goals that encourage discussion to guide learning.
• Whether in a text discussion forum or a live break out, be sure to monitor activity and provide feedback.

Try this:

• Create group discussions for large classes.
• Ask students to relate the main topic of the week to their own experience as a starting point.
• Ask students to find an example related of the topic in the media and share a response.
• Post a fact, quote, or question, and ask students to apply a theory or explain that particular example.
• Invite your liaison librarian to participate on class discussion boards as a resource or host online drop-in sessions.

How to:

• Learn more about Creating and Managing Discussions [guide]
• Read more about Engaging Students in an Online Environment.
• For small groups of students, consider a synchronous real time discussion using video-conferencing as an alternative.
• Contact U of T libraries for instructor support for online teaching and assignment design.

Collaborative Group Projects

Consider:

• Group projects facilitate authentic learning experiences and generation of sharable digital resources.
• The digital environment provides an opportunity for students to gain valuable transferable skills.

Try this:

• Create a course wiki by having class participants build an online repository of course documents where instructors and students can post relevant documents, tips, news, etc.
• Provide a problem scenario to solve related to the topic of the course. The output could be a digital design document, policy recommendation or lab protocol, depending on the subject matter.
• Move a case study activity to the online environment; include a video or web site as a prompt.

How to:

• Create a wiki by adding a course page [guide]
• Create group work areas for collaborative project activities using the UT Advanced Group Tool [guide]
• Create Project Groups in Quercus [guide]
• Use video-conferencing for the class to share project work and answer questions.

Presentations

Consider:

• Online synchronous presentations provide an opportunity for students to develop oral communication skills in the online environment.
• Digital presentations help student develop new visual communication skills.

Try this:

• Students (individuals or groups) record a voice-over presentation to be shared with the whole class by posting to discussion forum.
• Consider presentation options including PowerPoint, video or infographic to explain a key concept to their peers.
• Have students write a short text assignment and share it for peer feedback using the Quercus peer feedback tool.

How to:

• Create a wiki by adding a course page and allowing students editing rights to share their project or presentation work. [guide]
• Use the discussion forum to share group work. [guide]
• Use the peer review tool to allow students to share give each other feedback on project work. [guide]
• For video sharing limit file size in Quercus to 500 MB or use an alternate video streaming options.

Breakout Discussions

Consider:

• Holding a live webinar session offers real-time connection between instructor and student as well as student-to-student interaction.
• A live webinar session can provide a social community experience.
• There may be a need for recordings or alternatives for students with logistical challenges related to time zone or bandwidth.
• Provide the opportunity for text chat since not all students are comfortable sharing using a mic and/or webcam.
• Group discussion can be set up for use as asynchronous breakout rooms.

Try this:

• Using video-conferencing tools, assign students to small groups where the students can work collaboratively to solve a problem, discuss and debate topic points, or prepare a presentation. [guide]
• Divide students into groups in discussion forums. [guide]
• Invite students to take various roles such as leading the discussion, prompting their peers, or preparing summary notes.

How to:

• Use the breakout-room function in video-conferencing tools for synchronous breakout groups.
• Use the discussion forum for asynchronous breakout groups. [guide]

Developed collaboratively by the Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation and Online Learning Strategies – Information Technology Services at the University of Toronto (April 14, 2020).