Interaction and Engagement

There is countless scholarship that demonstrates a direct correlation between student engagement and retention.  Yep, it's as obvious as it sounds; it's not rocket science.  The more engaged students are, the more likely they are to stay in class.

The Checklist

  • Record the video for the first week of the class (it's different from your self-introduction)
  • Download the student survey sample, or create your own. Add it to the end of the first week of the class. 
  • Create a discussion board for students to share successes and frustrations. 

Why Is Engaging Our Students Important?

What Does Engagement Look Like?

If we look at The 4 Connections Links to an external site., you'll find that the recommended student engagement techniques are the same things we do in our face-to-face classes all the time.  However, when we move to an online or virtual environment, we often think that it's impossible to engage students in the same ways. Engagement can take many forms, but if we go back to The 4 Connections, we can start with:

  1. Interacting with students by name
  2. Checking in regularly
  3. Scheduling one-on-one meetings
  4. Practicing paradox

How Do I Engage My Students?

Start the course right

In previous pages, we talked about a few strategies: 

  • Include a "Start Here" module
  • Have students do an early assignment. 
  • Send a welcome letter and/or video to the students, perhaps even before the quarter starts.

These lay the groundwork for building a relationship with your students. 

Throughout the quarter

Help students find common ground. As Dr. Darryl Brice, Sociology, reminds us, "relationship precedes learning." Remember in Our Shared Humanity where we talked about judiciously sharing things from your life? Create a space for that. A discussion board isn't a bad place for that. While you're at it, check out how one instructor sets up study groups for his students. 

Make videos!  Don't be afraid to show yourself to your students.  Seeing you will let them know that you're there for them and that the class isn't being run by AI! For online and hybrid courses, a great practice is to produce a weekly video. Introduce the week, talk about the weekly survey (see below), talk about what's making you happy or sad... simply sharing helps your students connect. 

Give feedback. Lots of feedback. The technical goal is called "regular and substantive interaction," and in short, you want to provide a semi-customized message to each student on a weekly basis. The Build - Interaction in Action page in Advanced Canvas has a bunch of ideas. You can also try a few shortcuts:

Participate in discussions. You don't want to be too heavy handed, but let students know you're reading and interested in what they have to say. More on that in the next page. 

Survey students on how they're doing.  Let the students know that you are interested in their progress and solicit their feedback so that you can make adjustments where needed. A short, ungraded survey every week (in Summer) or every two weeks (in Fall) can yield lots of useful information. Check out this sample in the Canvas Commons Links to an external site.. Remember to respond to the results in the survey! (That's a good topic for those weekly videos.)

Share the final with the students from the beginning.  That way, students know what they are working toward.  It's a great way to build transparency.  And if you're transparent, students will be more engaged.

Learn more

Lots of things!  There are many great resources available that provide ideas for engaging students.  For example, take a look at these resources:

Use the strategies here along with PLAID.  Contact ID for more help or to brainstorm.