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building student engagement

Using Digital Media in Online Courses

Sometimes content delivered in a traditional classroom setting can fall flat in an online course where your students don’t get to benefit of your voice inflections, gestures, etc. If you have material that you like to deliver face-to-face, but are concerned about presenting it in the online arena you can be creative when you include the material in your course and be assured that the content is delivered in a manner that you are comfortable with.

Eileen Narozny July 8, 2010

Student Engagement: Trade-offs and Payoffs

I dread the moments when I look out into a classroom and see a collection of blank stares or thumbs clicking on tiny keypads: a pool of disengaged students, despite what I thought was a student-centered activity. Recently, I have been considering how teachers (me specifically) undermine our own efforts to engage students.

E. Shelley Reid June 17, 2010

Using VoiceThread to Build Student Engagement

Online educators have long known that asynchronous discussion is deeper than face-to-face discussion due to the increased thought time and the “democratization” of the classroom. But one major disadvantage of traditional online discussion is that it is separate from the lecture.

John Orlando, PhD May 12, 2010

Three Strategies for Engaging Students through Multimodal Course Design

Like many new online instructors, Laurie Lorence, an English instructor at San Diego Community College, initially created online courses that were fairly linear and mostly text. She quickly realized that such an approach would not work for her students, particularly those in her pre-college learning courses.

Rob Kelly April 9, 2010

The Benefits of Blended Learning

Blended learning, which combines face-to-face learning with a mixture of online activities, has been hailed as both a cost-effective way to relieve overcrowded classroom and a convenient alternative to the traditional classroom experience. But it has quickly become much more than that.

Mary Bart March 24, 2010

Putting Students in Charge of Finding Real-World Examples Makes for a More Engaging Classroom

As a marketing professor, I often found myself scouring publications, stores, and my cabinets prior to a lecture, to find real-world examples of concepts I was teaching. Although students seemed to appreciate and learn from these examples, it didn’t get them as actively involved in their learning as I’d like.

Karen Welte Gore March 19, 2010

Going Beyond Office Hours to Improve Student Learning

Two of the big buzzwords in higher education are “student engagement” and “teacher effectiveness.” One way to address these intertwined issues is to improve the quality of student-teacher interactions both inside and outside the classroom.

Elizabeth Delaney March 10, 2010

A Classroom Icebreaker with a Lesson that Lasts

I bring a box to the first day of class — especially if it’s a course with beginning students. At precisely the time class starts, I walk into the room with my box filled with random, quirky objects. I like to include a small Alf doll, a pad of Post-its, some scissors, perhaps a can of Slim-Fast, a candle, a rock, a comb, and maybe six or seven other objects indiscriminately gathered as I leave for class. As soon as I enter the room, I put the box on the table; take each article out; place it on the table; and finally, when all of them are out, return them to the box. Then I ask the students to take out a piece of paper and write down as many of the items as they can remember.

Virginia Freed February 23, 2010

Eight Ways to Increase Social Presence in Your Online Classes

Social presence is an important concept in distance education. So, how can we increase social presence in online teaching? Here are some ideas for you to try.

Hong Wang PhD. February 18, 2010

Building Student Engagement: 15 Strategies for the College Classroom

One of the most challenging tasks instructors face is keeping students engaged. Building Student Engagement: 15 Strategies for the College Classroom will help you meet that challenge while ensuring your classroom is a positive and productive learning environment.

Faculty Focus December 4, 2009

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building student engagement

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