Tools and Strategies for Engaging Online Students
The report provides practical advice from online instructors who recognize the value of engagement and its role in student retention and success.
Faculty Focus
January 12, 2012
A FREE PUBLICATION FROM THE TEACHING PROFESSOR
engaging online students
Helping Online Students Connect with Business Leaders
Providing students with mentors can be an effective way for students to learn directly from experts in real-world situations. It’s a technique used widely in face-to-face courses, and it can work in online courses as well. Al Widman, professor of management and business administration at Berkeley College, has matched students with practitioner mentors in his online undergraduate non-profit management course.
Rob Kelly
August 25, 2011
Using Synchronous Tools to Build Community in the Asynchronous Online Classroom
Sometimes students in the online environment just need that extra nudge to feel connected in order to truly excel. As instructors, we can facilitate community-building in an asynchronous environment by utilizing synchronous tools, such as Wimba, Skype, Elluminate, and others available to us via our learning management system or outside of the LMS.
Michelle Kosalka
August 10, 2011
How to Make Your Online Students Feel Connected
The college student experience, even for graduate students, is much more than course assignments, so why is it that the online learner’s experience is often limited to logging in, reading assignments and posting on the discussion board?
Mary Bart
June 8, 2011
Measuring Educational Experience Using the Community of Inquiry Framework
End-of-course evaluations, conducted properly, can serve as valuable tools for improving online programs, but they’re not without their drawbacks.
“One of the problems is current students benefit little from the end-of-course surveys,” said Phil Ice, EdD, associate vice president of research and development at American Public University System. “Whenever you’re measuring what the student thinks of the course or their perceived learning, instructor performance, the way assets are utilized, you’re capturing that information retrospectively. So you’re not really helping the students who are engaged right now.”
Mary Bart
April 4, 2011
Assignment and Assessment Strategies that Keep Students on Track
Technology enables students to connect with each other, the instructor, and the content. However, distractions—in the form of real-time electronic conversations and a barrage of dozens of commercial and personal interjections—can be omnipresent. Perhaps the online instructor needs to provide his/her own steady stream of engagement that can serve to interrupt (at least temporarily) the flow of extraneous information that competes for both time and focus.
Teresa K. Dail PhD
March 18, 2011
Pump up Your Online Discussions with VoiceThread
At its best, the discussion board can be the heart and soul of the online classroom. But it’s not always easy getting students to make the type of contributions you expect. The comments can be rather flat, not very insightful, and more often than not, it feels like some students just fill the minimum number of posts stipulated in your syllabus.
Mary Bart
February 10, 2011
Tips for Increasing Interactivity in an Online Course
In a follow-up to the online seminar “Creatively Engaging Online Students: Models and Activities,” Curt Bonk, professor of instructional systems technology at Indiana University, offered the following response from a participant who asked, “What is your favorite method to increase interactivity in an online class?”
Rob Kelly
January 14, 2011
Online Teaching Tips for Leveraging Students' Insights and Experiences
Teaching any online class is time-consuming and can be a juggling act. The instructor must keep students engaged and motivated, adhere to a variety of deadlines, quickly answer all student emails and postings, react to in-class “emergencies,” stay on top of all school policies, and teach the subject in an easy-to-understand manner—while remaining a patient, upbeat, and constant presence through it all. This is no easy task, and while we each have developed approaches to help us, there is one often underused “tool” that online instructors can employ: the students in one’s course.
Errol Craig Sull
October 28, 2010
Online vs. Face-to-Face Throwdown: Good Teaching Transcends Course Format
In the 2009 report, Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies, the Department of Education reported that “on average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction.”
Mary Bart
October 11, 2010
