Higher education instructors are searching for evidence-based approaches to online and hybrid course development across an almost dizzying array of options They need confidence, skills and proven tactics to boost the online learning experience and ensure their students remain engaged.
Pearson’s Learning Design team surveyed the literature and identified 9 research backed strategies to help educators overcome some of the engagement hurdles that comes with online learning. Amy Wood, Director or Learning Research and Design at Pearson and Susan Barry, Manager of Instructional Design at Pearson, rolled out these tactics at during the “9 Strategies for Maximizing Student Engagement and Learning Achievement in Online Classes” session at REMOTE: The Connected Faculty Summit.
Wood and Barry broke the 9 strategies into two categories—Motivation and Effective Learning Experience.
Motivation:
- Create a strong presence.
That means being a role model for how you want students to engage in your class, according to Barry. Instructors should use video messages to connect frequently with students, interact directly with them, and both faculty and students should complete a digital profile that showcases their personalities.
- Help learners believe they can succeed.
“Learners today feel like they can’t succeed so they drop out of their online courses,” Wood said. To boost momentum and confidence, teachers need to create opportunities for quick wins early on; reward efforts, progress and learning behaviors they would like to encourage; and show how similar peers have progressed.
- Establish ways for students to monitor progress.
Wood said that students may not engage productively in the online course if they are not sure how they are doing. To combat this, instructors need to establish clear objectives and tie activities, assessments and instructional materials to the objectives. They also need to encourage learners to look at their progress using their own benchmarks and utilize tools in their online system that learners can use to track their progress.
- Build a sense of community.
The problem is students can feel isolated in an online environment causing them to mentally check out, according to Barry. As a result, instructors should use collaborative activities liberally to keep students involved. They need to strike a good balance between being an active leader and an active listener, and shift responsibilities to the community of learners as the course progresses. Instructors also should be soliciting regular feedback to keep communications flowing and leverage technology to create collaborative spaces.
Effective Learning Experiences:
- Base course activities on a trajectory that supports learning.
Pearson’s Wood said it can be easy to lose track of the learning trajectory in moving to an online course. To ensure the learning experience in the online course helps students, instructors need to engage with new knowledge/skills in ways that build upon prior learning. Students should get practice using the new knowledge/skills, so they are more tangible.
- Apply learning principles that are likely to lead to better outcomes.
While some students may struggle adapting and learning in an online environment, there are certain principles instructors can follow to design an effective online course, according to Wood. Clearly defining the objectives in the terms of knowledge and skills is crucial. Also, instructors should include more constructive activities and provide timely, actionable feedback.
- Relate the class to the learners’ lives.
The fact is that students will lose motivation if they don’t see the value in what they are doing, according to Barry. Instructors must try and make connections between what students are learning and their every day lives or career goals. Teachers should also encourage students to make those connections themselves, which will make the learning experience more authentic for the students.
- Plan effective interactions.
Because some students may find some interactions more difficult in an online course, instructors must go the extra mile and plan effective interactions to support these students. Barry outlined three different types of effective interaction techniques.
- Instructor-learner: These are instructor created videos in structured synchronous sessions.
- Learner-learner: These are discussion boards that facilitate participation and reflection.
- Leaner-content: This creates opportunities for a more active engagement learning environment.
- Support self-directed learning.
Some students lack the skills that support self-directed learning that is required in an online environment, according to Wood. Instructors need to build in supports for self-directed learning by setting clear expectations; encouraging planning, progress monitoring, effective study practices, and reflection on their own learning; and provide an onboarding session that covers how to use the technology and where to go for help.