I have been watching presentations, listening to podcasts, reading, and discussing with others and inevitable the word “engagement” enters the conversation or is on a slide. We all seem to be looking for ways to engage learners and kindle intrinsic motivation. Tonight Amada and I watched a recorded 2021 Lilly Conference online session entitled “Instructional Strategies for Keeping Students Engaged Online” by April Millet and Stevie Rocco from The Pennsylvania State University. They began by revisiting March 2020 at Penn State and a survey their teaching with technology center conducted. The main concerns were student learning, adjusting to remote… and the familiarity with technology. In 2021, the top concern shifted: student engagement was now the primary concern. To address this, Rocco explained, the center created the EMS Remote and Online Teaching Guide. Fortunately, Millet had created a resource back in 2019 about student engagement techniques for hybrid courses! This was initially a blog post… and was quickly transformed into a list of 33 strategies and how to use them. Millet cited a National Survey of Student Engagement in 2017 that stated “the more engaged students are in the course, the deeper their learning will be.” They used Moore’s theory of three types of interaction:
- Learner-Learner interactions
- Learner-Instructor interactions
- Learner-Content interactions
Millet described that Moore’s theory states that all three types of interaction are needed for a successful hybrid course. Rocco showed a website with the different types of interactions and their limitations and advantages in both synchronous and asynchronous courses. Student with faculty interactions, help establish community and set expectations, that are important for student success. The guide, Rocco mentioned, has suggestions for communication, the use of storytelling, and tips for creating a welcoming environment. One idea they shared was a scale for students to share with the instructor how they feel physically and emotionally today. For expectations, setting instructor expectations for how often they will check in and provide feedback. Rocco showed a Penn State Keep on teaching website with language instructors can consider and adapt for emphasizing the importance of engagement.
Rocco also shared that student focus groups indicated that students didn’t know what where office hours. To help instructors, the center created a guide for informing instructors and students how to make the most of student hours. Along the same lines, Rocco shared guidance they provided to students for virtual study groups. Interestingly, the guidance did mention letting students “drive” the virtual study groups on their own.
Millet explained that student with student interactions focus on building class community and leverage the theories of cooperative and collaborative learning. On a slide, Millet shared several strategies: 60/60, active knowledge sharing, debates, pyramiding or snowball groups, think-pair-share, and turn and talk. Several of these strategies are new to me! I will have to check out the guide to learn more. The guide has codes for student to student interactions (“SS”), for example. Millet described an activity for synchronous interactions in small groups using breakout rooms and report outs or discussion forums. Millet answered one of my questions: Talk and Turn is similar to Think-Pair-Share but less formal. Student crowd-sourced questions are valuable if structured in a way that everyone is thinking about the content.
Millet explained that student with content interactions engage students to understand how the knowledge they developed. One that caught my attention was Reciprocal Questions. One person describes what they learned in a Zoom room, for example, and then “tags” someone else to enhance the discussion. Application Cards can be done on index cards and students write the theory on one side and the application on the other side of the card. Online, students can participate in a matching activity, for example. This made me think about H5P activities we could do. One example I had not been aware of was the use of concept maps and the rule of three: students work in groups to collectively create mind maps or concept maps by proposing connections and integrating them into the map if the majority agrees. I love learning new strategies and the history behind their use (and evidence supporting their effectiveness). This past year I have learned about numerous creative engagement techniques that can be used for online synchronous and asynchronous learning. Now, the tough task of selecting strategies appropriate for the course and objectives is my next challenge!
