Tag: #cos

Engaging students online (3)

The third episode of the “Engaging Students Online” series explores how to activate students through questions.

Introduction

Engaging with students is often a challenge, whether in a face-to-face course or an online setting. In this series, you’ll find small pedagogical strategies to foster student engagement in online teaching, which can also be adapted to face-to-face classes.

Instructional Method

While discussing student engagement with teachers from the Content Strategy program one of them wrote:

What I’ve come to learn over the years is to lead with simple questions that are clearly formulated, and which anyone can answer from their own experience. Once the students are warmed up (and engaged), it’s easier to get them to respond to more thought-provoking questions and for the quieter ones to enter the discussion. (Ben Croker)

Starting with easy questions as a warm-up works well. Ben’s idea of asking questions that students can answer based on their own experience is a great approach, as it ensures every student can at least think of a response. This helps students build self-confidence, which is the number one predictor of academic achievement and success (according to a post by the University of the West of Scotland). One of the crucial needs in the Self-Determination Theory, a psychological framework for understanding human motivation, is the need to feel competent.

Our feeling of competence is derived from a series of successful experiences and the positive emotions we derive from them. (Elizabeth Perry, 2023).

Students discuss questions

From observing student groups (whether online or face-to-face), we know that some students are eager to discuss any question, while others remain silent. People have different competencies and preferences. Therefore, teachers could implement a brief group activity with the “clearly formulated question” (Ben) and add some words about the result they expect from the group work. The result could be a definition, two descriptive sentences, a picture, keywords, …

Sending students to breakout rooms is incredibly easy nowadays, and in face-to-face settings, students could simply move around to form small groups.

In these groups, students nominate a person to briefly present the result.

Rules for us teachers

  • Formulate clear and simple questions that are broad enough to allow diverse input but focused enough to guide the discussion.
  • Set clear expectations for group work by explaining the result of the group activity and providing an example.
  • Support group formation and roles, as presenter or note-taker.
  • Ensure each group has the opportunity to present their results briefly.

Framework

  • This approach is useful in all online courses with discursive elements
  • If you have any questions, ask Jutta Pauschenwein.
  • Plattform: MS Teams, ZOOM

Further information

Previous posts in the Engaging Students Online series.

  • How to integrate student moderators into the classroom (1st episode)
  • How to assign students the task of revisiting content from the previous class. (2nd episode)

Engaging students online (2)

The second episode of the “Engaging Students Online” series explores how to assign students the task of revisiting content from the previous class.

Introduction

Teachers often believe that it’s easier to engage with students in a face-to-face course than in an online setting. Is this true? In this series I propose small pedagogical concepts for students’ engagement during an online teaching class. I believe these concepts can also easily be adapted for face-to-face classes.

Instructional Method

Teachers understand the value of revisiting content from the previous class. To foster active learning, give students more responsibility in this process. (Funny, that the aspect of giving responsibility to students comes up again — it was already useful in the first episode).

Students create a quiz to review key aspects of the previous class

When applying this method for the first time, explain to the students that you’d like them to create a quiz for the next class based on today’s class content. Ask for volunteers and aim to form a group of about 3-5 students.

Encourage these 3-5 students to stay attentive and take notes on the content of the class. You can joke that of course all students should stay attentive. After class, the student group should create a short 5-10 minute quiz to review the key points. This quiz will be used at the start of the next session. Students are responsible for finding a suitable platform to implement the quiz questions.

Example of a Kahoot test

This approach not only reinforces learning but also promotes accountability and engagement with the material.

Rules for us teachers

  • When introducing this concept for the first time, it’s important to take some time to explain it to the students and discuss their thoughts and feedback.
  • Teachers should remain relaxed if some of the quiz questions turn out to be very easy.
  • After the quiz, teachers can provide feedback on the questions and perhaps offer additional insights or information.
  • In any case, it’s essential to acknowledge and appreciate the effort of the student group. However, I would recommend not grading the quiz directly—consider awarding bonus points instead.

Framework

  • This approach is useful in all online courses with discursive elements
  • If you have any questions, ask Jutta Pauschenwein
  • Plattform: MS Teams, other video conference tools

Further information

Another option for reviewing content from the previous class is through a student role-play activity. For more details, see Reviewing Material Through Role-Play (in German)

Engaging Students Online (1)

The first episode of the series “Engaging Students Online” explains how to integrate student moderators into the classroom.

Introduction

Teachers often believe that it’s easier to engage with students in a face-to-face course than in an online setting. I’m not convinced this is necessarily true. Take a look at Figure 1: students are unlikely to interrupt the teacher with a question and may hesitate to speak up even when asked directly. Nevertheless, teachers can still observe students and their needs, even if only to a certain extent.

Figure 1 – Traditional face-to-face lecture

However, in an online setting? How can we monitor students in a video conference, especially when many webcams are likely turned off? How can we capture students’ thoughts and questions during our presentation?

Didactic Approach

The solution to this dilemma is actually quite simple: teachers can make the lesson more interactive by sharing responsibility with the students. To achieve this, they ask students to choose two moderators. These moderators are responsible for gathering their colleagues’ thoughts and questions, whether in the chat of the video conference or on another web platform.

Figure 2 – Online teaching with student moderators

Lecture Phase
While the teacher presents for 15-20 minutes, students can chat among themselves, post comments, and ask questions without being directly monitored by the teacher. Student moderators take notes, and summarize the most important points for their own reference.

Exchange/Discussion Phase
The student moderators take the stage and give voice to the students’ thoughts and ideas, which will likely prompt further discussion and engagement with the lecturer

Next steps
During the next lecture phase the same or new student moderators collect feedback from the students.

Rules for us teachers

  • We should really limit our lectures to a maximum of 20 minutes, though 15 minutes is even better.
  • The role of student moderators is a challenging one, so we should not forget to show our appreciation for their efforts.
  • If we’re bold, we could also allow student moderators to interrupt us when an urgent question arises.
  • When applying this concept for the first time, we will need some time to explain it to the students and discuss their thoughts and feedback.

Framework

  • This approach is useful in all online courses with discursive elements
  • If you have any questions, ask Jutta Pauschenwein
  • Plattform: MS Teams, other video conference tools