Sustaining learner attention, participation, and enthusiasm in an online setting can be a challenging task. This set of resources has been designed to offer practical, proven strategies for engaging and motivating learners in your online and blended modules. They outline a range of approaches to engaging learners, including guidance on building connectedness and community through ‘social presence’, orienting students to learning online, actively monitoring class engagement within the VLE to gain insight into student progress and support your pedagogical decisions, and setting expectations and norms in relation to online communication.
Through orientation and community-building
- Building an online community - Tips on promoting engagement by establishing a sense of community, connectedness, and belonging in an online setting
- Early orientation and extended induction practices - Promote engagement by orienting students to online learning in the early stages of their transition into higher education
Through online supervision and instructor presence
- Monitoring student engagement – supporting your teaching decisions - Employ the tools provided by your VLE to track student and class engagement and use the insights gained to inform pedagogical decision-making
- Establishing instructor presence in the VLE - this resource looks at practical strategies for dealing with the context of the physical distance increasing between you and your students
Through Accessible Design
- Universal design for learning / Accessibility and universal design - Make use of ‘universal design for learning’ principles and strategies to positively affect the experiences of learners in your online modules
- Quick Guide to Accessibility in Your Teaching, Learning and Assessment Resources - Ensure accessibility in your teaching, learning and assessment resources with this short guide
Through modelling good communication
- Managing and communicating expectations - Set clear expectations for learners by developing a plan for managing communications consistently within your online modules
- Netiquette for online communications and participation in the virtual classroom - Learn about the ‘do’s and don’ts’ of effective and appropriate online communications, consider what constitutes appropriate behaviour in live meetings, and examine how you might teach good netiquette to your students