While maintaining energy and engagement may be some of the most important parts of ensuring the successful delivery of online classes, this is particularly difficult if few students have prepared in advance for the class. Particularly for discussion-focused classes, ensuring that students take steps to engage with the material in advance of the class can go a long way to avoiding situations where the conversations remaining very superficial in nature.
Framing: Explain the role of any pre-reading material
Highlighting the role of any pre-reading material in the overall class structure can go a long way in getting students on board. Helping to illustrate how the various class components complement and build on one another can go a long way to getting students on-board: it is a lot easier to get student-buy-in when students understand the role the pre-reading material and how it is important for the class.
Ensuring that classes reference and build on the readings, without duplicating them
One of the key reasons that students skip preparing is that they can’t see the benefit of undertaking the preparation. The dangers are at the extremes on connections made in class to the material.
- Excessive repetition: If the class is largely a duplicate of the content already read, then there is arguably little incentive for students to prepare in advance.
- Little to no connections with prior material: Likewise, if there is hardly any connection between the preparation material and class content, there is likewise little reasons for students to prepare in advance.
The key thing with integrating class content with preparation material is striking the balance of connections: sufficient connections such that the class can build on the pre-readings, however not so much that the class is just a repeat of preparation readings.
Post questions in advance to focus student attention
One way of increasing engagement with the material is to consider posting questions for students to consider when engaging with the reading material. While this is routinely included in syllabi, it can be useful to also re-post the questions to the course wall, helping to ensure that students who are not actively checking the syllabi are still reminded of the questions that they should be considering when going through the reading material.
Add mini-exercises to submit
Another way of helping to ensure that students connect with the material in advance is to assign mini-exercises (potentially as part of async content). Assigning the material as required in advance goes further than just suggesting the questions for consideration, and ensures that students have engaged with the material.
Including min-exercises as pass/fail may be a good approach with mini-exercises, positioning the activities as ‘learning activities’ (and in turn avoiding the constant examination that students can sometimes feel), while also keeping the grading process manageable.
Consider making participation a component of the grade
A standard way of increasing participation is to tie a component of the class grade to participation. The knowledge that they will need to speak in advance can help ensure that they prepare to be able to talk.
Although this can help participation, it is also worth noting some potential tradeoffs associated with including participation as part of the formal evaluation:
- It can encourage students to speak when they have very little to say – potentially repeating prior students or adding very little to the conversation
- It can result in frustration, with students feeling that they are unable to participate in the discussion. This tendency may be particularly true in on-line classes – given that only a limited number of students are discussed on-screen at once (on Zoom, up to 49).
Summary
It can always be a challenge getting participation in classes – this doesn’t change when teaching online, although, with the ability to turn off their webcams, the ability to gain involvement may be even higher. By considering ways of ensuring students to prepare in advance, getting participation may be higher.
Related articles
Personalizing Zoom
Although Zoom does not allow many opportunities for customization, there are several small adjustments to make Zoom slightly more personalized. This article will explain changing your profile picture, waiting room interface, and other personalization opportunities.
Enhance your Zoom Calls with OBS
One of the most impactful ways of enhancing your Zoom calls is using a streaming platform such as OBS or Streamlabs OBS. This article covers some of the key ways of improving your calls.
Scheduling Office Hours with Doodle
Doodle is possibly the simplest way of setting up office hours – within five minutes you can have signup splots. This article explains how to use Doodle for scheduling your office hours.
Familiarize Yourself with Zoom Controls
If you want to effectively manage a Zoom call it is important to understand Zoom’s controls. In this guide we cover all aspects of the calls – where the buttons are and what they do.
Top Guides for Teaching Online
Our collection of some of the most popular guides from experienced online and distance learning educators.
See a Participant View of Zoom
It can be useful to see Zoom as your students do – this makes it easier to know what they are likely seeing at there end and provide guidance and instructions. This article shows how Zooms looks from the student perspective.
Setting up a Doc Cam with Zoom
If you need to capture your handwriting as part of presenting online via Zoom, a document camera can be the way to go. This article explores two different ways of sharing your document camera via Zoom.
Disable Zoom Chat
The chat feature on Zoom can sometimes be useful – potentially for sharing links with others – but it can also be distracting when presenting. Getting a flashing notification can interrupt the flow of a presentation, and allowing others to share messages when you are presenting can lead to side-conversations. Learn how to temporarily and permanently disable the chat feature.
Approaches to Managing Online Discussions
For classes that involve any degree of participation, it is important to consider how to manage online discussions. This article explores the options and considerations involved in student participation within online classes.
Related articles
Top Guides for Teaching Online
Our collection of some of the most popular guides from experienced online and distance learning educators.
Display 49 Participants in Zoom Gallery View
Although the default settings in Zoom limits the number of thumbnails displayed in the gallery view to 25, this can be increased to 49. This article explains how to increase the number of participants displayed and the technical requirements to do.
Bringing Energy to your Online Class
One of the most important considerations when teaching online is how to maintain student energy and engagement. This article explores ways of bringing some energy to the class, with a specific focus on online teaching environments.
Scheduling a Zoom Meeting
If you are new to Zoom, there are a lot of settings that are useful to be aware of when setting up a meeting. This article explores those settings, with guidance on what may be useful for your class.
Elevate your Online Presentation Skills with Masterclass
This article explores how Masterclass – a platform of professionally produced online instructional material from some of the most respected experts in their fields – can be an invaluable source of inspiration when transitioning online.
Contingency Planning your Online Classes
Online teaching presents some new difficulties that have the potential of derailing a class. This article explores some possible sources of disruption and considers ways of reducing the likelihood of issues arising, or dealing with such problems should they occur in the class.
Downloading Attendance from Zoom
If your class incorporates attendance as part of its grading structure, it is useful to be able to download a list of class attendance, rather than have to manually record participation levels – this article describes how to download attendance for each class.
Sharing a PowerPoint via Zoom
One of the most common ways of presenting on Zoom is to share a PowerPoint Presentation. In this article, we will explore how to set PowerPoint presentations to open as a separate Windows that can then be shared from within Zoom.
Establishing Online Class Norms
Establishing clear norms and expectations around online learning is important for ensuring a smooth and successful class delivery. This article explores some of the important expectations to establish to help deliver a smooth and successful class.
See a Participant View of Zoom
It can be useful to see Zoom as your students do – this makes it easier to know what they are likely seeing at there end and provide guidance and instructions. This article shows how Zooms looks from the student perspective.
To Sit or to Stand when Teaching Online
It’s easy to assume that sitting is the best way of teaching on-line – all your students will be sitting down. However, there are some advantages to consider of standing up when delivering your class. This article will explore the benefits of both options.
Resolving Technical Issues with Zoom
From connection and internet issues to microphone and webcam problems, there will inevitably be at least some technology issues during your Zoom classes. This article and its accompanying student-companion, is intended to help you to provide support to students who are having issues connecting to your Zoom call.