Increasing Student Engagement in Remote Synchronous Courses

"Engagement is the energy and effort that learners devote to learning." (Bedenlier, 2020)

This simple concept can be difficult to quantify, especially in online synchronous learning environments, where cues like body language and eye contact aren't as easily noticed as they are in in-person environments. The term "engagement" in learning management systems like Canvas is often measured by the amount of time students spend on course pages, and the number of mouse clicks students make on those pages. Neither of those data points show the entire picture though, as some students may use a few clicks on a page to find the same information that others find in many more clicks.

Understanding that student engagement is difficult to measure statistically, it is often useful to use student course evaluations to find out what has been most helpful to past students, and in turn, what may help improve student engagement and student outcomes in future courses.

Across higher education, a commonly voiced challenge that students face in remote synchronous courses is feeling disconnected or isolated from their instructor, and from their peers. Fostering a sense of connection between the students and the instructor, and among the students themselves, can alleviate those feelings, and improve student success.

The good news is that remote Zoom sessions present many opportunities to leverage technology in ways that would be less elegant in a live class, and you can capitalize on that to foster engagement. However, many of these strategies can be applied to any modality to foster engagement. We will outline some effective strategies and tools that can improve a student's sense of connection with their instructor, and with their peers in remote synchronous courses. We only cover a few approaches here, but note that your Instructional Designer knows many more, and can help brainstorm new ways to improve student engagement, as well.

Foster a Sense of Connection Between the Students and the Instructor

Strategies

Use clear, frequent, and meaningful communication with the students.
Provide timely and specific feedback to the students after they submit their work.
Deliver content in a variety of ways: videos, lectures, audio, text, etc.
Give the students opportunities to provide their feedback to you, the instructor.
Focus on active learning opportunities when possible to keep students engaged with you and with their peers.
Consider a flipped classroom approach to allow more time for collaboration and discussion during your synchronous class sessions.
Use entry or exit tickets as a way to check in with students on their understanding of the course material, or ask more general questions to get to know them better.
Use micro-interactions to keep students mentally present. Ask students to use the reactions in Zoom (e.g., "Thumbs up if you agree, thumbs down if you disagree). Ask for quick responses to a question in the chat to keep students engaged with the lesson.
Build the student's voice into your lessons when possible. One example might be letting students vote on what case/example to examine in your next class session.
If using breakout rooms in class, float between the rooms to check in on groups and give each group more dedicated face time with you.

Specifics

Zoom Polls give students agency and choice, and actively engage them in the current discussion.
Shared Documents, such as Microsoft Forms and OneDrive, can be a great way to collect detailed student responses in real time, with options for keeping them private, or sharing them with students in a course.
Enhanced Rubrics are now available in Canvas, and they include a Self-Assessment Option. This feature empowers students to assess themselves on a given assignment, and can offer tremendous insight into the effectiveness of the assignment. For more information on Enhanced Rubrics, see this Canvas guide.

Enable Self Assessment in Rubrics

Foster a Sense of Connection Among the Students

Strategies

Give the students the chance to get to know each other. Simple icebreaker activities, particularly early on in a course, will greatly improve students' sense of connection with each other.
Project-based group work allows students to collaborate on solving problems together. Group work is a great way to build community and connection between students.
- Consider using stable groups if you have multiple group activities. This allows students a chance to build relationships and rapport with their peers more easily, rather than working with new students for each activity. Consider letting students choose team names.
Empower the students by giving them leadership roles in small group meetings and discussion boards, and rotate those leadership roles, to insure that all students have an opportunity to lead.
Open your Zoom link 10-15 minutes early for each class, allowing students a chance to chat with their peers, and/or, with you, before class begins.
When possible, give students the choice between working in a group, or working independently, to accommodate varied work styles and preferences. Encouraging group work where applicable is important, but also allowing opportunities for choice in other assignments will give students a sense of autonomy and might help students feel more comfortable.
Consider allowing students choice not only in group versus independent work, but also in how they complete an assignment. Offering a menu of items gives students another way to collaborate and determine how they want to complete an assignment together.
Invite students to recognize each other's contributions after group activities to strengthen community.
Use breakout rooms by topic and let students join the room for the topic they are interested in. This can help students who have similar interests connect.

Specifics

Zoom Breakout Rooms can help build relationships among students, encourage every student to participate in the discussion, and work on group projects in real time.
Discussion Boards in Canvas are another way to build community and connection between students, and can be especially helpful for those students that are more comfortable with writing than they are with speaking.
Peer Review assignments in Canvas empower students to offer constructive criticism and support to their colleagues.
Virtual Whiteboards like Zoom Whiteboards or Padlet are great tools that can be used to curate ideas, brainstorm, or share questions.

Faculty Best Practices

Let Us Know What Has Been Most Helpful for You!

Discussion Board

As instructors, you are the ones using these techniques and tools, and we learn from your experience. So, please, let us know what are some effective ways to increase student engagement in remote synchronous (or any) course? Here a just a couple of examples:

One effective best practice for receiving student feedback: midway through a course, give the students the opportunity to respond to the following questions: "What's working so far? What isn't working? What should we focus on in the last half of the course?" This can be done via raising of hands in Zoom, shared documents, Discussion Boards, etc.
Zoom Breakout Rooms are most effective when limited to five or six people per room. Rooms larger than that can allow some students to stay in the background.