Episode 41

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Published on:

1st Nov 2024

5 Minute Tips: Student Engagement

In this episode, Camie gives 3 tips for improving student engagement in your asynchronous online course.

Transcript

Audio file

5 Minute Tips Student Engagement_mixdown.mp3

Transcript

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Welcome to the pedagogy toolkit. This episode kicks off a new series of five minute tips to improve your course. In this episode, Kimmy talks about three ways you can improve student engagement.

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Hello everyone and welcome. Thank you for joining us today. So today, we're going to talk about student engagement and.

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Three quick ways that you can improve this in an online asynchronous course. Now we've mentioned before that.

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Creating inquiry is one of the biggest ways that students become engaged that they get curious.

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They want to know something and so ways that you can incorporate this are to add story into your lessons.

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You can do this through case studies. You can do this through real world connections.

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And we do have a pretty busy news cycle right now, mostly concerning the election. But there are lots of opportunities that you can do. This just doesn't have to be something recent. It could even be like cold case news or something that happened a long time ago, something that.

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Students can connect with in some way.

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It may even be something that we never found out. The answer to that we walked students through.

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See what they see to see what they understand or end up predicting.

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About the end conclusion.

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Sometimes we'll have an answer for this, and sometimes we won't.

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But problem solving is another way to keep that inquiry that curiosity going another way. We can do that is through fostering a course community, and there are several ways that we can do this through.

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Using small groups in our discussions and keeping students in these small groups throughout the entire term.

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This can help foster.

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More of a sense of community because people end up generally opening up more in those smaller groups than they do in larger groups.

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Or at least on a discussion board.

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They're more likely to give their opinions and and to speak out. It's more noticeable when they are absent from the conversation.

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And so also those peers may check on them if if they are absent.

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And so you're fostering a peer-to-peer connection there whenever you use small.

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Groups a third way to increase student engagement in your course is to add student choice.

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In the mix.

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Now this is gonna put a little bit more work on you in the beginning when you're setting up your course, because you'll have to set up.

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Two or three options for an assignment rather than one, but once it's set up, you can use a rubric that covers all the assignments, because you're looking for certain components, not necessarily at the presentation itself.

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And you can give students a choice.

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Give them a choice between a written paper, a presentation, something that a video on something they've done. Give them options so they can take it as far as they want, but also so that they are comfortable.

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Unless that skill is necessary for your class, like a communications class.

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Then then give them options and how they're presenting information, because it will help them take ownership of their work, and also they can present information in a way that they understand really well and focus more on the content rather than the delivery.

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So if you want to improve student engagement.

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Build inquiry, build community and include student choice.

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Thanks for joining us on the Pedagogy toolkit. Don't forget to subscribe.

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About the Podcast

The Pedagogy Toolkit
The Global Campus Pedagogy Toolkit is a podcast where we focus on equipping online instructors with the tools to foster student success through supportive online learning environments. We explore engaging online teaching strategies, how to design the online learning environment, supportive practices for online students, and how to stay current with higher education policies through discussions between guests and instructional designers.

About your hosts

Amalie Holland

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I'm a recovered high school English teacher now working as an an instructional designer at the University of Arkansas.

Alex Dowell

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Hey there! I'm Alex and I love learning! I have undergrad and graduate degrees in education and have worked in and around higher education for over 8 years. Discovering how emerging and historical technologies blend to improve teaching and learning really fires me up.

When I'm not podcasting or planning courses, you'll find me outside on running trails, reading, drinking good coffee, watching Premier League football, and hanging out with my family.

Feel free to ask me anything!

James Martin

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I'm an instructional designer at the University of Arkansas Global Campus, where I work with professors to make online versions of academic classes. I've spent most of my career in higher education. I've also taught college and high school classes, face to face and online. I’m passionate about education, reading, making music, good software, and great coffee.

Camie Wood (she/her/hers)

Profile picture for Camie Wood (she/her/hers)
Hi! I'm Camie, an instructional designer with a passion for teaching and learning and I believe in the power of effective design and instruction to transform student learning. I have seen this transformation both in the classroom as a former teacher and as a researcher during my pursuit of a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction.

Outside of work, I enjoy spending time with family, being outdoors, and reading. I love a good cup of tea, embroidery, and gardening.