Strategies for Increasing Student Engagement Through Online Learning

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Strategies for Increasing Student Engagement
Through Online Learning

• Presented by
• Melissa Anderson, Director, Solutions Engineering
• Blackboard, Inc.
• Adjunct Faculty, Masters in Educational
  Technology
• Pepperdine University

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Agenda

• What is student engagement?
• Why does engagement matter?
• Key practices for engaging students
• Measuring student engagement
• Questions

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What is student engagement?
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• Students interest in and/or willingness to
  participate in educational activities.
• Students desire to be successful in educational
  activities, therefore resulting in meaningful
  involvement.
• Students choice to be actively involved in
  educational activities rather than other social,
  personal and/or professional activities.

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Why does engagement matter?
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• Student engagement can lead to
• Increased retention rates
• Increased student satisfaction
• Increased knowledge capture
• Increased critical thinking skills
• Increased post-academic performance
• Increased institutional competitiveness
• And many more positive changes among learners,
  instructors and institutions

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How do we engage students in online, hybrid
supplemental courses?
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• 4 Principles for Fostering Student Engagement
• Provide rich, interesting and appealing content
  in formats that students prefer
• Incorporate authentic and active learning
• Assess directly and indirectly both student
  performance and course success
• Encourage and reward student collaboration and
  social learning

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• Provide rich, interesting and appealing content
  in formats that students prefer
• Be aware of student learning styles
  preferences know your audience
• Use multiple forms of media text, images,
  audio, video to reinforce similar ideas in small
  chunks
• Ensure each content item links directly to a
  learning activity assessment (modeled after
  outcomes-based teaching learning)

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• Provide rich, interesting and appealing content
  in formats that students prefer in Blackboard
• Organize your course icons or menu around
  themes or concepts
• Present a good mix of links to resources and
  information on each course page
• Stage the release of content with selective
  adaptive release
• Directly link to podcasts, recorded lectures and
  other forms of media through Bb Power Links,
  Building Blocks Partners

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• Incorporate authentic and active learning
• Authentic learning real world activities that
  require students to work through the practical
  application of a concepts
• Active learning learning activities that
  actively engage students with materials, through
  class discussions, group tasks, and other
  instructional activities

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• 2. Incorporate authentic and active learning in
  Blackboard
• Build role plays with selective/adaptive release,
  discussion boards and chat sessions
• Use discussions to have student-led presentations
  of problems solutions
• Ask questions that allow for student dialogue
  opinion to flourish
• Have students answer open-ended questions
• Use chat sessions and virtual classrooms to
  brainstorm ideas or debate issues, as a class or
  in smaller groups
• Lead sessions with no more than three goals
• Have students recap/summarize after each goal is
  addressed

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• 3. Assess directly and indirectly both student
  performance and course success
• Always question the success of the learners
  themselves and the learning environment. Employ
  just-in-time teaching

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• 3. Assess directly and indirectly both student
  performance and course success in Blackboard
• Tools for assessing learners the learning
  environment
• Assignments
• Journals
• Surveys
• Self Peer Assessment
• Quizzes Tests
• Performance Dashboard
• Early Warning System
• Grade Center
• Course Statistics

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• 4. Encourage and reward student collaboration and
  social learning
• Students want to interact with one another.
• Students will learn from one another.
• Students seek identity within any learning
  experience.

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• 4. Encourage and reward student collaboration and
  social learning in Blackboard
• Promote ownership of discussion forums or chat
  sessions by students
• Utilize blogs to encourage open reflection
• Ensure your blogging activities do not ask the
  same questions as discussions or in-class
  activities
• Clearly incorporate student collaboration in
  grading rubrics or formulas
• Utilize the new group features of Release 9 to
  foster group interaction

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How do we measure student engagement?
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• Direct measurement
• Observations of in-class/online student activity
• Usage reports
• Student interviews
• Student surveys
• Course evaluations
• Institutional benchmarking (e.g. NSSE)
• Indirect measurement
• Student longitudinal academic performance
• Student retention
• Student satisfaction

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Questions?
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