Student Engagement and Interaction
Explore tips and strategies to facilitate learner-content interaction, learner-learner interaction, learner-instructor interaction, and learner-technology interaction.
As one of the most critical elements in learning, interaction has been identified as a function for increasing learner motivation, satisfaction, participation, communication, and achievement. It is important to dedicate sufficient time to designing opportunities for students to reflect, share, and demonstrate their learning.
Types of Interaction
Moore (1989) identified three types of interactions that are important for learning: learner-content interaction, learner-learner interaction, and learner-instructor interaction.
Learner-Content Interaction
Ask yourself: How will my students interact with the course content? Beyond reading, listening to/viewing lectures, what will students actually DO with the course content?
Below are some strategies to increase learner-content interaction:
- Use a range of media to enhance learning (text, images, videos, advanced organizers, etc.)
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Offer various activities for students to engage with course content.
- Employ strategies to gauge students’ prior knowledge. All students enter your class with personal experience, beliefs, and opinions. This is known as “prior knowledge”.
- Use supplemental resources to encourage students’ engagement. Supplemental resources refer to any non-required instructional materials which can be a powerful tool in your course. Supplemental resources aren’t only limited to encouraging exploratory or additional learning. You can also include supplemental resources in your course to help students who might struggle or need additional support.
- Ensure accessibility of course content and materials.
Learner-Learner Interaction
Increased learner-learner interaction helps decrease the psychological distance and thus increase social presence of distance students.
Ask yourself: How will my students interact with other students? How can I foster a sense of community in my course? How can I provide the opportunity for my students to collaborate and think critically?
Below are some strategies to increase learner-learner interaction:
- Include activities that help establish supportive and caring social connections. For example, you can create an icebreaker activity for a class and then encourage students to participate for social interaction.
- Create shared space to encourage sharing. For example, create discussions in Canvas to extend and supplement interaction in the class.
- Include student-student interaction-based activities. Depending on the size of your class, you can encourage student-student interaction class-wide or in smaller groups or pairs. Examples include: peer review assignments, role playing, collaborative brainstorming, etc. Need more ideas about online student-student interaction-based activities?
Learner-Instructor Interaction
Learner-instructor interaction includes both formal direct instruction and more informal mentoring and support. The purpose is to motivate, stimulate, and facilitate activities and strategies.
Ask yourself: How will my students be able to interact with me? How will I motivate my students? How will I facilitate effective and meaningful discussions? How will I guide my student learning and accommodate different student learning styles?
Below are some strategies to increase learner-instructor interaction.
- Record introduction videos, which can serve as a welcome message for online students.
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Provide students with timely, informative and frequent feedback on assignments and assessments that encourages student reflection.
- Present opportunities for student questions, comments, or ideas.
- Post announcements in the Canvas course.
- Respond to student posts on discussion boards in Canvas.
- Provide in-person or online office hours. Office hours give students the opportunity to ask in-depth questions and to explore points of confusion or interest that cannot be fully addressed in class.
- Ask students for feedback, e.g., “What has been most useful to you in this course so far?” or “What were some concepts that you didn’t feel you fully understood?”
Learner-Technology Interaction
Recently, some researchers suggested that emerging technologies in online learning necessitate a fourth type of interaction: learner-technology interaction. Technologies differ greatly in their potential to foster interaction in terms of level and functions. We need to use the right tool for the job.
Ask yourself: How will my students interact with the technology? Do they have the access and skills to use the technology? Does the technology serve my course goal?
In the article “How to Determine the Best Technology for Your Students, Your Course and You” from Faculty Focus, Mary Bart offers some insights on what to consider when making technology decisions. According to Tony Bates, an elearning and distance education planning and management consultant, “The key is, … think about the technology choice before designing the course. […] Too often instructors get halfway through the course and then start making decisions about the technology when that should have been thought about at the beginning so that it can be properly integrated.”
Don’t get overwhelmed by technology. You can provide effective interaction with basic tools as long as they are well structured and support student towards learning outcomes. For example:
- Tools built into Canvas, such as Discussions, Peer Review assignments, and Groups
- Breakout Rooms, Polls, Chat, Annotations features in Zoom
- Poll Everywhere, an online polling platform that allows students to vote on custom polls in real time
Engaging Students in Large Enrollment Courses
While engaging students can be challenging in any class, it can be especially difficult for large classes. In the following videos, senior instructional designers Dr. Wei Li from the Office of Learning Technology and Jeniffer Obando from WebCampus explore how we can combat some obstacles to student participation in large enrollment courses. Leaning on Dr. Maryellen Weimer's synthesis (pp. 12-13), which analyzes a recent study that tests common hypotheses about the nature of student participation, Wei and Jeniffer discuss different instructional strategies and technologies that can help increase student engagement.
Part 1: Why Students Are Reluctant to Participate (Length: 06:27)
Part 2: Teaching Large Classes (Length: 12:33)
Want to know more? Check out our recent workshop, Promoting Students Engagement in Large Enrollment Courses (Length: 45:42).
Supplemental Resources
References
- Anderson, T. (2003b). Modes of interaction in distance education: Recent developments and research questions. In M. G. Moore & B. G. Anderson (Eds.), Handbook of distance education (pp. 129-144). London, UK: Lawrence Erlbaum.
- Maryellen, W. (2013). Tips for encouraging student participation in classroom discussions. Faculty Focus. https://www.facultyfocus.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/TipsClassParticipation-TP.pdf
- Mcdaniel, R. (2020, February 22). Teaching Large Classes. Vanderbilt University. https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/teaching-large-classes/
- Moore, M. G. (1989). Editorial: Three types of interaction. American Journal of Distance Education, 3(2), 1-6.
- Online Learning Consortium. (2015). Ten Ways to Overcome Barriers to Student Engagement Online. OLC. https://onlinelearningconsortium.org/news_item/ten-ways-overcome-barriers-student-engagement-online/
- Shaw, A. (2020, January 31). Using Supplemental Resources in the Online Classroom. Center for Teaching and Learning | Wiley Education Services. https://ctl.wiley.com/using-supplemental-resources-online-classroom/
- Student-Centered Remote Teaching: Lessons Learned from Online Education. (2020). EDUCAUSE. https://er.educause.edu/blogs/2020/4/student-centered-remote-teaching-lessons-learned-from-online-education
- Shaw, A. (2020, January 31). Using Supplemental Resources in the Online Classroom. Center for Teaching and Learning | Wiley Education Services. https://ctl.wiley.com/using-supplemental-resources-online-classroom/
- Types of Interaction: IU - Teaching Online. (n.d.). Indiana University. https://canvas.ucdavis.edu/courses/34528/pages/types-of-interaction?module_item_id=4974
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