Tips to Engage Students in Remote Learning
Remote learning has already made waves in the education system, and we'll never go back, thankfully. Online learning offers a lot of opportunities for working students and students with disabilities and increases student engagement overall. However, if you're finding it hard to adapt to the new learning methods, you should read on about the benefits of remote learning for students, tips for remote learning for students, and how to engage students in remote learning.
What Are the Benefits of Remote Learning for Students?
There are many benefits to remote learning. Some of them are:
Accessibility: remote learning allows students of different circumstances (students with disabilities, immunocompromised, or with family and work obligations) to attend classes and not fall behind on schoolwork.
Social anxiety reduction: not attending classes in person can help students with social anxiety to be more comfortable and engage more during lectures.
Flexible schedules: remote learning has opportunities for synchronous and asynchronous classes and assignments, which helps students be ahead of deadlines.
Increase in student engagement: with teachers putting interactive presentations and infographics, their students can understand the subject matter more thoroughly and engage more during class.
Building lifelong skills: remote learning relies on technology and communication skills, which help students prepare for the skills necessary in the workforce.
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Best 12 Tips to Engage Students in Remote Learning
Though remote learning comes with many benefits, a drawback is that students can't adapt easily to remote learning and hesitate to speak up, thus can't engage during class. However, there are many tips and tricks teachers can adapt to create a more inviting space for their students. Below, you'll find the best tips for remote learning that are bound to increase student engagement.
Prepare and test everything beforehand
Because remote learning is dependent on internet connections and the devices you and students use, as a teacher, you should prepare and test everything beforehand to make sure there aren't any technical difficulties during class. You should make sure to have backup plans and be able to sort out problems with ease. However, a lot of things are out of our control, so it is important to be mutually understanding that even after planning each detail, things can go wrong; this will help strengthen the teacher-student bond.
Be consistent
Change is overwhelming, which is why teachers should promote consistency from the beginning. Students will be more inclined to engage if they have a clear idea of their teacher's teaching style and expectations. They'll feel more connected to the teacher and the subject matter and have the stability every student needs.
Be flexible
An important trick to more student engagement is creating a warm atmosphere for your students, where they feel comfortable sharing their opinions and engaging with the subject material. That can be accomplished when teachers take a flexible approach to student participation, pushing deadlines for assignments and exams, and allowing asynchronous activities and participation among students.
Meet more often for shorter periods of time
While this tip is harder to apply, you can try dividing the hour-long class into two 30-minute parts or three 20-minute parts during the week. This tip serves well for more difficult subjects as it helps retain information better and allows students to reflect on the topic discussed. However, this depends on the age and availability of your students.
Set expectations from the start
Though you should always focus on teaching for engagement and not coverage when structuring your lectures, you should set clear expectations about:
What your students should know by the end of the semester,
What percentage of engagement students can accomplish, and
How can they apply the new information in their field of study.
Another set of expectations should be that you grow as a teacher as well. Being open with your students and sharing those expectations with them allows you to build connections and work together towards a common goal.
Use technology to your advantage
Though remote learning primarily relies on technology, taking advantage of technological tools allows teachers to make the learning process more interactive and increase student engagement with the subject matter. Tools that teachers can use are whiteboards, drawing tools, breakout rooms, virtual games, or sites like Voki and StoryBird that allow students to respond to content interactively.
Become familiar with all the features of the platform
Whether you're using Google Classroom, Zoom, or other platforms, you should explore all features of the platform you're using and be able to navigate and solve technical problems easily. For example, you can use Google Classroom for features like:
The Assignment Calendar to keep track of assignments,
The Work Area to serve as a task list and keep track of what's finished and what's not,
The Share to Classroom Chrome extension to share screens, create assignments, and make announcements.
Limit lecturing
The days of passive learning when students had to listen to a lecture without breaks or interactive sections are over. Nowadays, it's recommended the teacher take the approach of a "lead learner" or leading students to be more curious and interactive during the learning process.
A great approach is also to divide your lecture time into sections:
15 minutes for introducing the topic,
10 minutes to read the material,
20 minutes to discuss in small groups, and
15 minutes to discuss the topic with the whole class.
Integrate discussions on hot topics
A bulletproof method for engaging students and helping them retain the subject matter better is initiating discussions on hot topics during class. You should consider devoting a section of the class (10—15 minutes) to discussing hot topics, asking questions, expressing ideas, and viewing things from a different perspective. You can initiate discussions by asking questions or creating polls.
Provide self-assessment tools
Another useful pointer is providing students with self-assessment tools. Students who can self-assess are more motivated and independent, as the student monitors and takes responsibility for their learning efforts. Self-assessment also allows students to engage more with the subject material, see what they need to improve upon, and find out what gaps to fill. Some self-assessment tools you can use are learning journals, portfolios, rubrics, scripts, etc.
Personalize goals
Every student has a unique approach to how they learn and practice new information and what they take away from a class, which is something teachers should keep in mind when planning lectures. You can ask students how they would solve problems and apply theories to practice. Student engagement depends on students feeling confident that the information they're getting is important and useful.
Divide into breakout rooms
If you're using Zoom for presenting, a useful feature is the ability to divide the meeting into breakout rooms, which you can divide from two up to 50 rooms. This feature helps teachers open discussions, group students, and allow each student to collaborate and engage more than they could in a larger meeting. However, you should keep in mind that this feature isn't free, so you should check with your school or district for financing.
Conclusion
Teachers have a lot of responsibilities, and to top them off, they have to keep students engaged with the topics discussed, no matter the format and location. That's why we should always be grateful for the tireless work and effort they put in for their students.