Top Six Online Student-engagement Strategies

There are too many distractions that online learnersfall prey to: social-networking updates, most-watched videos on YouTube, or theforever-trending discounts on eCommerce sites, just to name a few. Keeping learnersfocused and engaged has thus become a key challenge for educators today. Ratherthan using the age-old classroom techniques, here are some newer ways toaddress this issue that I have found make a real difference.

1. Use micro interactions

An ideal micro interaction is one that the learner can completein less than five minutes. Micro interactions can be parts of longer courses, butbroken down into smaller chunks and converted into a series of shortindependent learning modules. Presenting content through micro interactions helpskeep a learner’s engagement level high with a short and to-the–point activity. Beforethe learner’s attention span begins to fall off, the interaction is generally complete.

2. Make it fun

Adding games to online learning enables learners toengage with the subject matter in a different way from book-based learning orpage-turner type courses. Playing games allows learners to apply multiple skillswhile they navigate through content to reach a goal. Learners, regardless oftheir age or gender, almost always have fun and find gaming to be quiteengaging.

3. Pose Challenges

Challenges are a great way to grab learners’ attention andkeep them motivated.  Challenging someoneon her beliefs, or telling her she’s wrong, can often motivate a person toprove her point to you. When a learner is challenged, it puts her at risk and shetends to pay more attention. You definitely need to craft the challenges in away to generate the right kind of motivation in the learner. 

4. Give meaningful feedback

Feedback, whether reinforcing or remedial, encourages learnersto continue learning because they know they are accomplishing something. Givingregular and meaningful feedback motivates a learner to do better. Instead of singleword feedback (“good” or “bad,” “right” or “wrong”), providing informative and detailedfeedback can reinforce the key points of learning. An effective method of providingthis feedback is to incorporate audio, thereby giving a personal touch to thelearning experience.

5. Present your content creatively

With the changing behavior and preferences of learners,it’s time for educators to change their presentation style. Simple bulletlists, or long lines of text with simple images, is no longer going to engageyour learners. You need to present content in a more creative fashion. Insteadof simple text, you could use interactive elements. Some of my favorites for presentingcontent in an interactive fashion include Raptivity’sflipbook, pyramid, drag-drop-sort, and tabs. For exercises, instead of a simpleassessment, you can use games like spin the wheel, a feud game show, or million-dollarquiz style assessments to engage learners in a more creative way.

6. Allow for (learnercontrolled) easy navigation

Mandating that a learner follow the lecturer-definedpath is a sure way to disengage the learner. Instead, allow learners to selecttheir own learning path and traverse the course in the way they prefer. With theproper checks and balances within a course, learners tend to explore thecontent and you have given them the motivation to seek and learn.

Incorporating thesetechniques in your online courses can help online learners become more engagedwith you and the learning content. I would love to know if you follow any othertechniques that could help engage online learners better.