Tips for Students to Get More Engagement in Virtual Coursework

All educators would recognize that a high-quality learning environment is essential for student participation. Not all agree on what student participation entails, or how to accomplish it. If you create tiny online discussion groups, you remove not just the shuffling of chairs and wasted time of moving people around, but also much of the uncomfortable social dance that human beings do when they seek to find their place in a new community. We find that collaborative group work to be done by a dissertation writing service, builds deep team bonding in relatively short periods of time.

Communicate In Multiple Formats:
Online education offers several ways for students to interact with teachers. Course email and discussion boards tend to be common networking devices, but don't forget embedded audio and video, chat rooms or instant messaging, text message broadcasts, and home page advertising. Explanatory screencast videos tend to receive students well and are becoming increasingly simple.

Provide Active Learning Opportunities:
A common misunderstanding about studying online is that students sit only in front of their computers. This may be valid if the course is structured during this approach, however a technique to have interaction on-line learners is to induce them out of their chairs (or beds) and involve them in active learning. One concept of active learning is "hands-on learning," but this may include "hands-on mouse". Assign the online students to interview or otherwise introduce their learning to the culture they live in. Case studies, community initiatives or local data collection and analysis are only a few of the many examples of active learning.

Make Learning Social:
Most teachers look at social media as a means of freshening up their courses and involving students in topical education. Try adding a Twitter badge to your course homepage and then use a hashtag to drive your students through tweets with course-relevant content. If used effectively, social media may help create a sense of community in the classroom among students and between students and teachers

Gamify with Badges and Certificates:
There are several ways you can add gamification elements to online courses without going the distance from start to finish (which was done by a few visionary educators) to create a complete game-based learning experience. Consider adding badges to your course as a more moderate move, to acknowledge student accomplishments along the way. Badges that are awarded based on the accomplishment of particular skills may be provided as a way to reward student success and promote continued participation.

Provide Prompt and Helpful Reviews:
Feedback to the students about their success is extremely necessary for the effort to keep the learning process engaged. Fast responses to forum posts and email questions will help keep students on track for the next assignment or activity. Time spent on evaluation marking will also have an effect on potential student efforts. Students will never have to participate in the next assessment without providing input on the previous assessment. Comprehensive, constructive feedback in nature appears to be more powerful than weak praise or vague messages.

Interact:
If you're commenting on a document as it's being drafted online, falling into a chat room or simply remembering students in live sessions, make the journey with them. This atmosphere is very suitable for "the guide on the sides constructivist position. Let them know that you are not just looking at you, you are looking at them.

Add Room For Self-Assessment:
Provide self-assessment tools for assignment writing, encouraging students to take greater responsibility for their own learning. It can be a motivating and often humbling experience to rate their own discussion posts or to provide feedback for their score for course attendance. An e-Portfolio or learning plan based on the course can be used to allow students to develop their learning plans while defining their expectations for various methods of evaluation.

Improve Usability of All Courses:
This last category isn't one that is usually recognized when considering the value of student participation. However, student participation can be decreased for everyone when the content of the course is presented in such a way as to cause online usability problems. Whether or not a student depends on assistive technology, providing course materials that do not pose obstacles to learning is an ongoing requirement for online education students. Taking small steps towards enhancing the usability of course materials is a good idea for educators to engage regularly, daily.

Unlike a real classroom online students are living different lives in different locations. Encourage them to share these distinct experiences and encourage them to film for their course work on these experiences.