The truth is that eLearning requires different sets of skills from instructors than those used in an ordinary classroom.

6 strategies to engage the student in online education

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the growth of the eLearning market worldwide, this is undeniable.

If distance learning was already a strong trend in higher education and qualification courses, with the rules of social distancing adopted, this teaching method gained place in schools as well.

– Impact of the pandemic on education

Currently, although the situation is starting to normalize in many places, with face-to-face activities taking place again, the opportunity for distance learning remains, leading more teachers to create online classes.

However, one of the great challenges of this teaching format undoubtedly refers to the completion rates of online courses.

With the home environment surrounded by distractions, engaging students, keeping them motivated and interested, can be one of the biggest challenges teachers face. 

The question the vast majority of professionals ask is, “How can I make the online classroom experience more exciting for my students?” 

Luckily, there are plenty of tips and strategies to help you with this question. 

1. Make a great presentation 

If your students can see you in video lessons, make sure you and your location are presentable.  

Tip: A simple background it works best to eliminate any distraction. 

Everyone knows that video lessons are the big audience favorites. When the student can see the teacher, he is able to establish a relationship with him, and feels more motivated to pay attention to what is being said. 

The image of the teacher gives the student the feeling that he is not alone, and that he has someone to turn to in case of doubt. This feeling of security is fundamental in distance learning.

In addition, the material presented must be perfect. Make sure that your slides look clean and clear and that all videos you create and use are of good quality.

Audio

Avoid keeping the same tonality at all times so as not to make the lesson tedious. Use different intonations to give more rhythm to the speech.

Practice your storytelling skills. The storytelling is a commonly used feature in presentations to be effective in capturing the attention of the public and allow them to create a connection with what is being said. 

And again, make sure the audio quality is excellent. Ensuring your audience hears you clearly is critical in online courses.

Nothing will make students lose interest faster than hard-to-understand audio. 

– Record Audio: common problems and how to avoid them

2. Use technology to your favore

Teaching online brings its challenges, but also raises a number of interesting tools at your fingertips. 

Virtual games, text editors, drawing tools, file editors, videos, memes, podcasts, screen sharing tools, all these and more can be used to engage the student. 

The technology is definitely in your favor, but first of all, learn to use it so as not to compromise your results. Then think about how you can apply it to liven up your lessons. 

For example, you can use fun rewards to attract students, or promote quizzes and other games as a way to test knowledge. Use your creativity! 

– Tips for using technology in education  

3. Set goals 

Another way to engage the student and encourage them to continue their online learning is to set goals and track their progress.

How to set goals in eLearning

A simple way to introduce short-term goals into your online classroom is to ensure that each lesson presents an outline of the path to be taken and the goals to be achieved.

Share this outline with your students so they know where they are in the learning process and how far away they are from reaching the goal.

Then think about how you can reward students for completing assignments during a class.

You can experience positive feedback, points, or other rewards and recognition that your students would like. In an online gastronomy course, for example, the prize for completing a module could be winning an original recipe from the teacher, or a private lesson to answer questions.

How to keep track of the student progress

As we noted earlier, students feel more motivated when they feel they are not alone in the course and that someone cares about their learning.

Even in distance learning, there are different ways to be present and show that you are interested in your students’ progress. Be sure, for example, to create continuity between lessons by doing quick reviews or quizzes on previous topics.

Elearning platforms, such as Coursify.me, have features that allow you to track the progress of each person enrolled in the course, evaluating their performance. This helps a lot when giving feedback and identifying where users are having the most difficulty.

Sometimes there are lessons that need to be revised so that they are more understandable and attractive to the student. Either way, you can discover points of difficulty and include support materials that aid learning, or even offer a more personalized service by calling students with difficulty to a live class, where they can ask questions.

All of this helps to engage the student as it shows that you are really interested in the experience they are having and the results they are achieving. 

Take advantage of this follow-up to show them how far they’ve come and point out everything they’ve already achieved. 

– Features of an eLearning platform

4. Create interactive lessons

In a face-to-face class, it is common to give students some quiet reflection time to work alone or read a text. But these types of activities don’t work well in online classrooms.

Long, dense text is difficult to read on a screen, and silence provides the perfect excuse for a student’s attention to stray elsewhere.

Instead of text, the best way to keep the student’s attention is certainly through videos in which you appear speaking and using resources that facilitate learning and make the class more interesting and interactive.

If the subject is long and complex, break it down into modules and short videos. So, in addition to not losing the viewer’s attention, you give them time to assimilate what they’ve learned. 

–  Know how to record videos at home

Planning activities that give practice a chance, keep your students actively clicking, typing or interacting during class is another way to go. 

You can do this by using quizzes, assessments, passing on projects to be developed, including games, and making sure students have to physically do things like prepare a recipe, record a video, write a text, and any other task related to the theme of the class.

5. Break up the lesson and make it digestible 

Individual attention span is especially crucial when teaching online, and you may find that you need to break up your lessons differently than you would with face-to-face.

As a general rule of thumb, it’s a good idea to keep a fast pace and break down information into small, easily digestible chunks such as modules or lessons. 

In practical terms, this means avoiding long explanations and text-heavy slides.

Boosting your classes by mixing a variety of activity types is also a great way to make time fly for your students.

Divide your content into smaller lessons and use different presentation formats, like videos, audios, texts, etc. 

To engage the student, it is necessary, first of all, to make your material easy to understand and follow.

6. Make your students feel valued

The isolation experienced by people studying in online classrooms can be a big factor in making them feel unmotivated. 

They may think that no one will notice or care if they miss a class, or find it too tempting not to take the course if they are feeling tired.

The best strategy online teachers can use to remedy this and engage the student, is to make him feel valued in the virtual classroom. 

How to do this? Here are some suggestions:

• Before starting the course, introduce yourself, talk about you, your experience, why you created the course, what you hope your students will achieve, and why this is important to you.
• Find out about the interests of your students (target audience) and incorporate them into lessons whenever possible.
• Give regular feedback on your students’ performance.
• Always be available to help and answer questions.
• Schedule live classes to make teaching more dynamic and promote interaction between students.
• Create closed groups that promote a community where everyone can comment and discuss their learning and what they are thinking of the lessons.
• Try to be positive, encouraging and present.

Create the best online course and choose the right hosting platform

As it became clear, online teaching requires creativity to engage the student so that he doesn’t end up giving up on classes.

Well-planned courses, with attractive and interactive lessons are essential for this to happen. The next step is to ensure they are easily accessible.

Some online learning environments can be challenging to master at first, which can lead to many people giving up. That’s why choosing the right hosting platform is essential.

Coursify.me is a Learning Management System completely dynamic and customizable, providing all the features you might need.

– What is a Learning Management System

With a friendly and intuitive design, anyone can use the platform, whether as a teacher or student, without needing to understand computing for this.

We offer three plan options for you to decide which best suits your needs.

In addition, we have an online support team ready to assist you with any difficulties.

To learn more, visit our website, test the platform and find out why we are the best option for you to create and sell your online course.

The post Engage the Student: 6 Ways to Make Your Online Lessons More Interesting  appeared first on Blog Coursify.me.