Engagement Tools for Online Learning

The following are some ideas around engagement in online learning and tools that exist in Canvas to support them. An in-depth workshop exploring these ideas and walking though the tools in Canvas is available for registration at the Canvas Training Center. 

Ideas for Engagement:

Variation

Offering variation in topics students want to learn about is a great way to boost engagement with the material. Encourage them to engage in material they have less experience or background with. 

Expectations

Ask students to set their own expectations and goals. Submit them using a low stakes or ungraded discussion, essay question quiz, or assignment.  

Types of Interactions

Using a combination of interactions with students can encourage every kind of learner and deepen understanding. 

    • Student to teacher (feedback on assignments, participating in discussions, online office hours, mentoring, etc.) 
    • Student to student (group work, peer review, discussions, Kaltura comments. etc)
    • Student to content (learning checks, quizzes, discussions, journaling, etc.)

Evaluating Interactions

    • Consider low stakes assessments/discussions/assignments throughout the course to encourage engagement and feedback opportunities.
    • Consider what would traditionally be synchronous and asynchronous content in a classroom setting. (Use zoom to talk about reactions to content vs lecture, breakout rooms for problem solving, group work for what would be independent homework assignments)
    • Have students control discussions via zoom and have autonomy over a portion of the course.

Pivot when necessary 

It’s fairly easy to change the format in which students are completing assignments, tasks, or submissions. If students are not responding to an element of your course pivot to change the format for submission, timeline, or weather it's a collaborative task.  (ex. ask students to lead sessions, reformat the questions asked, ask for anecdotal information around material vs the answer, discuss how one can get to the "correct answer" in a collaborative session, etc.). 

Canvas Tools that help us with engagement 

      1. Homepage
        1. This isn’t a tool per se,  but it’s a great way to start the course on the right course and let the students know more about you. Include a video introduction, a welcome message, bio, office hours, how to navigate the course, etc. 
          How to Add a homepage (this link takes you to another area of this course)
      2. Discussions 
        1. Start and end modules with low stakes discussions where you ask students to speak to their own experiences, anecdotes, thoughts, and even guesses about the material. Encourage multiple mediums to participate (video, audio, text, etc).
        2. Create an ungraded student Forum to allow students to ask each other questions first.
        3. Allow liking in discussions to generate participation and reward popular posts from students as well as responses to other students.
        4. Model the posts you want to see. Engagement in the discussion as the instructor will help keep the conversation going. Don’t set it and forget. 
          How to Add a Discussion (this link takes you to another area of this course)
      3. Zoom 
        1. Use Chat during Zoom to allow students to ask questions to each other as well as you.
        2. Ask students to use the meeting reactions or raise their hand to respond during lectures (reactions disappear after 10 seconds)
          How to Use Zoom in Canvas (this link takes you to another area of this course)
          Recorded Zoom workshop Links to an external site. (this link takes you to a recorded zoom workshop in a different course)
      4. Quizzes 
        1. Use quizzes for low stakes learning checks in modules and provide feedback or don’t count toward final grade (this can be done by creating a practice quiz or change the category of the quiz to a new one worth 0% of the final grade)
        2. Use quizzes for feedback throughout the course. This can be done by creating surveys in Canvas. 
          How to Add a Quiz (this link takes you to another area of this course)
      5. Peer Review 
        1. Offers Feedback from different perspectives
        2. Revisions to improve quality of work 
        3. Non-grading rubric can be applied to any assignment, graded or not. 
          How to Add Peer Review ((this link takes you to the Emergency Remote Teaching course)
      6. Piazza 
        1. Allow students to ask questions and have their peers answer.
        2. Several layers of anonymity as well
      7. Kaltura 
        1. Allow students to upload videos to the Media Gallery for presentations and allow for commenting for additional feedback.  Can be done in a discussion as well. 
          How to Add desktop recordings for presentations (this link takes you to another area of this course)
      8. Give students our contact information
        1. teaching@rice.edu
        2. 713-348-4357