How To Engage Students In Online Learning

The completion rate of online courses ranges between 5% and 15%, much lower than traditional course enrollment. Online learners face multiple challenges that keep them from maintaining focus.

From personal factors to social distractors, you must solve these problems to keep your online students fully engaged. In this article, we will focus on ways in which you can increase student engagement in your online course.

So, how do I make people engaged in learning online?

Study the tips below to learn how you can keep your online students engrossingly involved in your learning course:

1.  Use Multiple Platforms to Communicate

An unlimited advantage of online learning is the versatility to employ a variety of technological avenues when communicating with students.

Besides the commonly used email and discussion websites forums, consider making use of other platforms such as podcasts, videos, and instant messaging applications to teach.

Applying various learning means in online learning allows students to engage in different ways that they find themselves most comfortable. Consequently, they acquire more learning experience as compared to traditional learning methods.

2. Build a Community of Learners

Students can increase their engagement if they learn from each other. Conducting peer reviews and group discussions helps keep them engrossed in learning processes since they can draw confidence and motivation from within themselves.

Therefore, to keep learners engaged in your online learning course, create a cooperative environment and encourage students to make use of discussion-based features on sites that support collaborative learning. Also, urge them to support one another and work together.

Vonza is a platform that allows you to create and launch your online course, and also run it in a very simple and hassle-free way.

3. Segment your Lesson Plans

Segment your Lesson Plans into Shorter Sequences…

If your student engagement is too low, it is crucial to rethink the format of your lectures. Allow your students to direct their focus and concentration on a single concept by breaking down lesson plans into 15 or 20-minute segments.

Besides letting you summarize the key points for your learners, students find shorter lesson plans easily digestible and help to keep them focused and engaged.

4. Encourage Interactive Learning

If students can see you while you teach, chances are that they will get more engaged than when being taught by a ghost tutor.

Present your best self by letting your students see you through a webcam. Ensure you and your environment look presentable to eliminate distractions.

Also, make sure you mix the tempo and tone of your voice and incorporate storytelling techniques to impart them with knowledge.

More importantly, your internet connection should be strong. Faulty connection discourages learners and eventually reduces student engagement.

5. Make Your Courses Accessible on Mobile

More than 52% of the world’s population are mobile phone users. Significantly, it is important to create courses that are compatible with mobile phones, considering that 70% of web traffic happens on mobile devices. Deconstruct all barriers that can prevent a student from accessing your course.

Since online students want to enjoy the convenience of taking up classes at their flexibility, providing them easier accessibility on mobile phones increases their engagement. This is mainly because they won’t require to be in a particular place to take up a class.

With Vonza, you can build an online course that caters to all the needs of your online education while offering students 24-hour access.

6. Track Student Performance and Offer Interactive Support

With advanced video analytics tools, you can identify struggling students and accord them the assistance they might need. The key metrics to take note of include the following:

·   Which students watch learning videos?

·   How much has a student been keenly following your video classes?

·   When do your students watch these videos; is it instantly the moment the lesson takes place or just before sitting for an examination?

·   Which students interact actively in discussion forums?

To motivate your learners, you can reward active participators. Students who don’t give much concentration to their lessons might be facing a challenge. Approach them to understand their setbacks and offer necessary assistance.

Constant communication with students allows you to conduct self-assessment sessions with your students. Moreover, it enhances interactive engagement in online learning since it helps learners become aware of the supportive presence of their instructor.

7.   Use Gamification Elements

Gamification refers to the use of gaming techniques and designs to teach in non-gaming contexts. They include implementing points into student participation, badges and other elements that encourage motivation and engagement.

According to a study, 95% of online students enjoy using gamification elements to study. This is because a gamified learning program provides students with a sense of progress; everyone likes to top the leaderboard.

However, gamification strategies should be implemented carefully and sparingly. You don’t want your learners to forget what their actual purpose is – learning. Design strategies that prevent them from rushing through the course just to earn points or win badges.

Final Takeaway

Taking up an online course is not hard; the real challenge is keeping up with the studies engagingly. As a course seller, therefore, it is crucial to strategize on ways of making your students intrinsically engrossed in your online course.

With the tips above, you can increase student engagement in your course magnanimously. Explore Vonza’s amazing tool that lets you create incredible courses!

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