Improving Engagement

Here are a few of the strategies/insights that can be implemented to improve engagement:

1. 1. Rethink adapting a systematic approach while conducting active learning activities. The choice of the learning activity should be in tight alignment with:
      • What do you expect the students to know?
      • What do you expect your students to do?
      • How will they demonstrate what they have learned?
   2. It’s essential for instructors to communicate course expectations clearly, but this is ineffective, if students aren’t ready to understand the message.  Clearly seek acknowledgement expectations and “buy in” for the plan.
   3. Explain how certain activities connect to the real world. The course structure, outcomes, assignments, technologies, and activities should be clear, comprehensive, connected and communicated to increase their self-efficacy and have a purpose. At the beginning of each course or module, it is important to clarify why students are learning that topic and how it is connected to the real world.
   4. Emphasize the creation of digital content by students either individually or collaboratively using both asynchronous and synchronous technologies. Giving choice and freedom provides responsibility and encourages self-directed learning (Rashid and Asghar, 2018; Leslie, 2020). Choice can lead to higher levels of engagement.
   5. Conduct pre-course and mid-semester student surveys.  Both of these survey types can help identify what may work or is working and what is not, at the design level. Feedback at various stages and aspects of the course (instructor, activities, design etc.) can provide themes that facilitators, administrators and design team members should build upon.
   6. Follow short presentations with structured activities. The activity can be in the form of worksheets which can be saved as a study guide.
   7. Transition: In an active learning classroom, an instructor might flip back and forth between group work and whole-class lectures or discussions during a session. The transition can be abrupt and time-consuming, therefore longer active learning sessions often work better, with fewer transitions back to the larger group.
   8. Support the learning activities with material that connects practice and skill development in the real-life context. This is referred to as authentic learning (Davidson et al., 2019). Students should be able to relate to the content and activities if they are based on real-world problems.  This can help students develop as better problem solvers (Merriam and Bierema, 2014).