8 Ways to Keep Students Engaged during Online Classes

Gone are the days where students couldn’t focus well during online lectures. The below-mentioned tips will help teachers in keeping their online sessions engaging — helping students focus well and learn concepts better.

In the current digital era, e-learning has changed the landscape of the education ecosystem. Online classes have now become a common practice in schools. So, to ensure that the students are completely engaged during an online class, teachers can use these 8 tips to their advantage.

1) Create a Team-Based Learning Ecosystem

As we all know, students miss the classroom learning environment. They miss being around their classmates and groups.

Even research by Stanford indicates, ‘Team-based learning increased course completion of students by 16x. So, teachers should focus on using some team-building exercises such as storytelling, improv games, virtual scavenger hunts, and more during the online lectures to get maximum student engagement.

2) Use Multiple Enabling Tools

The days are long gone when only one mode of teaching was practiced. Even complete text-based teaching is outdated and a part of the traditional learning ecosystem. Today, in the era of digital learning, a blend of text, images, PPTs, polls, videos, graphs and more is practiced. These practices are important as they significantly improve the engagement of students during online classes.

3) Provide Bite-Sized, Spaced Learning

According to studies conducted by experts, an average attention span of a student in the lecture is between 10–15 minutes. Therefore, the course content should be staggered in an easy to learn and easy to follow manner. For reference, during a 30-minute lecture, you can divide the time as below:

10 min — Teaching theory via PPT

10 min — Playing quizzes and word games to enable practice

5 min — Play a short video strengthening the concepts taught in the lecture

5 min — Wrap up the session with doubt resolution

4) Practice Multilingual Teaching

This practice can really help you gain a student’s interest. During a lecture, try switching between the study group’s common languages. For reference, switch between English and Hindi language (if all the students are familiar with both). This will grab students attention and keep them engaged because of the novelty in the content delivery.

5) Add anActionable Approach to Your Teaching

Don’t let learning be only one way. Whatever you teach, add a call-to-action to it and ask your students to take action at that moment itself. These actions could be to ask students to -

• Offer examples for a topic
• Solve numerical problems
• Participate in an online poll
• Write an opinion piece or short essay
• Conduct group activity with fellow students

Furthermore, we conducted a survey where one of our teachers, Ms. Trina Bhattacharya from the Amanora School, said, ”I initiated a group discussion to make students understand the concept of archaeological sources of History properly.”

6) Inculcate the Spirit of Competition among Students

Teachers should use levers like awarding points and badges, display leaderboards, etc., for learning purposes. Students love this competition-based learning as these rewards give them a sense of achievement. They feel that their hardwork and dedication has been recognized.

A recent study suggests that ‘67% of students found gamified learning more motivating and engaging than traditional courses.’

7) Offer Virtual Enrichment

With the advent of digital learning, a plethora of information and apps are available online. So, why not use them to your advantage? You can use the web to keep your students intrigued in educational games, science experiments, online puzzles, and art projects. This will create a sense of competition and keep them interested throughout the session. You can refer to these websites and apps for the same:

1. https://www.funbrain.com/
2. http://interactivesites.weebly.com/
3. https://www.abcya.com/
4. http://www.hellokids.com/
5. https://www.learning4kids.net/
6. https://www.starfall.com/h/

Moreover, In a survey conducted by Toppr, Ms. Moumita Laha from the Tattva School added, “To generate high engagement from students, over the last one year, I regularly used EdTech tools like Padlet, Kahoot Quiz, Quizizz and YouTube videos. They were really helpful.”

8) Provide In-Depth Reviews and Self-Assessment Opportunity

Students really value a teacher’s feedback. A study shows that effective feedback dramatically accelerates a learner’s growth — equivalent to 8 additional months of in-class time per year.

Similarly, a teacher should provide opportunity for students to self assess themselves and reiterate their performance, goals and action plans. This will give them confidence and further build trust with the teacher — leading to higher interest and engagement in your classes.

To learn more about Toppr School OS, email us at school-os@toppr.com. You can also book a free product demo here.