Engage students through purposeful active learning
Student engagement is best achieved through meaningful collaboration rather than constant activity. Inquiry-based activities foster community and encourage deep learning in your online course. Group work and discussions can be invaluable, especially when you have aligned them with learning objectives.
Why this matters
Why this matters
Prioritize and elevate active learning experiences in your course by connecting them to important learning milestones. Make sure to tell students why you’re asking them to interact. A direct and proactive approach encourages students to invest the process. Provide guidance to groups for establishing roles, norms, and expectations so they can manage unexpected disruptions and take ownership of the learning process.
How it helps
Facilitating online discussions strategically with a "light touch" allows you to surface common misperceptions and elevate student insights and contributions while maintaining your teaching workload. When helping groups, offer students a sample group contract that they can customize and sign once they have reached consensus. This helps students navigate unexpected disruptions, mirroring real-world work processes.
Take the Next Step
Take the next step
How do your group guidelines and discussion prompts invite students to actively apply concepts together and reflect on their learning?
The TEACH: INVENTORY provides personalized self-paced online training recommendations based on your experience facilitating online courses.
TEACH: Inventory
Where can I learn more?
Browse the Online Course Essentials for fostering community to deepen and expand learning. View an Online Course Model from an Iowa instructor about using online collaborative documents to facilitate meaningful, interactive learning experiences.