6.1 | Overview Transcript
This video will discuss strategies for increasing student engagement in the classroom.
In any course modality, be it face-to-face, online, or hybrid, engaging students requires several levels of consideration. These can include building in opportunities for:
- Student-to-student interaction
- Student-to-instructor interaction, and
- Student-to-content interaction
Furthermore, to help ensure that your efforts regarding successful student engagement are accessible, inclusive, and equally available to all students, the principles of Universal Design for Learning, or UDL, can also provide a helpful framework.
Let’s begin with strategies for student to-student interaction.
To promote the development of meaningful and satisfying relationships in the learning environment, consider integrating the following Canvas tools into your curriculum:
- Discussion Boards
- Group Assignments, and
- Peer Review opportunities
Canvas provides a variety of settings for each of these tools that will allow the instructor to bring the content to life, while providing an outlet for students to interact within the Learning Management System on pertinent course related activities.
To achieve Student to Instructor engagement, the instructor must be actively involved in authentic conversations with students, and must be dedicated to providing timely, quality feedback on student work.
A few Canvas tools that will help instructors have a strong presence in the learning environment are:
- Using Canvas Announcements to keep student abreast of important course information
- Making sure the instructor contact information and preferred methods of communication are clearly identified
- Using Media, be it audio or video recordings, to humanize the instructor’s presence,
- And, using the Canvas SpeedGrader, which has a variety of tools ranging from speech-to-text dictation, integrated rubrics, and annotation tools
The final area of engagement, student-to-content interaction, tasks the instructor with striking a balance between creating a predictable rhythm in the course, thereby providing consistency and ease of navigation from module-to-module, while also giving students opportunities to interact with varied and engaging content.
This is where Universal Design for Learning, or UDL, can be very helpful.
The Universal Design for Learning Framework encourages educators to:
- Provide multiple means of representation
- Provide multiple means of action and expression, and
- Provide multiple means of engagement
Implementing the principles of UDL helps to remove barriers to educational materials for a diverse range of learners. In doing so, instructors recognize that not all learners learn in the same way. Increasing options and flexibility in how students acquire information, express themselves, and engage in learning means more students are able to experience optimal learning conditions, for the benefit of all.
Thank you very much for watching.