I am continually seeking new ways to engage my online learners. Our challenge is a bit different than f-t-f classes. Our students are sitting in a room, by themselves, working on their class work. My classes are all computer applications, Microsoft and Adobe products, so most all of it is hands on following the steps in a textbook. Here are some of the things I do to help keep their interest.
Whenever I find an online article that relates to my classes, I post it in the discussions. In Excel, articles about budgeting get a lot of attention. In Photoshop, articles about manipulating photos (to misrepresent), get the most attention. Whenever I find a job posted in my local paper for a job related to my classes, I try to remember to scan it, and share with the class.
As I had mentioned in a previous post, making the class personal helps a lot. Working through a textbook hour after hour can be tedious work. Breaking it up with personal stories or photos helps to keep their interest. I keep these personal interest items to a minimum, though, so as not to distract them.
Fortunately for all of us, there are a plethora of free videos/tutorials to show students how to do accomplish a task. What a great feature! Have you tried to make your own video? I have and it was not pretty. Some of my preparation time is spent finding just the right video for a particular feature. YouTube is a great resource, but it also can be distracting. My textbooks show step by step instructions, but nothing beats a good video demonstration. We must keep in mind that learning involves many of our senses. Hearing and seeing videos can be very helpful, especially to students that have a hard time focusing on reading.
Discussions where students have to complete a little bit of research on the Internet helps them to be more engaged in the class. I have had negative comments on this as well, but only from students that want to put in the least amount of effort. Most comments are positive for research projects. They are not writing research papers. The task is usually to find a video or article relating to a particular chapter in their textbook. There isn’t just one good textbook that covers everything we may want the students to know in our classes. A bit of research helps them to learn more about their subject or chosen profession.
What are others doing to add interest to their online classes? I welcome comments.
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