NAVIGATING TOOLS/TECHNIQUES FOR STUDENT ENGAGEMENT IN THE ONLINE ENVIRONMENT

 By Maya El Kortbawi

With the abrupt shift from in-person to online teaching, we, teaching assistants (TAs), found ourselves in an unprecedented situation for which we were not prepared, not only because classes moved online but also because teaching in a pandemic has a completely different dynamic! While most of us wished we had received some sort of training (e.g. how to use online platforms and tools, how to deal with the psychological effects of a pandemic on students’ learning, etc…), we all had to cope with the current situation overnight. TAs recurred to a trial-and-error process where tools and techniques were sought for engaging students in the online environment. Despite the barriers brought by the online environment (e.g. distractions at home, technology failure, lack of direct communication between TA and students, absence of hands-on activities in lab/demo classes, etc…), the goal was to minimize its disruption of our students’ education and focus on its advantages (e.g. asynchronous lectures, guest speakers from around the world, etc…). 

This post serves as a collection of tools and techniques for student engagement in the online environment based on the experience of GTC members during Spring, Summer and Fall 2020. It aims to provide new ideas, however, it does not recommend one technique over the other because the success of a technique depends largely on the course topic, the level of the class (undergraduate vs graduate), the students, and the TAs.

Techniques which didn’t work: 

• The TA asked students to share their contact information with their classmates if they wanted to form a study group which led to introvert students being left out.

• The TA asked students to volunteer for answering questions during synchronous lectures which led to long awkward silences and/or the same students always participating.

• Zoom-specific features such as breakout rooms were very common for group assignments but would sometimes lead to students getting off task and/or ahead of others.

• Having too many different platforms and communication channels seemed to overwhelm and confuse students.

 Techniques which worked: 

• The TA asked students to fill a getting-to-know-you survey before the course started.

• The TA assigned an online study hour before the exam, open only for students (no TAs or instructors), to encourage them to study together.

• The TA created polls (e.g. Zoom polls, Poll Everywhere) or quizzes (e.g. PlayPosit) to assess students and find out in which parts of the lecture they needed more help.

• The TA invited students to discussion boards where they would come with questions and have them answered.

• The TA gave participation points for leading a breakout room and then sharing with the rest of the class.

While these techniques may or may not work for all classes, it remains certain that engaging students in the online environment shifts the teaching process from a content-based approach to a student-centered approach and thus improves their retention.