Do you find it challenging to keep students engaged and on track in your online courses? With the increasing popularity of online learning, pedagogy and course design are more critical than ever before. However, innovative course design and engaging students through a computer screen requires a unique approach.

In the online environment, some student challenges tend to be more prevalent than others, and they can disrupt learning or impede completing coursework on time. Some behavior profiles that online teachers should be aware of include ghosting, negotiable deadlines, procrastination, missed deadlines, freeriders, among others.

But don’t fret; there are ways to support these students and keep them engaged throughout the course.

Interest Sparkers

One technique that can help avoid overwhelming students is opening each lesson of the course week by week, instead of all at once. This way, you can ignite early interest by starting each week with an engaging, naïve task that centers on the course topic but requires no prior knowledge. These tasks can be collaborative, where students work together to solve a problem relevant to the field. After the activity, have the students discuss their reasoning and follow up quickly with individual connections to the new material.

Assign Leadership Roles

Assigning more responsibility to students can also encourage them to engage in their courses and adhere to established deadlines. For instance, use forum discussion leaders that rotate weekly or create a team contract that specifies each student’s role, when and how the group will communicate, and how they will handle conflict. Additionally, students can be made responsible for reading the assigned course material by submitting brief “memos” on the weekly readings whereby they summarize, reflect, and offer a handful of analytical questions.

Mid-Term Evaluation

To boost student success, it’s essential to understand their behavior patterns. A focused midterm evaluation can help in this regard. Students can rank class assignments according to their perceived value, gauge their reading habits, and evaluate their overall engagement in the course. Use this feedback to adjust your course design and delivery methods.

Make Students Feel Connected

Online learners can feel isolated, so it's essential to require proactive contact. Incorporate synchronous individual student and group check-ins via a web conferencing platform. Instructors can also require individual pre-assignments for major course group projects, which detail individual contributions and outstanding questions or concerns. Additionally, adjust deadlines to fall during the workday to encourage more proactive student contact.

Improve Written Work

When student challenges lead to poor-quality written work, you can try examining the structure of the discussion forums. What are the requirements for writing quality in the forum posts and responses to classmates? Another technique that has worked well is intensive peer review, requiring students to critique the work of their classmates using a detailed rubric with required qualitative responses. Additionally, assignments can be scaffolded by linking individual assignments sequentially to build upon each other, with instructor feedback in-between.

Relevance of Work

Students can perform poorly when they don’t see the relevance of their work. In their assignment guidelines, use examples to describe how the skills students will use to complete a given task are transferable to their discipline. Use clear, detailed rubrics to convey evaluation criteria, and communicate the particular value of the key components of the course as a whole.

By using these strategies, you can engage – and retain – students in the online classroom. Remember, engaging students through a computer screen requires an innovative approach, and testing and modification are essential to get it right.