The pandemic meant teachers were required to become online teaching experts overnight. While online course design requires more than posting materials, online delivery requires different planning to that of face-to-face classroom delivery. Designing for online interaction requires a skill set that can be developed just like teaching skills. With the corridor casual chats lost, and cameras off or absent, students can hide. They become keyboard warriors, or worse hidden in the ‘cloak of invisibility’.
With no twitches or fidgets, blank faces, or phone scrolling clues to tell us the student is lost or disinterested, there is a risk that teaching becomes a monologue that discourages interaction from even the most extroverted and engaged student or encourages the student to multi-task or even prefer to watch it in triple time at a later date.
I will explore and explain what supports students to interact and leads to behavioural engagement. I explore strategies to create energy for your students to interact online and synchronously with you. This enables all students to participate, not just the outgoing ones. These responses and employing these strategies tell you the student is there, considering what you are saying, and provide feedback to support engaged learning. More importantly it tells the students that there are many voices in the ‘room’ and enables the student to be seen and heard, without turning on a camera or microphone.
Discussions
Think about the most interactive or engaged class you have taught, what was happening and how did it make you feel? Think also about how they might have felt. What strategies do you like to use and how can these translate to online learning?
Please share your thoughts and questions in the comments section below.