7 Actionable Ways to Enhance Student Engagement in the Virtual Classroom

At the beginning of the year, none of us knew what was waiting ahead of us. You didn’t have the slightest idea that one day you’ll have to bear the grave impacts of the pandemic and pursue virtual teaching. Although the transition from actual to virtual teaching was sudden and daunting, you have made it. But, there are challenges to virtual teaching. One of the biggest challenges of virtual teaching is the ability to engage students.

Student engagement is usually lower in a virtual classroom as compared to an actual classroom. Students may not take online classes seriously and their lack of involvement makes it difficult for you to teach well despite putting your best efforts. So, to begin effective teaching in your virtual classroom, you have to enhance student engagement, and here are 7 actionable ways for the same: 

1. Keep your bonding intact through regular interactions

One of the most essential requirements for student engagement is that you have a strong bonding with them. Being together in the same physical environment naturally kept you connected with your students. But, now things are no longer the same. So, you have to put extra efforts through regular interactions to keep your bond intact with your students. Every morning as you meet them in your virtual classroom, ask them questions like how was their day yesterday? Did they do something unusual? Such questions will open the doorways of two-way communication between you and your students. As a result, they’ll also start listening to you attentively when you are teaching. This way, you can easily enhance your students’ engagement in your virtual classroom. 

2. Set up a code of conduct

Many of your students may be attending online classes while reclining in the bed, in their pajamas, half asleep and half awake. When this happens, their engagement level is bound to remain low. So, to teach well, you have to set up a code of conduct and prevent this from happening any longer. In the code of conduct, you can include things like:

• Bathing and dressing up well before class,  no pajamas or ill-kempt hair
• No attending classes when in bed, sitting on a table and chair is mandatory
• No use of social media during classes

Even if your students wish to keep their cameras off, you should let them know that you can anytime ask any of them to switch their camera on. Knowing this, hopefully, your students will follow the code of conduct with sincerity and their engagement level will increase. 

3. Create a proper teaching background

To give your students a proper classroom like vibe, you should create a proper teaching background. You should try to have a small board at your back, sit on a table, and chair if possible. Along with this, you should also try to decorate your teaching space with small posters having different quotes on them about learning and education. Such things will give your students the impression that they are studying in an actual classroom. As a result, their engagement level will increase and you’ll be able to teach well in your virtual classroom. 

4. Gamification of learning

One simple yet most effective way to enhance student engagement is the gamification of learning. This is true for both actual and virtual classrooms. As every child loves gaming, your students start falling in love with learning when you begin including games in your teaching process. For example, if you are a Biology teacher, you can play Pictionary with your students to help them memorize different biology diagrams. While playing this game, you have to select some students randomly and tell them to draw their favorite diagrams on a sheet. When they are done, they have to show the diagram to the rest of the students, who’ll guess the name of the diagram. With such games, your students devote 100% of their attention to your virtual class. Try to search the internet or devise new games yourself to gamify different lessons. 

5. Teach in small segments with the Pomodoro Technique 

Looking at the screen constantly during the class is usually monotonous for the students. As a result, they start losing their focus after some time. To prevent this from happening, you should try teaching in small segments with the help of the Pomodoro Technique. Ideally, the Pomodoro technique states that you should work for 25 minutes and then take a break for 5 minutes before resuming again. But, you can make the required time adjustments according to the duration of your class. For example, if you take a class for 40 minutes, then you can divide your teaching time into two intervals of 15 minutes each, after which there will be a break for 5 minutes. As you follow this technique, you’ll notice that your students remain highly attentive during both the 15-minute study durations. This happens because the 5-minute break gives them the time to recharge and keep studying well. 

6. Utilize YouTube videos for teaching

It can be really dull for your students to listen to you merely dictating lessons to them in the online class. As a result, their engagement level might remain low. So, to enhance student engagement, you have to make your online classes interesting for them. The best way to do so is to utilize YouTube videos for teaching various concepts. For example, if you have to teach about the Digestive system, show your students a YouTube video on the concept. The video will keep them interested in your class and they’ll stay engaged in learning.

7. Implement the appreciation and reward strategy

Just like all of us, children also love being appreciated. If you appreciate them for something, they’ll keep it up to get appreciated again and again. So, you can utilize appreciation and reward strategy to enhance student engagement in your class, and here is an innovative way to do it:

• Create an Instagram page of your class with the name ‘Shining Stars’ or any similar name you like
• After every class, utilize the last 5 minutes to ask your students what they learned during the class
• Let them raise their hands voluntarily 
• The one who explains the best what was taught in class will get rewarded with his pic displayed as the shining star for the day, on the Instagram page of your class. 

This simple strategy will motivate all your students to stay 100% attentive in your virtual classroom. 

Student engagement is the key to effective teaching in your virtual classroom. Once you succeed in engaging your students well, your efforts will reap fruits in the form of them learning effectively. So, try to work on enhancing student engagement in your class by implementing the different ways mentioned above.

How do you enhance student engagement in your virtual classroom? Share in the comments.

About the Author:

Jessica Robinson finds her peace in penning down intriguing and captivating blogs for her readers. So, she has been creating the finest pieces of content for over a decade while working at ‘The Speaking Polymath’.

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