The normalization of online classes during the pandemic has caused a shift from traditional on-campus classes to a hybrid model even after the lockdown ended. In a hybrid system, students are allowed to choose whether to take the courses online or in person, and research shows that student’s motivation to learn increases when they are allowed to learn in their preferred environment. Student motivation is an essential contributor to engagement, as students who are more motivated to learn are more likely to engage during classes. Let’s discuss this further.
Ways to Improve Student Engagement
Student engagement refers to a student’s internal investment in learning. It has three components: emotional, behavioral, and cognitive. The first refers to students’ sense of belonging in the classroom, the second to how invested and attentive they are, and the last to their intrinsic motivation for learning. Consider all three aspects while trying to increase student engagement.
Student engagement is critical to improving performance. Engaged students are 2.5 times more likely to say they got better grades and 4.5 times more likely to be hopeful about their future. Promoting student engagement can be quite challenging in a hybrid setting as the educator must engage both the students taking the class online and in person.
How to Boost Student Engagement
Here are some ways to boost student engagement;
- Interactive Tools
Whiteboards are an essential tool for delivering knowledge in a classroom setting. Still, traditional whiteboards can be challenging to display to virtual students, as the image may be blurry, hindering their ability to learn. Using digital whiteboards instead makes students taking online classes feel more included, and the content displayed can be viewed by both virtual and in-person students with ease.
Other interactive tools that can boost engagement include quizzes and live polls, which help students actively recall what they have learned during the course and provide a break between the lectures.
- Management Software for Tutors
A tutoring management software streamlines tutoring operations, including scheduling, reminders, billing, and attendance, all in one place. By automating these tedious administrative tasks, tutors have more time to focus on building a curriculum personalized to the student’s learning requirements and devising activities that promote active learning and engagement, such as case studies or role plays.
The software also improves communication between learners, educators, and parents by providing a transparent and easy-to-use interface that displays attendance reports, grades, resources, and timetables. This prevents anyone from being left out of the loop and missing important events or reports. It also increases efficiency by encouraging students to take an active role in improving their progress as they have constant access to their academic progress.
Additionally, analytical reports of overall class performance can help tutors understand the strengths and weaknesses in their teaching techniques and strategize accordingly to ensure the needs of both virtual and in-person students are met.
- Non-traditional Teaching Methods
The traditional teaching method focuses on delivering course material through lectures. This is a passive learning method, meaning the students’ primary role is listening to the lectures. This increases the load on students as they have to spend more time internalizing this information than they would with active learning, leading to burnout.
Active learning teaching methods are suited to both virtual and in-person learners, such as problem-based learning, peer teaching, debates, and role plays, where students can be assigned roles so even those who are less active during class can have a chance to engage.
Endnote
Hybrid learning can be challenging when it comes to student engagement as you’re dealing with both on-campus and online students, but using interactive tools, providing clear communication, and leveraging active learning strategies can help bridge the gap between online and in-person learning experiences while boosting engagement at the same time.
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