3 Online learning Strategies to keep your learners engaged

 How do you define engagement? 

Merriam Webster's dictionary defines ‘engagement’ as the act of engaging, the state of being engaged or, in simpler words- being ‘greatly interested.’

Your sessions are online, and you want your learners to stay focussed and engage in the class. But does the traditional disciplinary approach work? If the learners find the session boring, they tune into social media or just leave the class before you even finish saying Instagram! 

This article is all about those little strategies that can help make all the difference. Let us make our learners sit on the edge of their seats like watching a Magic Show while interacting in your session. 

“In a survey conducted among 3089 students from North American higher education students had who were into online learning, 78% of respondents saying online experiences were not engaging and 75% saying they missed face-to-face interactions with instructors and peers” (Source: Research from University of California, engagement in online learning)

Asynchronous or online learning makes it difficult for learners to stay engaged. All the learners need a mentor or peer to interact with and form a supportive relationship. Here are some proven  online learning strategies to keep your learners engaged.

Amp up your online learning game!!!

Content and Engagement:

You can combine different learning media types to create variety - it could be slides, mind maps, quizzes, screencasts and videos. You need to keep the design principles in mind to keep the learners engaged - remember to keep the presentation to be colorful, fun and lively so that the learners grasp easily. The non graded quizzes are a great way to retain student engagement and retention of the attention span. It not only creates interaction but helps in grasping new information better.

You can even provide graded assignments for the learners after completing the entire course or it could be just a module to truly assess how much information they have truly understood and retained. In vidya, you can easily create quizzes in between classes, you can find out who has interacted and who has not. 

Gamification:

Who doesn’t love games? You can award points or fun badges, and make sure it goes on to a leaderboard. This creates a healthy competition but also makes sure to include everyone into such fun games. This needs to acknowledge the learners' performance or achievements but this needs to be in such a way that it doesn’t discourage the underperforming learners. You can check out gamification options here. 

Active learning:

You can assign group projects like making a presentation together on a subject, interviewing people in their community, and break out room activities. This keeps the learners to put their best effort and also grasping the subject matter to the maximum extent. 

Timely feedback:

Feedback is necessary to keep the momentum going. In Vidya, you can create timely feedback to let the learners know where they stand or how they perform even during the live sessions. This makes sure that the learners seriously engage with the sessions to score better. You need to make sure that all the queries and feedback are provided before time so that the learner feels valued. 

You need to also consider the fact that different learners learn in different ways. You can tailor your material in such a way that it suits your student’s needs to provide the best mode to ensure maximum engagement in the live sessions. These online strategies to keep your learners engaged are just scratching the surface. We need to embrace the shift in