A Guide To Virtual Engagement

Thanksgiving Break is just around the corner and so is Week 13 of the semester! Having just finished my Micro-Teaching experience where I engaged students from Rockwood High School online, I have been thinking about virtual engagement. As many educators are quite aware after the transition from in-person to completely virtual learning during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the transition took a toll not only on teachers, but also on students. I believe that, while students benefit from variation in instruction, they also thrive on a base structure in their academic lives. When this structure was taken away, teachers expecting virtual student engagement were met with blank screens and muted microphones. So how do we increase virtual engagement? I found a resource from Edutopia that outlines eight tips to boost student engagement in a virtual classroom environment.

Synchronous Strategies

1. Spider Web Discussion
2. Using Chat To Check For Understanding
3. Flip Your Classroom To Stimulate Deeper Discussion
4. Adapting Think-Pair-Share To Zoom
5. A New Twist On Show And Tell

For class sessions where students are virtually present during instruction time, these five strategies prompt students to respond in real time to questions from their teacher, discuss with each other in break out rooms, and to engage using virtual learning platforms. For students who benefit from learning from the comfort of their own homes, strategies were also offered to keep them engaged when it comes time to log off of the Zoom meeting.

Asynchronous Strategies

1. Online Forums To Create Back-And-Fourth Dialogue
2. Virtual Gallery Walks
3. Moving Station Brainstorming

These three strategies, while different from traditional classroom engagement, allow students with internet connection issues and schedule limitations to still engage in classroom activities. It also breaks up the monotony of listening to a teacher and responding to questions by allowing students to explore the work of their peers. 

For those teachers still engaging students in a virtual format, I hope that this resource is helpful. I believe that in many ways, educators have learned tips and tricks to engage their students virtually. When it comes to half virtual engagement and half in-person engagement however, we still have a lot to learn. I hope that, if I end up having to teach virtually for any reason during my Student Teaching Experience, I am able to utilize some of these strategies to keep my students involved and thinking critically about the content we are covering. Check out the link below to read about the engagement strategies listed in this blog!

https://www.edutopia.org/article/8-strategies-improve-participation-your-virtual-classroom 

'Taylor'ed with love,