Course Remote Delivery: Engagement and Community Building

May 18, 2020 | Just In Time Resources

The following information provides strategies on how to promote student engagement and build community in your course. Research indicates that students achieve more when they actively engage with the course content, their instructor, and other students. We’ve outline some engagement and humanizing strategies to help you do just that below.

Strategies to Implement This Week Engagement with Course Content   

Recommendation: Encourage active learning with activities to optimize the student experience with course content and reinforce learning outcomes.

  1. Develop assignments that promote reviewing, researching, or reflecting on the course content.
  2. Provide opportunities for students to work on project-based assignments or open-ended projects with flexible topics.

Engagement with Instructor   

Recommendation: Enhance your presence in the course and regularly be available through office hours.

  1. Invite and respond to questions through Canvas inbox and announcements.
  2. Use Zoom polls, chat, and raise hand features.
  3. Use questioning techniques to promote deeper learning.
  4. Provide prompt feedback.

Engagement with Peers   

Recommendation: Provide opportunities for collaboration and discussions.

  1. Use Zoom breakout rooms to break students up into smaller groups when meeting synchronously. It is helpful to set expectations prior to breakout room sessions with timeframe, peer introductions, specific questions/prompts for discussion, and reporting back key ideas.
  2. Use Canvas discussions for course Q&A, introductions, and topic discussions or Canvas groups for student project collaborations.
  3. Set up peer reviews for assignments.
  4. Use Google Docs or Microsoft 365 collaborations which allows multiple student collaborators to work on the same document.

Additional Resources

  1. Track your student’s progress through the course content using Canvas Course Analytics.
  2. Analyze Quiz Statistics to determine potential issues with quiz questions.
  3. Use strategies collected from Mines Faculty.
  4. Think about developing a community of inquiry in your class.

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