What do you do when your students seem to disengage from your course? Well, you’ve got a few options to try. This post will talk through some of my favorite ways to engage and re-engage students in the online classroom as well as outline recorded workshops and other resources available.
First and foremost, you have to sort out what is causing students to disengage. Is it the monotony of a rigid routine? Is it the course content? Is it just that time in the quarter? The reality is that the cause of disengagement comes from a variety of places; depending on the size of your class, you may or may not be able to pin down that exact cause.
To help, Academic Technology Solutions (ATS) has compiled the following workshops:
- Engaging Student in Remote and Hybrid Teaching https://teachingremotely.uchicago.edu/register-for-training/engaging-students-remote-teaching/
- Effective Use of Discussion Boards and Course Blogs https://teachingremotely.uchicago.edu/register-for-training/effective-use-of-discussion-boards-blogs/
- Scheduling Office Hours in Canvas https://teachingremotely.uchicago.edu/register-for-training/canvas-scheduling-officehours/
If it seems like maybe the course has stagnated, try to throw in a new activity or two during class time. You could use something like the breakout rooms feature on Zoom, which allows instructors to place students into separate “rooms” for smaller group discussions while instructors retain the ability to move between rooms to visit each group. I really like using breakout rooms because the classroom dynamic really gets disrupted and flattened on Zoom (and similar mediums) in a way that doesn’t happen in-person and can make students feel unclear about when and how to speak up. Breakout rooms create a kind of “workshop” space. By breaking the classroom into smaller discussion groups, it can help create a more balanced space for students to speak up and feel more confident in sharing their thoughts in the larger group.
If the disengagement you observe is more on an individual basis, you might invite that student to come to office hours. Here, I would use something of a two-pronged approach. First, pose the invitation to the entire class so as to not make anyone feel singled-out, especially in an open, communal space. You might say something toward the beginning or end of class like,
“Hey, before we go, I just want to remind you that we are in the midst of a very strange time and I am here to support you. If you’d like to talk about anything from or relating to our course, make an appointment with me for office hours.”
This is critical because 1) the student you have observed disengaging may not be the only student in want or need of extra support, and 2) reminding your students that you are on their side and that we’re all in this together is especially important as the quarter winds to a close and everyone’s stress, pressure, and anxiety levels rise. After the initial open invitation, if you notice that your student seems to still be disengaged, particularly if they are seemingly absent or even struggling, an individual email is a good idea. You don’t want to shame them in any way or even suggest that they’ve “failed” in some way—those aren’t productive. Just a brief email to check in should do the trick:
“Hi Student, I have noticed that you have not been as active in our course as you were previously and just wanted to check in and see if you’re okay. I know this is a really difficult time for many, myself included, so I invite you to schedule an appointment with me for office hours so we can discuss what’s going on and I can support you.”
These are just a couple of ideas, but I want to emphasize that no matter what route you take, whether it’s to implement one of the strategies I’ve outlined above or to use a different strategy. I cannot stress enough how important it is to be attentive to the present moment. I cannot overstate the severity of this situation and its impact on students. These are entirely unprecedented times driven by a global event that none of us have seen in our lifetimes. That’s no minor thing. Your students deserve your compassion, just as you deserve theirs.
Have other strategies for re-engaging students that have been successful for you? Share them below in the comments and continue the conversation there!
If there’s a topic that you’d like to see covered, please feel free to submit suggestions to me, Brandy C. Williams, at brandycwilliams@uchicago.edu. Other resources available from Remote Humanities include other informative posts, including interviews with faculty, and the Online Pedagogy Assistant (OPA) Program (and meet the OPAs).
