Engaging Students

How do you get your students excited and engaged about the subject that you teach?

Discussion Activities

• Vary the type of discussion activities throughout the course
  • Targeted questions asked by instructor
  • Apply concepts to real-life examples or situations
  • Help questions and answers
• Have clear expectations for quantity of postings required
• Take incremental steps to improve discussion in your courses

Pairing Activities

• Pair students to work through and discuss problems together

Group Assignment Activities

• Have groups of three or four work together to solve problems from a file
• Group quizzes
• Students need guidance on navigating group work
  • How to communicate with other students
    • Collaboration tools
  • How to split the project into smaller parts
    • Students can work individually and compare results
    • Students can work collaboratively on the entire project
  • How to manage deadlines
    • Encourage students to set up intermediate deadlines
    • Scaffold deliverables
  • How to manage different personalities within a group

Academic Reading Circles

• What did you understand from the lecture?
• What did you not understand from the lecture?