Engaging Students in a Videoconference Classroom

by Kassidy Voinche, PharmD, PGY-1 Community Pharmacy Resident, University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy

Teaching and learning have looked different over the past six months. Due to the need for social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, many schools have turned to virtual classrooms. Using video teleconferencing for live educational seminars is a great solution to keep everyone safe and to keep learning on track. Indeed, there are many technologies available that can help bridge the distance between students and teachers. However, teaching at a distance, either synchronously or asynchronously, presents several challenges for both the instructor and the learner. It can be difficult to engage students in discussions, group work, and in-class assignments when they are home with lots of potential distractions. Although there are inherent obstacles, with some extra tools, creative thinking, and problem-solving, the online classroom can become a place for engaged learning.

According to an article in Teach for America (TFA), creativity, clarity, and self-reflection are key to being a great teacher in the virtual classroom.¹ It’s essential, particularly in an online environment, to establish clear learning goals and objectives. With so much digital communication to keep up with, expectations need to be well-defined to ensure everyone is on the same page. Instructor feedback on assignments should be more thorough. It's helpful to reflect on student engagement, both in and out of class-time, using these questions from the TFA article, 7 Tips for Being a Great Virtual Teacher:

• What trends do I see in student participation? Possible causes?
• What am I learning about my students as participants in my virtual classroom?
• What could I do to make learning more accessible, inclusive, and meaningful?
• How are we, as a class, doing physically, mentally, and emotionally? ¹

Checking in with yourself and the students allows for adaptation. Investigate what works and what does not, listening to and recognizing what the students seem to be responding to well.

Combining offline, asynchronous activities with synchronous videoconferencing can improve participation.²  Create brief recorded videos or other learning activities for students to complete before class. Then, use class-time to summarize this content. Students can divide into breakout rooms for problem-based learning.  Ask students to create a Google doc to keep them accountable. Allow students some autonomy over assignments and encourage them to experiment.  This can lead to richer discussions. ² Asynchronous participation could include allowing students to view other students’ work and asking them to give feedback with guiding questions. This method promotes peer-to-peer accountability. 

Incorporating personality with a little humor and fun goes a long way when capturing student’s attention. The article Don't Turn into a Bot Online: Three Easy Strategies to Let Your Personality Shine in Your Online Course provides several tips on how to add a personal touch to your virtual classroom.³ Let some of your personality shine through! This can be done using humor or relatable stories. Humor can be tricky, but in small doses, effective. Searching online for a popular meme or gif to throw into a PowerPoint presentation can provide a light-hearted visual. ³ An Inside Higher Ed article suggests allowing students to create various fun content in the forms of memes or tweets to summarize the discoveries made in the session. Instructors can then open the next class meeting with some of their favorites to recap.⁴

Teaching to a virtual classroom where no student has their camera on can seem like talking to a wall. However, students with their camera off could be more engaged than you think.⁵ Indeed, engagement may even be enhanced when the teacher allows students to turn off cameras. Students can record their break-out group sessions with cameras off and turn in the recording.⁵ Providing a choice of camera usage enhances student agency. Another option is to build in ‘camera-off’ time during a class session for students to reflect independently. Without the camera’s constant gaze, students are not rushing to the next step to prevent the awkward silence.⁵ This method provides a specified amount of time for students to work and develop an answer, then share when everyone regroups.  It is always a good idea to check in with students to assess their personal needs and preferences, asking them how they can most effectively interact with the class and material.

The impact of widely used virtual classrooms on student progression and success is unknown at this time, but a study done in 2019 found that the impact may be minimal. Based on eight years’ worth of data from Wingate University School of Pharmacy, investigators found that distance learning via synchronous videoconferencing did not impact performance in a basic biological sciences course among professional degree pharmacy students.⁶ These findings are consistent with several similar studies conducted with various student populations. While using video conferencing for a majority of classes may seem daunting, with the right mindset, support, and tools, students can perform as well as when classes are conducted in-person.

There a few tools built into many videoconferencing applications to improve student engagement, like polls and whiteboards.  But you can combine these tools with countless other online tools. Kahoot, Flipgrid, and Poll Everywhere are a few examples of other applications that can be used to increase student participation. When choosing a platform or method, always consider accessibility. Reach out to students to determine which technologies they’ve had previous experience using and are most accessible. Inviting students to provide input about technologies that will be used in a course can build a connection between teacher and learner. Periodic reflection, by teachers and students, can improve the virtual classroom and generate new ideas on ways to engage. With some thought and resourcefulness, teaching can work just as well and, in some cases, even better in the virtual environment.

In summary, here are six tips for enhancing student engagement through distance learning:

1. Communicate clear, detailed learning objectives and expectations.
2. Combine asynchronous and synchronous learning methods.
3. Allow students to create fun content to summarize what they learned.
4. Survey students about how they best engage with the content and their preferences.
5. Reflect on which strategies are working and how to continue improving.
6. Use tools such as polling and collaboration platforms.

 

References:

1. The TFA Editorial Team. 7 Tips for Being a Great Virtual Teacher. Teach For America [Internet]. 2020 Mar 24.
2. Minero E. 8 Strategies to Improve Participation in Your Virtual Classroom. Edutopia [Internet]. 2020 Aug 21.
3. Evans J. Don't Turn into a Bot Online: Three Easy Strategies to Let Your Personality Shine in Your Online Course. Faculty Focus [Internet]. 2020 Sep 08.
4. Crook A, Crook T. 6 Tips for Teaching Online and In Person Simultaneously. Inside Higher Ed [Internet]. 2020 August 26.
5. Seltzer K. Engaging Students in Virtual Instruction With the Camera Off. Edutopia [Internet]. 2020 Sep 14.
6. Dirks-Naylor AJ, Baucom E. Impact of distance learning via synchronous videoconferencing on pharmacy student performance in a biological science course sequence: an 8-yr analysis. Adv Physiol Educ. 2019;43(4):534-536.