Best practices to create an engaging virtual classroom
By Lindsay Lamb
This is the third in a series of blogs reporting on best practices associated with online learning. As discussed previously, supporting the social and emotional wellbeing of our students, educators, and their families is the highest priority in any learning environment right now. The next important thing for educators to improve online learning is to build relationships with students and families. These two strategies should be ongoing throughout the school year. Once educators address students’ social and emotional needs (as well as their own!) and build relationships, they can begin focusing on academic content. How can they do so? By creating engaging content.
In a virtual environment, engaging and relevant course material is even more critical than for in-person classes. A panelist during an EducationWeek online summit on reopening schools in the pandemic shared research gathered in Spring 2020, noting that synchronous learning cannot replace in-person learning simply by offering the same in-person content and pedagogy in an online format. Educators need to recognize that online learning is different, and we must play to the advantages of online learning. For example, online learning is more effective when students can engage in smaller groups where they can interact more directly with peers and can connect one-on-one with their teacher. These strategies build community within the class and between students and teachers.
Another best practice is to ensure that students have time to deeply engage in work on their own and away from the computer rather than passively listening and taking notes for the entire class period (or school day). Allowing students to work independently – or with a parent – and then come back to either a smaller group or a larger group to go over their learning is an excellent way to incorporate both online and individual work. Including a few synchronous learning opportunities for students coupled with asynchronous learning opportunities is a great balance. Doing so provides students with an opportunity to relate with their teacher and peers online as well as giving them a screen break and foster deep learning away from technology.
One strategy that works for all age groups is inviting guest speakers to attend lessons and share their experiences, stories, and personal reflections. As I’m sure we can all attest, guest speakers is a nice break for learners from the normal school routine. Students will benefit from hearing stories of strength and resilience during these challenging times. During a virtual internship program for high school students we had the privilege to evaluate this summer, we found that students were more engaged in lessons when a guest speaker was invited to participate and share their experiences that related to the course material. Students were able to reflect on the speaker’s story, making the lesson content relevant to their life.
Limit the amount of time students spend in an online learning environment. This is particularly important for younger students. According to the Illinois State Board of Education, the minimum and maximum length of engagement time for remote learning for all students under 2nd grade was 90 minutes, and for high school students, 270 minutes, still short of a typical school day. Schools should not require students to complete a full 6-7 hour school day remotely.
Showcase student work. This is a strategy that effectively works to engage students in person and can easily adapt to the online environment. Simply ask students take a picture of their work, record a video of their work, or share their work during online group meetings. Doing so will keep students engaged, excited and motivated to engage in the lessons.
Finally, continually checking in with students to see if they are engaged in the material is critical as lessons go online. For example, ask students if they liked the lessons, thought the online content was too long, if the course material was relevant to their life, or had any other feedback to improve their experience. For younger students, checking in with parents is equally, if not more important. During our evaluation of the summer virtual internship program, we created weekly check-ins with interns. We asked questions about interns’ interest in the lessons, relevance of the lessons, and length of the lessons. These survey questions helped Ignite MindShift staff identify which lessons should be shortened, and overall student engagement.
Providing different formats for students to engage in learning, and continuously checking in with students and families to assess engagement with the material will help keep students engaged in the learning.
As we discussed in our previous post, providing students with social and emotional learning is critical at this time. That being said, as important as fostering social and emotional skill development and creating engaging content are, they will fall flat if educators do not build relationships with their students. As all educators know, building relationships is critical to successful student engagement, both in person and virtually. It is also a major challenge for the virtual environment. To build relationships virtually, we urge educators to consider embedding the following practices into their lessons:
Share personal stories. Sharing experiences and being open and vulnerable was a common theme that ran throughout the internship. During an observation of a mentor circle call, one mentor described how she handled a difficult work situation, showing her vulnerability in order to help her interns relate to the material.
Set norms. Educators can begin to build community by setting norms at the beginning of the school year (or program) to convey clear expectations and promote mutual trust and respect. These norms should include guidance on when cameras should be turned on and off, when and how to mute or unmute yourself, how much participation is required, when emails can be sent, what students can do if they have a question, and how students should communicate with others. It is important to revisit these norms during each class/group meeting to make sure they are still relevant and to check in to see if new norms should be added. To ensure that norms are internalized and adopted, consider co-constructing the norms with students. Doing so will increase buy-in, ensure students’ voices are heard, and help make the norms constructive and positive.
Set expectations for the online learning environment. As part of the norm setting process, it would be wise for educators to spend some time discussing expectations for the online lessons. In particular, younger students will require additional time learning how to engage in online learning. It is unrealistic to begin school online in the way teachers normally would in an in-person setting. Much more time must be spent describing the virtual format and what is expected of students, answering students’ (and families) questions, and providing ample time for students to get used to online learning. Many students do not know how to interact in an online environment and need help learning how to do so (e.g., difficulty for teachers to see all students, when the teacher or another student is talking, do not talk over them; raise your hand if you have a question; know how to mute yourself). Even older students can use guidelines to help set norms to foster positive interactions with each other online.
Foster small group discussions. Only offering Zoom meetings for 20 or more students will not effectively build relationships with students. Instead, educators can use the breakout session feature in Zoom to create small groups for students to engage and connect with each other in a more meaningful way. This allows students to connect with each other and build relationships, talk to each other without the conversation getting lost, and relate to each other outside of the larger group setting. This will be difficult for younger students, so family help will be required. Another option is for educators to meet one-on-one or in small groups with each student as frequently as possible. This could be done weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly and is particularly important for younger students. All students need to know that they matter, that they are cared for, especially now. While this might be more time consuming for some educators, the payoff is far reaching.
Routinely check in with students and families. Finally, we know online learning will have its ups and downs. Not everything educators planned out will work, and some things will work well for some students and families while others will not. The key to navigating this conundrum is constantly checking in with students and families. Our advice is to have daily check ins regarding the technology access, duration of lessons, content of lessons, and how the student is feeling. This will also build relationships with each student and their family allowing them to feel more comfortable advocating for their/their child’s needs.
