5 Ways to Make Your Online Classrooms More Interactive

The ease and flexibility of online learning allow learners to learn new abilities and expand their education no matter the location they reside in. But, despite all its benefits, learning online can often be lonely for faculty and students. The question is how can you establish the sense of community that you want to create in your online classes? One method is to encourage more interactions between you and your students and between students themselves. Here are five Ways to Make Your Online Classrooms More Interactive.

1. Integrate real-time interaction

If online courses are entirely online, there’s typically very little interaction between your students and classmates with one another. For instance, consider that real-time conversations aren’t happening in a lecture video and when you announce announcements or when students make posts on an online discussion board. This delay in response hinders the pace of a back-and forth conversation and could cause confusion.

Incorporating real-time interactions in your online course could assist in changing that, and create a the sense of community that is present in the course. Think about how informal conversations outside of the classroom can build relationships that help clarify ideas and provide new perspectives. It is possible to facilitate these interactions by arranging the possibility for students to connect online in asynchronous manner informally or formal. Utilizing web-conferencing software allows you to create various interactive opportunities synchronously for office hours small group discussions, entire class discussions as well as study groups.

2. Create discussion boards that are fun and creative.

Discussion boards have been the main source of communication in online courses, but there are ways to create a more interactive experience to encourage greater and deeper participation. In traditional classrooms there is a tendency for one or two students to engage in discussion. In an online classroom it’s possible to structure your discussions to ensure that everyone is involved, and you’ll give them more time to think about what they’d like to say before making a response. Class size helps determine how you organize discussions. In a class with 100 students, for example it is possible to organize smaller discussion groups of around 20 or less so students meet their fellow classmates. You could also set up smaller groups (5–7 members) to allow for more intimate interactions and then rotate the groups to increase interactions. This method also works for smaller classes.

One method to encourage more lively dialogue is to create discussions that are flexible for example, like asking students to give examples or ask them to view the concept in a variety of ways. It is also possible to set up discussions with students that allow them to design the discussion prompts and then guide the discussion that follows.

3. Increase engagement through non-task interactions

Non-task interactions are the ones that do not contribute to the learning process however they can help build an environment for learning that is supportive. These kinds of interactions using social networking tools which are included in a variety of learning management systems, like web-conferencing and chat. Utilizing the group feature students can set up special study groups or interest groups. If your LMS isn’t able to integrate a social network but you are able to create one using the private Facebook page, or any of the other applications for group messaging for group messaging, like Telegram as well as Slack.

Importantly, the academic networks need planning as well as ongoing maintenance. The benefits of a social network has to be clearly stated before it can become a standard location. Schools often begin by asking students to make profiles and upload photos however, these alone won’t inspire students to return to the social network. Methods to turn the social media into a destination include regularly updating content (on an annual or, when possible, every day basis) and adding contributions to the network into the classroom (e.g. using social networks tools for group activities and asking students to share comments on their discussions to their social media feed).

4. Make use of several communication tools

It’s not uncommon for schools to want to improve and increase students’ engagement and interactions. Schools, for instance, can develop a program-wide social media network which allows students to keep relationships with fellow students as they progress from course to course. In this private social network administration and the support staff could make use of directly-messages, announcements and live events to increase students’ engagement within the course.

This kind of support from an institution is not required but it is essential for the class you teach to become engaging. Alongside the various social media platforms available like Facebook, Telegram, Slack and WhatsApp students can connect with one another in real-time via Skype or Google Hangouts. Preprogrammed communication tools, such as intro videos, presentations of content and emails, are still essential to online learning, but the interaction with each other can help take learning even further and faster.

5. Make a plan for the tool

A technology tool can only be as effective as the way you utilize it in a pedagogical sense. When you transfer a face-to-face instruction online, or develop your own online courses, you should think about how interactions can help you achieve the learning objectives of your class. Through enhancing opportunities to interact in online classes, it is possible to enhance an already effective learning experience to the highest level for all of your students.

Amy Peterson is senior vice for learning design and development, and studies at Pearson. More than fifteen years’ experience in the development of course materials online, hybrid, as well as learning experiences for numerous colleges and universities.