Keeping students actively engaged with the instructor, the content, and students in the class promotes student success. Engagement is crucial to student learning and satisfaction. It involves students participating in the learning process, not just passive observers of information but actively working with the content and others to master the course content. When students are doing, communicating, and reflecting, they are actively working with concepts and people. Engagement is at the center of the teaching and learning process.
This teaching guide introduces different frameworks to help you think about different approaches to student engagement. It also introduces different ways to foster engagement connecting students to each other, helping students connect to the course content and introducing ways that students can connect with their instructors.
Self-determination theory (SDT) focuses on human motivation and development and how social conditions can facilitate or hinder students from learning. This theory helps us to understand how students succeed and persist in various educational settings.
According to the Self-determination theory, students have three basic psychological needs to stay motivated in their studies – autonomy, competence and relatedness.
Students need a choice within a structure regarding how to present their work.
Possible approaches that give students autonomy:
Let students choose their paper topics.
Allow students to choose the medium with which they will present their work.
Co-create assignments and grading rubrics with students.
Ask students to identify their preferred deadlines in the class.
Ask students for feedback at the mid-semester point and make changes to the course based on the feedback and/or discuss your methodology with students if specific changes cannot be made.
Drop one or more of the lowest assessment scores.
Students need regular feedback about their level of understanding of the course material to feel competent about their learning.
Possible approaches that boost student competence:
Reassure your students that they can meet the expectations of the course.
Use multiple low-stakes assessments that encourage students to practice before attempting summative work.
Provide frequent feedback to students.
Ask students to provide peer feedback.
Scaffold larger assignments so that students can adapt their approach throughout the process.
Praise student efforts.
Remind students that the class is a safe environment to take risks, fail and try new things.
Students need to feel a sense of belonging and connection with their peers and instructor.
Possible approaches that boost student’s sense of belonging:
Send a survey before the semester starts asking students to share information about themselves.
Talk to students in a caring and respectful way.
Share personal stories with your students including your educational journey and passion for your field.
Get to know your students through class activities and chats before/after class.
Use students’ names and pronouns.
Incorporate group activities during class sessions to encourage students to work with a variety of classmates.
Additional Resources
University of Rochester Medical Center – Self-Determination Theory – Use this resource to learn more about the self-determination theory and specific strategies.
Vanderbilt University – Self-Determination Theory from Motivating Students Teaching Guide – This is a detailed account of self-determination theory including specific instructional strategies.
Community of Inquiry
The Community of Inquiry framework looks at the importance of interaction when creating a collaborative learning community in the classroom. This framework explains the process of creating meaningful learning experiences through the interdependent elements of social, cognitive and teaching presence. All elements depend on each other. If one is missing, then learning suffers.
Social presence is the ability for students to interact with their peers in a meaningful and trusting way.
What social presence looks like:
Instructors model effective social skills and interactions.
Students are encouraged to get to know each other through activities that build trust.
Students have interpersonal relationships with others in the classroom that encourages them to share their individual personalities.
Students have opportunities for discussions in the classroom, online or both.
Students are invited to share their experiences and prior learning.
Students have a number of ways to express themselves in the class and in their course work.
Cognitive presence is the ability for participants to construct meaning through on-going communication.
What cognitive presence looks like:
Students are assessed through a variety of assessments with frequent feedback.
Students have multiple opportunities to recall information and demonstrate their understanding.
Students experience activities that help them identify big ideas and make connections in the course content.
Students have the opportunity to share past experiences and prior learning.
Students are encouraged to reflect on their learning throughout the course.
Teaching presence is the design and facilitation of social and cognitive processes for meaningful learning.
What teaching presence looks like:
Class sessions start with a welcoming tone.
Instructors provide timely and meaningful feedback.
Expectations of the course, assignments and interaction are clear.
Instructors interact with the students regularly.
Students have opportunities for peer feedback to learn from each other.
Additional Resources
In an interview for the Reflective Teaching in a Digital Age podcast, Dr. Randy Garrison describes the history of the Community of Inquiry framework, including its role in the thoughtful design of online education, and practical ways of helping students learn through active participation and shared meaning-making. Click here to listen to the interview.
Garrison, D. R. (2016). Thinking collaboratively: Learning in a community of inquiry. Routledge. Retrieved June 8, 2023, from https://uncg.on.worldcat.org/oclc/910847870 (Please note that this link requires UNCG log-in credentials.)
Student-to-Student Engagement
Students need to feel a sense of belonging and connection with their peers and instructor.
Possible approaches that boost student’s sense of belonging:
Send a survey before the semester starts asking students to share information about themselves.
Talk to students in a caring and respectful way.
Share personal stories with your students including your educational journey and passion for your field.
Get to know your students through class activities and chats before/after class.
Use students’ names and pronouns.
Incorporate group activities during class sessions to encourage students to work with a variety of classmates.
Community agreements can establish clear expectations for discussions. Students will not be open to share their ideas in class if they feel they will be mocked or disrespected by their peers. You can learn more about community agreements in the Classroom Management Teaching Guide.
Small group activities at the start of the semester help students get to know each other. Looking for ideas for icebreaker activities to connect your students to each other? Use this resource from Cornell University’s Center for Teaching Innovation.
Check-in strategies at the start of the class allow students to share their questions and challenges. As the semester progresses, ask students to lead this effort.
Students can Think-Pair-Share at the end of class sharing three questions or main takeaways that were learned in the class session. Use this resource from Kent State University, Center for Teaching and Learning to explore ways to use think-pair-share.
Create opportunities for students to present and share their work regularly. This not only makes students more accountable, but it allows students to see the work and process of others. Students can connect with each other if they are working on similar projects. Students can use this time to ask their peers questions for help and provide suggestions.
Get your students moving and discuss ideas together. Ask students to use the whiteboard in the classroom for notes.
Canvas Discussions allows students to introduce themselves to each other. Posts could be text, video, audio, images, or links.
Students should be asked to respond to each other via Canvas Discussion. For large classes, consider putting students in small groups to help students connect to others.
Students can solve problems or work through case studies collaboratively through collaborative documents and small-group discussions.
Students can create a shared narrative, resource, or presentation with others in the class.
Students can work together to create collaborative notes for future study.
Students can peer review each other’s work.
Form learning communities in the class to work through challenging course concepts together.
Students can meet with each other to practice presentations or send each other recordings of practice sessions.
Students can construct knowledge together through collective analysis.
Student-to-Instructor Engagement
When it comes to student persistence, instructors “are the front lines of student retention efforts”. (Tinto) Students having a relationship with the instructor is crucial to student success. Fostering belonging and mattering for students starts in the classroom.
Send your students a survey to learn about them. What are their career goals? How do they study and take notes? What learning environments help them thrive?
Don’t’ go over the syllabus the first day of class. Set the expectation of how your class works with collaboration between the instructor and students. Demonstrate this expectation on the first day.
Learn your students’ names and pronouns. Use tools like table tents to allow you to call students by their names starting on the first day of class. Students like to sit in the same spot for future class sessions. Consider using the seating chart feature in Canvas to help you remember student names.
Create a sense of security in your course so that students know what to expect from you. Consistency is key.
Share your humanity and educational journey with your students. Why did you choose your field of study? Share your processes. Students rely on instructors to help them establish scholarly practices.
Check in with students. At the start of a class session, give students time to share how they are doing. Consider reframing our office hours to encourage students to come and see you. Asking students to schedule required visits during your office hours during the first few weeks of class can help students learn that you are approachable while promoting future visits. One or more office hours could be designated as “study sessions” or “review periods” to help students understand what they can gain by coming to your office hours.
Provide students with timely feedback that gives them clear goals for upcoming work.
Share an introductory video of yourself with your students. Explain the purpose and format of the course. Share your background, passion of your field of study and communication preferences.
Provide students with a clear page in Canvas with all of the ways to connect with you outside of a synchronous class session.
Use your Canvas course data and grades to identify students who need additional contact. Send students a Canvas inbox message to discuss missed course work, confusion about course concepts or share success challenges. Instructors can use the messaging system in the Gradebook to message specific students quickly.
Don’t forget to reach out to top performing students. Struggling students often get our immediate attention, but top performing students also need a connection with you. Consider helping these students find opportunities to keep them challenged.
Student-to-content Engagement
Telling is not teaching. Students learn more through exploration and struggling with problems than being provided with the answer. Students not only engage with their classmates and instructor, but they need clear ways to interact with the course content. Student-to-content engagement creates active learning opportunities for students to assimilate the content instead of passively absorbing the material. It is more than just reading a book or watching a video. It’s giving students additional ways to learn the course material.
Give students a choice in terms of tasks, topics and approaches for demonstrating their learning. The more relevant and authentic the tasks, the more motivated and engaged students will be.
Class time should give students ways to explore, discuss and challenge themselves with the course content in ways that they cannot do on their own. Use group activities to give students challenging problems to solve. Use case studies to give students new ways to demonstrate their understanding.
Explain the relevance of the course content and be transparent about the specific purpose of assignments in this course. Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) provides a transparent framework that promotes student success. Learn more about the TILT framework here.
Discuss notetaking and its importance at the start of the semester. Don’t assume that students will know how to take meaningful notes during class. Discuss note-taking options including collaborative notetaking, using personal devices and how to best study during their notes.
Small group conversations and strategies like Think-Pair-Share give students opportunities to discuss their understanding of the course concepts and address any gaps in their learning.
Use minute papers asking students to write what they know about a topic and/or share their questions.
Using in-class poll questions to ask students questions to check their understanding. This activity can be done individually or in small groups to encourage student conversations to promote deeper learning.
Use the Jigsaw method by breaking the class into groups. Each group is responsible for learning and presenting information to the class about a specific topic. Learn more about the jigsaw method here.
Ask students to relate the course material to their prior knowledge and experience. Have students share examples of concepts in class.
Summarize key concepts both during and at the end of the class to reinforce your main points and help students monitor their comprehension of the course material.
Ask students lots of questions in class. Their answers can help you gauge their comprehension.
Provide students with a variety of content that explains the course content in different ways. Consider incorporating multimedia instructional materials.
Ask students to create instructional resources that demonstrate their understanding. For example, students could create a 1-minute video explaining a detailed concept. These resources could be used in following semesters to help you explain the concepts with the students’ permission.
Use a consistent structure in your Canvas course site to streamline finding content and assignments. Clear expectations and a well-designed structure can reduce cognitive load for students.
Use post-assessment reflections asking students to share how prepared they were for the assessment. Students can share lingering questions and suggest topics that require further study.
Learn more about Universal Design for Learning to explore additional ways to integrate flexibility in your course design.
Use mid-semester survey to collect student feedback about aspects of the course that help them learn and find out what is hindering their learning. Be sure to report to students the results of the survey explaining changes you are making in the course or why it’s not possible to make specific changes.
Provide incentives for students to seek our course-specific tutoring. Help students connect to academic support systems by posting directions on how to find these resources in your Canvas site.
Engagement in Group Work
Having students work together in groups is a powerful student engagement strategy using active learning approaches. Working together requires students to develop their ability to work with others while addressing gaps in their understanding of the course content from their peers.
Students are sometimes resistant to group work based on their past group experiences. Some group members may not have done their fair share of the work or groups have conflicts that create communication hurdles.
Considerations
Don’t assume that students know how to work in groups effectively. Take time to discuss how groups should work together. Ask students to share their past experiences working in groups and what strategies work best to encourage collaboration.
Explain how to assign group roles such as leader, organizer, editor, researcher, writer, brainstormer and presenter. Ask group members during their first meeting to create a timeline, decide how they will share resources with each other, connect with each other outside of class and divide the work between group members.
Be sure to explain the rationale for the group activity. Students don’t always see the benefits of collaborative learning nor understand the pedagogical purpose.
Explain the overall goal of the group activity clearly including steps in the process and what the final goal will be. Provide samples of past student group work if possible.
Ask students to spend some time getting to know their group members before their work begins.
Scaffold group assignments requiring students to check-in throughout the process. Give individual group members ways to report group issues to you. Require individual group members to submit their own work to ensure that everyone is participating fully.
Ask students to create a group contract during their first meeting to set clear expectations for each other. Here’s a sample group contract for the University of California Irvine.
Lecture Breakers is a podcast series by Barbi Honeycutt, PhD, that shares innovative instructional strategies with college instructors. Learn more about Lecture Breakers and subscribe to her series here. The following resources are specific Lecture Breakers episodes focused on group work.
The UTLC facilitates two programs with students to gather information about their perspective to share with UNCG instructors.
VOISES (Viewpoints of Inclusive Student Experiences) Student Panels
The UTLC and Office of Intercultural Engagement host conversations about key UNCG student experiences in the classroom and beyond. VOISES panels provide a venue for faculty to hear the perspective of students from marginalized identity groups on campus. These moderated panels give faculty the chance to ask questions while reflecting on issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion at UNCG. Learn more about VOISES and read recent panel summaries with key takeaways for instructors.
Student Focus Groups
The UTLC works with departments across campus to facilitate student focus groups. We ask students questions focused on student success and strategy suggestions for faculty. Here are some takeaways from students regarding engagement shared with us during these events.
Students see the value in pre-course surveys sent by their instructors to ask individual students about their background, preferred name and pronouns, languages spoken, beliefs, significant holy days and holidays etc. and asking what they are comfortable sharing and not sharing with the class.
Students in large classes can feel no connection to the instructor or fellow students. Use group activities and asynchronous course tools like discussions to make connections in large classes.
Students love it when faculty members share their educational experience as a student. Share your backstory and inspire their journey. One student told us “My teacher shared with me that he was also a first-generation college student, and it revolutionized the way I see my education.” Share your process. Students rely on instructors to help them develop a strong scholarly process.
Don’t fake it. Be authentic and genuine in class and in your interactions and do not assume you know and understand the student experience because you’ve read widely about it.
Each student is unique with different perspectives and needs so do not make assumptions or generalizations. Do not use the students in class for an opportune teaching moment or to fill your gaps in knowledge. It’s important for faculty to routinely do their own research about minority students as part of their duty of care and make sure materials used in class speak to everyone.
Expectations and boundaries need to be discussed. Do not judge or penalize students for their communication style. Instead, model best practices in communication etiquette especially emails.
Be transparent about the structure and requirements of the class. As one student told us, “Don’t teach the textbook to us. Class should be engaging and interesting with discussions that I can’t have on my own.”
Flexible instructors who “had their students back” and were genuinely interested in them personally makes the instructor approachable. Instructors who were transparent, who did not make assumptions and who gave clear instructions were valued.
Use student names and their pronouns. Pronouns make the classroom more inclusive. Avoid gendered language like husband/wife. Use partner instead.
Speak to students with respect. Don’t assume the worst in your students. One student told us, “When I am treated condescendingly, I drop the course.” Don’t talk “at” students, interact with them.
Students really want your feedback. Be specific in your comments to students so that they know how to improve for future work. Explain how students can find your feedback. For example, don’t assume that they know how to access your comments in a grading rubric. Provide text and or visual directions on how to access your feedback. If you are worried that students are not reading your feedback, consider creating reflection assignments that require students to share the feedback they received and how they plan to approach future work differently.
Additional Resources
To get more ideas for engagement approaches, use this resource from Vanderbilt University called Motivating Students.
Yarborough, C. B., & Fedesco, H. N. (2020). Motivating students. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. https://cft.vanderbilt.edu//cft/guides-sub-pages/motivating-students/.