Fostering interaction in the online classroom

When my class moved to being fully online at the start of the pandemic, like many teachers I faced the steep learning curve of becoming an online teacher overnight. I quickly realised that, alongside learning how to use technology to its full effect, one of the biggest challenges was how to engage my learners. Their cameras were turned off, they were extremely reluctant to unmute and when I put them in breakout rooms I would sometimes find that groups were completely silent. What was I doing wrong?

If you have been in this situation and wondered whether you just have to accept defeat, I am here to tell you that you don’t! Although it can be more challenging to get students to interact online than in person, I have found that some simple adjustments to my teaching have made a big difference and turned a quiet and disengaged class into an actively participating, enthusiastic group of students! Here’s what I’ve learnt

Create connection points for students.

Give students plenty of opportunities to interact with one another in class, such as through tasks, group work and homework that requires meeting up in pairs or groups. You could also set up team-based activities that require them to work together for a period of time, (although teamwork can come with its own challenges!). You might like to encourage students to set up a group chat, or use a forum for discussion outside of class. When grouping students, consider who may have common interests/backgrounds or who you think would get on and try to build groups which will be socially cohesive as well as considering level, etc.

Set up a buddy system.

To help students grow in their sense of community in the class, it can be a great idea to set up a simple buddy system. This can be opt-in or you might decide to assign the whole class a buddy. As well as being a brilliant way to encourage peer support, it also helps students who might be less forthcoming in class to get to know another student or two. When considering who to pair together, you could base your decision on their level, common interests or perhaps students who have been studying the course for longer with those who are new.

Use the full functionality of the teaching platform.

Utilizing the full functionality of whatever platform you are teaching on, such as the chat box, reactions, whiteboard, breakout rooms, polls, etc. is perhaps an obvious, but often overlooked, way to engage online learners. Not only can this ensure that learners stay engaged, but it also gives them a voice, as well as providing you with essential feedback of their understanding. If you are newer to online teaching, you might like to plan these in, and make sure you have practised them in advance (perhaps by setting up a practice session with friends or family), but as you grow in confidence you will find that these become a regular part of your teaching toolkit.

Plan tasks carefully.

I have found that when teaching online, it is even more important to ensure that all activities are well-thought through, as it is harder to adapt and pivot when things aren’t working well than it is in person. Consider what the point of each activity is and how to communicate its value and purpose to students before putting them into groups. Give clear instructions and check understanding before you assign them to a breakout room. Creating multiple breakout rooms for short tasks is often more effort than it’s worth, so consider setting one or two bigger tasks which take up a longer stretch of time.

Ensure tasks are intrinsically motivating.

Would the learners be motivated to interact and engage if this was in person? No matter how well you set up an activity, or who students are grouped with, if they don’t see the point or relevance to their lives, they are much less likely to engage if they aren’t intrinsically motivated. Of course there are always times when we have to teach topics that our students may not be naturally interested in, but in these situations it helps to elicit from them the purpose of such tasks and encourage them to discuss how it will benefit them. For example, you could ask questions such as: ‘why do you think we are talking about this today?’ ‘Will this help you in the future? How?’.

Help students see the value of interacting.

Not all students - especially those from an educational background where interacting and communicating is not part of the learning process - will want to interact online. This might be due to a whole range of factors which we may not be aware of, such as present circumstances (they might have family or small children in the background), anxiety (we’ve all been there in online meetings - it can take some courage to unmute yourself - even more so in another language!), bad connection, and sometimes laziness. But don’t make assumptions - instead, try and talk to them individually to find out more about their circumstances and how they are finding your class. Ask them what they see as the benefits of interacting and if they are unsure, offer them some reasons. You should also be creative in the types of activities that you set in order to give quieter students opportunities to thrive in a different way, for example through recorded videos/audios, group projects, written reflection, etc.

Make learning fun!

As with all teaching, learning is more enjoyable and effective when it is injected with some fun. Some great ways of doing this are getting students out of their seats (scavenger hunt), using realia (see this article I wrote on this topic), and using online learning platforms. This is a big topic for another post, but here is a quick summary of some of my go-to online learning tools:

• Padlet

• Poll Everywhere

• Mentimeter

• Kahoot

• Quizlet

• Collaborative docs (eg. google docs or Microsoft online)

Let your personality shine through in your teaching.

This is of course important in face-to-face teaching, but it becomes even more vital when online. Students want to know that a real human is at the other end of the camera, and we can do that by bringing a little (or a lot!) of ourselves into our lessons. Without oversharing too much, consider giving students a glimpse into your life by showing them a picture of your holiday, talking about your family or describing something about your upbringing and culture. You will find that as you share more openly about yourself, they will feel more inclined to do the same. A nice way to do this at the start of term is to set up a forum thread for introductions and be the first to introduce yourself (maybe with a photo!).

Allow time for socialising.

When teaching online it can be easy to let chit chat slide and miss those vital points of connection with students. Could you open the class five minutes early and let students chat as they arrive? Perhaps you could leave the link open during break and set up a simple game for students to engage in instead of just looking at their phones. These simple moments provide invaluable times of connection and interaction that can make the difference between a class that attends but doesn’t engage and one which is vibrant and has a great rapport and sense of community.

Remember that you don’t see everything.

One of the hardest parts of teaching online can be the fact that you only have a small part of the picture. I have to remind myself that just because a student has their camera turned off doesn’t mean they aren’t learning. It can be disheartening as a teacher to feel as though your words are falling on deaf ears, but try to remind yourself that the loudest students aren’t always the strongest ones! If you build in lots of task work, opportunities for feedback and moments to talk to students one on one, you should gain a good picture of the learning that is going on ‘behind the camera’. The chances are, you are doing a brilliant job and with a few adjustments to your teaching, you can ensure that all learners are engaged and interacting just as much (if not more!) as they would in person.