It is important to stay fully engaged in order to monitor the flow of the classroom.
While it is true that instructors cannot know the schema of every student, for completely asynchronous programs or ones that have a synchronous lecture with hands-on labs later, assumptions have to be made. Since the instruction is prerecorded and the materials are prepared, how would an instructor be able to connect, observe, respond and adjust? The material talked about the need for this in online and in-person classes as well as synchronous and asynchronous learning, but it did not give many examples for the latter.
Providing students the opportunity to engage with and manipulate the content helps them to understand the "why" of the learning as well as providing them a sense of competency that can be motivating. However, the same schemas will not work for all students, so instructors and designers must be flexible enough to switch schemas mid-stream when they see students disengaging.
Pay attention to student engagement and adapt in real time to re-engage them.
Making sure that content is covered is not as scary as some teachers make it out to be. Content coverage doesn't have to be linear.
Instructors must pay attention to the signs that a student is not engaged.
"Stay engaged, stay observant, and stay connected – then be ready to respond and adapt. "
To prevent student's from becoming disengaged, there is a need to make sure each topic's real-world relevance is connected.
All students are different so instructors must stay flexible and adapt to varying student needs.
Adapt, adapt, adapt to your audience.
I think the biggest takeaway was the reality of inactive learning. Many times, if a student becomes disengaged, it is due to personal situations beyond the instructor's control. In my program, most of our students are returning students. Our average age is in the mid-30s. So, life can take over for a student. However, it is critical that we (as instructors) assess any disengagement carefully to determine if we can make a modification to re-engage the student.
Another important point that was made included that not all class groupings are the same. We all know not all students are the same, but oftentimes a different section of the same class in the same semester may have different needs and/or personalities.
I think overall, it's about keeping the teaching diverse to meet individual students where they are, but also remembering to re-asses on a regular basis.
Mismanagement of time, prioritizing tasks, content is not stimulating
Pulse checks are important to gauge attention, interest and comprehension.
Through this section I learned that I need to do more than just lectures and skill practice with my students. I need to create more activities to keep the students moving and actively engaged in learning. They need to stay excited in order to learn and, therefore, I need to make changes to my teaching methods in order to meet all the needs of each student.
Inactive learning is not effective. I will communicate with my online faculty, the importance of realizing that while context is fixed, instructional methods are not. If a student demonstrates behaviors that indicate he/she is bored or disengaging, instructor must respond and adapt immediately.
Reach out to students when you see they are not engaged. Adapt and adjust teaching style to each student individually. Remember that what may have engaged one student or a group of students that doesn't mean it will work for another student or group of students.
Be flexible in design and do not look at all students the same.
Communication, feedback and interactive format will keep students engaged.
Whle I agree that students can disengage due to a predetermination that the course will be of no value - a waste of their time, there are a LOT of reasons why working adult students disengage. There are priorities that do not apply to the full time graduate student or even the college student. I'm not talking about football games or fraternity/sorority events - my students are typically a generation behind me - not 3. Jobs, kids, grandkids, homes - life. It's not all about boredom.
Sometimes I do not thionk it is boredom as it is they doi not understsand and will not ask questions. I have had many students feel that way and what I do is contact them and ask what is going with them. I have received many asnwers and most of them I have had to create step by step instructions for them to continue on with the class.
