Title: Five Ways to Make Your Online Classrooms More Interactive
Headings: Five Ways to Make Your Online Classrooms More Interactive
HIGHER ED TEACHING STRATEGIES FROM MAGNA PUBLICATIONS
Five Ways to Make Your Online Classrooms More Interactive
1. Integrate real-time interaction
2. Get creative with discussion boards
3. Maximize engagement with non-task interaction
4. Use multiple communication tools
5. Have a plan around the tool
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Content: Integrating opportunities for real-time interaction into your online course can help change that and develop a sense of community in a course. Consider how impromptu conversations outside the traditional classroom forge relationships, clarify ideas, and spark new insights. You can facilitate these interactions by setting up opportunities for class members to meet online synchronously both formally and informally. Using webconferencing applications, you can create a variety of synchronous interaction opportunities, such as office hours, small group discussions, whole class discussions, and study groups. 2. Get creative with discussion boards
Discussion boards have long been the communication staple for online courses, but there are ways you can make this experience more interactive for much wider and deeper participation. In a traditional classroom, it’s common for only a small percentage of students to participate in discussion. In an online environment, you can structure your discussions so that everyone contributes, plus they’ll have more time to consider what they want to say before responding. Class size helps determine how you organize discussions. In a larger class of, say, 100 students, you can set up smaller discussion groups of 20 or so people so that students can get to know their fellow classmates.