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: Maximize engagement with non-task interaction
Non-task interactions are those exchanges that are not part of the direct learning, but help create a supportive learning community. You can facilitate these types of interactions by leveraging the social networking capabilities that are available in many learning management systems, such as chat and webconferencing. Using the group functionality, students can create special interest groups or study groups. If your LMS doesn’t have the functionality to support a social network, you can still create one with a private Facebook page or one of the many group messaging apps available, such as Telegram and Slack. Of important note, academic social networks require planning and ongoing maintenance. The value of the social network needs to be explicit before it will become a common destination. Many schools begin by asking students to create bios and add profile pictures, but these activities alone will not encourage students to keep coming back to the network. Techniques for transforming the social network into a destination include frequently updating content (on a weekly or if possible daily basis) and incorporating contributions to the social network into classes (e.g. using the social network tools for group work; asking students to post their discussion contributions into their social network feed). 4.