The communication method in education is continuously changing with the advent of technology. “Distance learning or teaching” symbolized a new way of teaching methods. Online education enlarges the physical distance between professors and students, which is the future education trend. As a new teaching form, online education will attract more students and teachers in the future (Major, 2015). This innovation education form allows learning across time and space, which will symbolize the higher education.

Students, without attending lectures in school, learn the same material and knowledge online, which saves travel time and cost. Students are able to arrange learning time based on their schedules, which is more flexible and convenient. The principle of how to evaluate student’s engagement is difficult to formulate. Student engagement presents one’s learning attitude and desire to be educated, leading them to realize the higher-level thinking success. It includes a student’s motivation, attention, and involvement. Motivation has two categories: internal and external, which presents student’s interest in learning subjects and specific factors as grades, scholarship. Attention means that during the process of learning a student’s ability to ignore other influence factors. Involvement depends on students’ effort to spend on the learning subjects, and it requires student’s learning interest and expected goal to support.

Instructors with new technology should properly design learning material to achieve the expected learning outcomes and engage students in activities, with less face-to-face interaction, communication becomes the first problem. Strategies include:

  • Use student-led pedagogies: In the activity, students control over the learning pace, which provides opportunities for student fully engage in and stimulate their motivation
  • Use pedagogies that empower students in the pedagogical process: allowing students to revise the course syllabus, and acting as instructors in the course. This activity helps students to learn more active and reflective
  • Use pedagogies that enable students to connect their personal interests to course content
  • Use pedagogies that stimulate reality
  • Use pedagogies that have students create authentic products
  • Use multiple and varied pedagogies that require documented student action

Thus, instructors should follow these strategies to engage students in an online class.

 

Reference:

Major, C. H. (2015). Teaching online: A guide to theory, research, and practice. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.