Designing and Teaching for Student Engagement in Online Courses Through UDL

Any course must be goal-focused and consider the needs of all learners. However, online courses require instructors to be proactive in planning for learning. Recruiting and sustaining engagement in an online course must be carefully considered and planned for during all learning modules or units. This chapter addresses how to keep students engaged by considering their affect, the general way students feel toward their learning. Affect impacts motivation, which in turn can impact how a student persists in a course. The Universal Design for Learning principle of engagement addresses the affect through three guidelines. These guidelines are explained in this chapter with potential barriers to student learning and motivation explained as well. Furthermore, possible solutions are provided to give readers examples of ways in which they might reduce or remove barriers to engagement in their online courses.

Going Digital

The purpose of this chapter is to explore teacher immediacy strategies that help online instructors form connections with students while teaching in distance learning environments. Teacher immediacy consists of both verbal and nonverbal behaviors teachers can use that generate perceptions of closeness with students, which often feels lacking in a distance learning environment. Specific examples of immediacy behaviors in online courses are provided. The chapter shares examples of student/teacher interactions in a course built around teacher immediacy principles, identifying the specific principles visible in each interaction. Finally, the chapter ends with recommendations for practice using teacher immediacy strategies to build relationships with students in online courses.

Enhancing Student Engagement Online

Online instruction must go beyond what has become traditional to create meaningful ways for students to actively engage with one another in online environments. This chapter will explore creative assignments that build upon old technologies like discussion forums but transform them with innovative pedagogy. The authors will give several assignment examples that model new ways to help students learn to learn online, for example, using RTTP character role playing in online discussions and creating interactive projects that are done asynchronously. The examples will display key aspects of curriculum design from learning objects through final student assessment.

The Use of Video as a Tool for Building Reflective Educators

Providing opportunities for novice and veteran teachers to reflect and asses their instruction is essential for building professional expertise. The importance of the skill of reflection has historically been valued as a critical characteristic of a good teacher. In Donald Schön's seminal work, The Reflective Practitioner (1983), he affirmed the importance of reflection in the teaching profession and stressed how skillful reflection builds professional excellence. Using Schön's work as a framework, the authors explore the use of video as a tool to support both competence and reflective practices in novice and veteran teachers enrolled in online education programs. This chapter surveys recent studies that support the growth of competent, reflective teachers. Video, combined with guidance on thoughtful reflection, support the use of instructional practices that build and strengthen teacher competence.

Theory and Application in the Design and Delivery of Engaging Online Courses

For the last quarter of a century, online learning has emerged as a viable and, in many cases, preferable instructional option for higher education students. As this wave of educational change became more prevalent and sought after by students and faculty, at times the implementation, driven by financial benefit as well as student demand, may have advanced beyond the preparation. Research and experience have now exposed numerous issues that may hinder the effectiveness of online learning for all involved stakeholders. Designing effective online courses is the first step, but too often the preparation for and focus on engaging instruction and learning ends as the course design is concluding. Recognizing the key principles behind effective student and instructor engagement may add to the overall stakeholder experience in the online learning environment.

Facilitating Student Learning Through Multisensory Tools That Engage and Foster Collaboration

This chapter describes how university professors in a principal preparation program applied technology resources to face-to-face and online instruction to intensify student interactions and engagement with the professors and each other. As a result, the learning opportunities were transformed to increase effective student and professor interaction and student learning. Professors found that utilizing multisensory technology provided platforms in which robust learning exchanges occurred that deepened learning while students and professors worked collaboratively. The chapter describes how several studies show how the use of interactive multisensory tools such as Flipgrid, VoiceThread, and GoReact provided effective pedagogical strategies that enhanced communications. The studies took place at a university that serves students from rural communities and therefore provides research about utilizing multisensory tools to improve learning for students in locations where access to higher education is challenged by geographical distances.

Creative Approaches to Teaching Life Writing Online

In this chapter, the author examines various ways in which discussions, creative blog posts, final course projects, and the real-time video tool BB Learn Collaborate can be best used to engage online students in a graduate course in “The History of Life Writing.” Moving between detailed research about technology, collaboration, and autobiography as well as her own personal reflections about her experiences teaching the course, this chapter provides some useful suggestions about how to best engage online graduate students in the subject of life writing. Finally, drawing from students' own feedback, the chapter reveals the powerful effects that real-time video conferencing can have for creating an engaging online presence for teachers and students alike.

Engaging Marginalized Students in Online Courses

Online courses are growing exponentially within the field of higher education. However, the variability of engagement, planning, and learning is wide between and among faculty members. Therefore, addressing the issue of wide variability and unclear practices when implementing online courses can be met through upfront planning, including intentionality, and the continuous contact needed for engaging students in online courses is important. Through purposeful planning and responses to questions, instructors can create the illusion of continuous contact for learners to feel heard and valued, which again creates an environment of higher student motivation. Included in the continuous contact is the strategy of providing clear structures to the course in a mutually respectful manner through video and emailed communication. Overall, when courses are designed intentionally, learners will feel valued and have more motivation to engage and learn the material.

Demystifying the Online Program Development Process

The University of Florida developed a fully online, five-course sequence that culminates in a graduate certificate in dyslexia. The certificate program, created in response to a demand from teachers, prepares participants to conduct assessments and provide evidence-based intervention for K-12 students with dyslexia. This chapter provides the rationale and describes the conceptual framework for professional learning used in the development of the program. It also includes a description of the program design and development process, from inception to implementation, and presents data from an internal program evaluation.

Developing Asynchronous Online Discussion Boards to Increase Student Engagement and Learning

The asynchronous online discussion board is a vital means of engaging learners and providing high quality instruction for students. In the past, these discussion boards have been primarily text-based, but online faculty are increasingly implementing discussion formats to increase student engagement and learning. Evidence-based online discussions include (1) both whole-class and small group discussions, (2) debates, (3) sharing products, (4) video-based discussions, (5) word cloud-based discussions, (6) jigsaw discussions, and (7) student choice in response format. In this chapter, the authors provide an overview of the literature regarding asynchronous discussions, as well as personal experience and recommendations based on their combined eight years of online instruction.