Engaging your students online

Engaging students online is one of the most challenging yet rewarding aspects of delivering in an online environment. This topic is covered in depth in our workshop "Engagement and Communication with Distance Learners", however the sections below cover a quick reference of the key areas: communication, scaffolding, discussion boards and communities. 

Our key tip for you to promote student engagement is to model engaged behaviour yourself. If you are present online, proactive in communication and responsive to your students, it is more likely that your students will model this behaviour as well. 

The two videos below discuss engaging and motivating students in an online environment. The first is a video from our conference on Student Engagement in Blended and Online Learning of November 2016, and the second is from Learning to Teach Online by the University of New South Wales College of Fine Art in January 2011.