A study published in 2019, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed that students learn more when they take part in classes that employ active-learning strategies. In other words, actively engaging your students will have a greater impact on their education than delivering a lecture that they will passively listen to.
This year has resulted in many changes in education. Due to a global pandemic, you may have found your lessons now need to be delivered online. If you were struggling to create interactive lessons in a classroom setting, you may think it will be even harder online. However, that is not the case. Here are some top tips for making online education interactive:
Engaging content is essential for keeping students attentive in their online classes. If you are looking for an effective and simple way to create content that engages students then you can use Renderforest Animation Maker.
One of the great things about this tool is there is a free version that your students can also use. Therefore you can incorporate animation in two ways to engage students. By presenting concepts to your class and bringing your learning to life. But also by asking students to create their own animations to help them demonstrate they have an understanding of the concepts you are teaching.
Active participation in your pupils will make it more likely for them to give their full attention to your class or materials. Encourage students to participate and interact in your online lessons by:
- Creating class-wide discussions, and getting even the shyest students to voice their thoughts.
- Get the students to create. Have them complete worksheets or build projects and upload photos or demonstrate videos of their completed work.
Peer evaluation works just as well offline as it does online. Have your students review the work of other classmates to help reinforce the lessons they are learning. This also helps build a culture of open communication and feedback in your online classroom and can help students build the confidence to share their opinions with others.
Think, Pair, Share
This tactic you may have used in your classroom before and can quickly be applied to online education.
Create a problem and then pair your students together. Give the pair time to communicate together and form a solution or conclusion to the problem. It is then time for each member of the pair to voice the solution in their own words.
This is a great technique for encouraging interaction as it creates a non intimidating way to share their thoughts. They do have to be in the position where they discuss materials with classmates but are not forced into the sometimes uncomfortable situation of talking in front of a classroom of students.
