How to engage students with online learning has been a significant concern with education; considering the intense distraction associated with online learning, which gradually fades away their ability to focus, you may wonder what activities generate a stronger desire for students to study.
Students will have a greater desire and capacity to participate in the learning process with a high degree of attention, interest, and enthusiasm in these online learning activities. Below are online learning activities for college students.
Tips on online learning activities for college students
1. Use stories in the online learning process
You may transmit a vital message to one another via storytelling by fully knowing, meaning, and gaining the real facts behind that piece of information. Stories are significantly more memorable than figures or facts, and if you really want to pique every student’s interest, combining narrative with data visualization may make all the difference.
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2. Make your online activities more interesting with Prezi video
Prezi video allows you to connect directly to any video conferencing platform, with your content displayed as you carry out your presentation with your slide appearing next to you on screen. Prezi video makes it much easier to grab students’ attention and boost online student engagement, as opposed to Zoom, Meet, Google, and Microsoft Team, which normally appear as a small rectangle in the corner of your screen.
Using Prezi videos will keep the classroom engaged, as well as provide an opportunity to explore new approaches in storytelling, doing projects, and presenting. Every college student will improve their creative and presentation style with each assignment. Prezi Video allows you to record videos for students to re-watch later effortlessly, and it can be utilized to offer online lectures independent of the video conference used.
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3. Using different feedback methods to engage students
Though most college students are not interested in it, it is effective enough to include in your online lessons. Because it is a kind of art for better social living, receiving and giving constructive feedback such as; asking students’ opinions on your lesson material, whether it is up to standard or not, their response on this will help you improve the materials or your method of teaching. And this can help bring new ideals to your classroom.
Giving feedback to your students is also crucial for their performance; a one-on-one approach will engage them and give them a sense of importance; this will build some level of trust between the students and the tutor, which will further motivate them to improve on their areas of weakness.
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4. Connect students with live responses during online classes
One of the significant challenges of using visual presenters is the inability to interact with one another. However, many video interfaces allow you to add specific reactions during a virtual call, such as thumbs up or applause.
Furthermore, you can engage these students more during their online learning by allowing them to immediately show a GIF reaction, picture, or sticker with Prezi Video. You may ask these students to post a GIF or photo that expresses their mood as soon as the lectures begin; this is a terrific approach to connecting students and increasing their attentiveness during online learning.
5. Mini-TED Talk Competition
A successful presentation requires various abilities, ranging from time management to information analysis to developing visual material and public speaking. It would be very beneficial if all students had these presenting skills in college. Students can be inspired by displaying a list of the most remarkable TED talks on subjects such as science, technology, design, and so on to experience a great TED talk.
They can also be assisted in creating one by making a list of topics with speech requirements and the necessary tools needed to create their own virtual presentation, such as Prezi’s student software, and after creating these outstanding virtual presentations, encourage them to create more.
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6. Make interactive homework assignments
Though students may not often like homework, giving practical assignments such as assigning homework to develop a summary on a subject in whatever format they choose, such as animated or recorded video, or web pages, can help interest these students. Assigning group projects that encourage students to exhibit their creativity on a high level will also encourage them to do the essential research to ensure the success of their activities.
Assigning lots of interactive homework, if possible involving social media, may spark a surge in their creativity, such as by allowing them to explore and explain the trick behind the TikTok algorithm, Instagram, or Twitter hashtags. Assigning these interactive home or group work will create such an interesting environment for these college students, especially since most students spend their time on social media.
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Conclusion
Whether we like it or not, online learning is here to stay. The best we can do is make the most of it by developing students’ ability to research information and get important information and reports by using different education tools for deeper earning.
As a tutor, you get to prepare for a class before the class, brief these students on the importance of the chosen topic before it actually begins, and set up such amazing and interesting concepts if possible. And if feasible, include these students’ worries and doubts into the lecture schedule by using a form in which they specify their query, which will be answered later in class.