10 Tips to Engage Online Learners – How to make learning interesting?

We all know that sometimes it can be difficult to engage learners with online learning. Sometimes there are possibilities of incorporating a few elements in online learning that can bring hopes to engage learners. But it is important to understand that learners need to be engaged for better learning outcomes. The question is how to become an engaged learner?

Online learning is creating an impact in the education system by imparting knowledge and skills to the learner. So it is necessary to understand how learners can be benefited from this learning. We must implement a few strategies or tips to increase the involvement of learners. Sometimes you might feel like losing interest in learning due to outdated teaching methods, lack of confidence, poor course content and learning activities etc. This way, you can easily get easily distracted from learning. You should follow the tips mentioned below to engage learners for better academic performance.

Most of the teachers feel student engagement is the most important factor for high-quality learning experiences. And they do realise engaging students can improve their learning ability. So let us look into some of the tips that can engage learners.

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10 Tips to Engage Online Learners 

# 1 Engage Online Learners – Stick to the point  

Tips to Engage Online Learners 

We should make sure that content presented in online learning should be relevant and realistic. It should be appealing to learners with clear headings for the content. Sometimes it can appear to lose interest in learning due to outdated and unclear content. Make sure to update the content with accurate and authentic information for better learning outcomes. Use real life examples wherever necessary in content for clear understanding of the concepts and ideas. 

• Provide content with real life examples
• Limited information for better understanding
• Focus on the points in the course content 
• Content should be well researched and authentic

#2 Engage Online Learners – Connect with Learners

Online learning has many platforms for communication. You must ensure that multiple platforms for communication should be introduced to the learners for example, video and audio chats, messaging, announcements etc.They should feel your support by appreciating their work and performance. Make sure you communicate with them frequently via email, msgs, calls or by commenting on their post. Online learning helps learners to participate in discussions that are more traceable and visible. 

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Tips to Engage Online Learners 

• You can create platform for discussions and interaction among learners
• Take and give feedback regarding course content
• Connect with learners personally as well as academically 
• Ask learners to introduce themselves in the online platform 
• Build teamwork to learn collaboration and team management 
• Create spontaneous communication platform 
• Connect learners to everyday lives 
• Help learners to connect their learning with career, family and friends. 
• Create access to contacts of teachers and learners
• Assure learners of your availability via calls and msgs 
• Provide proper directions in multiple ways by video conferencing, calls or text messages 

#3 Engage Online Learners – Learning Activities

We feel that online learning only impart knowledge sitting in one place in front of the computers. But it is not true as it helps in engaging students with different learning activities. You should make sure the activities conducted for the students are effective. You should design a course that is not restricted to only sitting in front of the computers, but also involving them in active learning. Conduct hands-on activities for the learners such as model making, virtual field trips, collecting materials from the surroundings, assigning surveys in the communities and involving them in debates, quizzes, extempore, role play, painting, case studies and projects. You can give them tasks that need a lot of physical effort and communication which can engage them throughout the learning process. 

Tips to Engage Online Learners 

• Collect prior information on the content you want to prepare for class for appropriate materials 
• You can inform prior about the topic for the next session so that they will prepare for discussion. 
• Build questioning abilities among learners 
• Use variety of multimedia for learning methods 
• You can replace texts with videos and images depending on the topic for better understanding 

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#4 Engage Online Learners – Games and Rewards 

Learners of any age groups have always been inclined to games. It can be an added advantage when games are introduced in the course content for engaging learners. You can conduct games for specific topics concerning your course and reward the winners for their participation. In this way, learners can involve themselves in learning as there is fun and appreciation at the same time. You can reward learners for their participation and performance. 

Gamification can help you engage learners in course activities and encourage them to learn. You should implement a few games that can make lessons fun and interesting. For example, quiz, where you can include rewards for each correct answer. Rewards can help you in engaging and motivating learners in difficult courses also.

Tips to Engage Online Learners 

• Create activities for learners and reward them
• Conduct in house or outdoor activities for learners 
• Rewards can be in the form of appreciation, points or marks 
• Focus on rewarding learners for their effort, progress and behaviour. 
• Play guessing games, quizzes, number games etc
• Give assignments and projects to come up with new games for learning 

#5 Engage Online Learners – Keep it short 

The content should be broken down into smaller sections and lessons. It is important to make it shorter so that information can be easily read and understood at a faster rate. We should understand that longer the content soon will be a distraction. Make sure that you give content that is required only for their learning outcomes. There should be clarity in the content delivered to them. And breaking down the complex into simpler ones can result in  good academic content. Ultimately the content should be included which learners really need to know. Do not teach everything in a single course. 

Tips to Engage Online Learners 

• Content should be arranged in logical way for effective learning process
• Conceptualise meaningful content for each chapters and units 
• It should be easy and simple to understand 
• Send reminders to ensure timely delivery of assignments and projects 
• Provide checklist of tasks with time duration

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#6 Engage Online Learners – Personalised Guidance

Every learner needs guidance and feedback from their teachers to keep them engaged in the learning journey. Teachers should encourage learners for their performance in assignments, tests and projects. Frequent feedback and assessment will have an impact on their future effort. For learners to perform well in their assignments they need to be informed about their current performance. Teachers should provide feedback that is detailed and positive for effective learning. You should help them in identifying their weaknesses and strengths for better learning outcomes. 

Tips to Engage Online Learners 

• Ask learners to come up with sign language to communicate such as thumbs up or wave 
• Give break for every session 
• Provide effective feedback
• Conduct regular tests or assignments 
• Provide personal guidance individually 

#7 Engage Online Learners – Organize Content 

You should make sure that course content should be organized in an effective manner. It should be with respect to learners’ interest. The screen should be clutter free so that students can focus only on content displayed. It is important to update the content for better learning outcomes. Content should be designed keeping in mind research, emerging trends and practices. All the other relevant content should be updated in article, video, podcast videos, session recordings etc. 

Tips to Engage Online Learners 

• Organize the content with units and chapters 
• Set time duration for each topic 
• Design easy and simple content for better understanding
• Prepare content using offline resources such as MS Word, Powerpoint and MS Excel. 
• You can use a whiteboard for immediate writing during live sessions

#8 Engage Online Learners – Storytelling 

Anyone can get engaged or engrossed in listening to the topic if it is in the form of storytelling. Am I right? As you know,  we all love to hear good stories. It helps relate to us in some way or the other. Stories can develop emotions that can help us in remembering information delivered. For example, if you want to explain about the ozone layer,  narrate in the form stories along with examples. This way, learners will be engaged in learning and improve their retention power. You can conduct many activities with storytelling. You can ask the learner to come up with a story related to curriculum and narrate to the whole class. Also they can take up case studies of historians or famous personalities in the form of stories. 

Tips to Engage Online Learners 

• Conduct role plays
• Give projects or assignments related to storytelling 
• Narrate content in the form of stories 
• Use materials or props for depicting the characters of the story

#9 Engage Online Learners – Build Community

Online learning should develop a lot of interaction with peers, teachers and academic experts so that learners will be motivated. You should encourage students to ask questions and receive feedback from them. Create a platform for the students to discuss topics and queries related to their subjects. Give them space and time to complete their tasks so that they can build trust in you and focus on completing their assignments. Make sure that you advise learners to keep communicating with each other. You should create a communication platform for video chats and messages for learners. If there is strong community build around learners, they will be able to approach you without any hesitation. 

Tips to Engage Online Learners 

• Connect with learners via emails, videos and messages 
• Encourage learners to comment and suggest each others work 
• Conduct peer review and feedback sessions for learners 
• Create activity for learners such as icebreaker games for community interaction
• Provide opportunities for discussions and interaction among learners
• Create online learning groups for communication 
• Encourage sharing of resources related to the course through social media or any online learning tools

#10 Engage Online Learners – Motivate and Set goals

New learning methods can motivate learners if it is linked to the prior knowledge. Everyone might possess some goals for their learning. But it is important to trigger their goals in order to improve their learning experience. You should be aware of their goals which can help in designing courses and delivering them. This will help in building strong relationships with learners. They develop a sense of achievement by gaining support from you by knowing their goals. Once you understand their goal, developing content will be easy based on real-life situations and examples. 

Tips to Engage Online Learners 

• Help them in succeeding in their tasks 
• Structure their tasks for quick learning 
• Encourage learners to share their ideas with other learners

We hope that this article on ‘Tips to Engage Online Learners’ has been useful for you. In case, you have some other ideas or need other suggestions, comment in the box below. We will like to cover it in our next article.

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