MAXIMIZING STUDENT ENGAGEMENT in LIVE VIRTUAL CLASSES

Name: MAXIMIZING STUDENT ENGAGEMENT in LIVE VIRTUAL CLASSES
Rating: 4.8 (3 reviews)

For College Instructors Looking for an Edge

Created byPeter Beresford

Last updated 3/2025

English

What you'll learn

Maximize Student Engagement on Zoom (and similar platforms)

Course content

4 sections • 17 lectures • 45m total length

Introduction3:58
Explore top recommendations to boost student engagement in live virtual classes, grounded in research and general best practices, to bridge the human-element gap and improve learning outcomes across platforms.
Research2:41
Explore research on student learning and motivation in live virtual classes, showing engagement declines due to distractions, multitasking, cell phone use, and covid-related disconnection.
Universal Teaching Best Practices2:47
Master your subject and prepare thoroughly using universal teaching best practices. Plan with a clear outline, provide formative feedback, and explain the why behind tasks to sustain engagement and accountability.

1 on 1 meetings2:01
Schedule one-on-one meetings in virtual classroom to build trust. Keep them 3–5 minutes, ask open-ended questions, start at the term’s start and middle, and make it optional for large classes.
Use Names2:31
Using names in live virtual classes boosts attention and engagement by greeting each student, acknowledging presence, and calling on students randomly with simple tasks to foster a socratic-like interaction.
Use Breakout Rooms Regularly2:20
Use breakout rooms regularly to shift accountability to students, foster collaboration, and boost motivation in virtual classes; combine think-pair-share to structure individual thinking before sharing.
Shorten Lectures2:03
Shorten lectures by breaking content into concise chunks and intersperse with brief group work, converting passive lecturing into active dialogue to sustain engagement in live virtual classes.
Use Shared Collaborative Docs (ex. Google Docs)2:03
Harness shared documents like Google Docs to enable simultaneous editing and group collaboration, while maintaining privacy-aware use in virtual classes.
Use Primers2:11
Use primers to prime students' emotional state, helping them shed distractions, join a shared focus, and become ready to learn in the live virtual class.
Enable Social Connection2:18
Enable social connection in live virtual classes to boost student engagement and mental health, by using breakout rooms for socializing and prompts in forums, like sharing recipes or favorites.
Increase Non-Verbal Communication4:04
Enhance engagement in live virtual classes by using expressive facial cues and energy, and employing public chat, private chat, emojis, and polls for comprehension and readiness checks.
Sleeping Giants - Unlimited, Ungrade, Extra Work2:20
Explore sleeping giants, or optional ungraded unlimited work, to motivate students with unlimited, ungraded tasks. Create a shared tracking document to log minutes, pages, or articles summarized, building trust.

Gatekeep Groupwork1:54
Apply gatekeeping group work to protect groups by assigning prepared students to collaborative tasks, while using class time to help unprepared peers catch up; this boosts motivation through social pressure.
Plant Answers2:03
Use Plentitude Answers, or Bridgid answers, where the teacher provides the answer in group or breakout rooms. Boost engagement in shy classes and demonstrate teacher accountability to elevate participation.
Handling Questions and Answers2:11
Use redirecting questions to move the focus from teacher to students and encourage participation. Turn incorrect answers into learning opportunities rather than simply labeling responses as wrong.

Bonus Tips6:22
Bonus tips offer six practical strategies to boost engagement in live virtual classes: curb phone distractions, schedule breaks, foster participation, adjust pacing, encourage camera use, and optimize eye contact.
Thank you and Goodbye1:18
Maximize student engagement in live virtual classes by sharing best practices, exploring limitless ideas, and focusing on the what and why to create meaningful classroom experiences.

Requirements

None

Description

CAUTION: Your live virtual class (on Zoom, etc.) is now just one more tab in a sea of tabs open on your students’ computers.

You are officially competing with Youtube, Netflix, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, the news, their phone, and their dog. They have infinite options, literally one-click away, to listen to content that is more interesting than your class.

How can instructors grab student attention, and spark engagement, to create a unique and meaningful classroom experience that is worth showing up for? How can we overcome the 8 obstacles below:

Compared to the traditional classroom, live virtual classrooms present UNIQUE and NEW obstacles to teaching well:

1. an increased sense of separateness, and decreased connection.

2. near total loss of socializing between students, loss of ability to build trust, bonds, friendships. No chat before/after class, in the hallway, on breaks, etc.

3. Zoom fatigue: “exhaustion felt due to the increased cognitive demands of video conferencing communication”.

4. decreased accountability for students to “pay attention”.

5. genuinely short attention spans, getting shorter by the month due to smart phones and social media.

6. a natural tendency for students to treat screens passively, to observe class like a show.

7. the ability for students to “hide” behind black screens or be totally unresponsive.

8. the ability for students to multitask during class: to be on their phone, playing games, watching videos.

All of these obstacles above, if not addressed and handled well by the instructor, can make teaching live virtual classes an absolutely excruciating experience. The passionate spark that attracted many of us to teaching, that love of real human interaction, has been completely eliminated. If instructors don’t make adjustments, they can be left with classes that can feel flat, forgettable, and disheartening.

Enroll in this thorough course to learn more than 15 proven techniques to overcome the obstacles above, and RE-ENGAGE with your students.

Who this course is for:

College level instructors who teach on Zoom (or similar platforms)

MAXIMIZING STUDENT ENGAGEMENT in LIVE VIRTUAL CLASSES

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Introduction3 lectures • 9min

Techniques to Maximize Engagement on Zoom9 lectures • 22min

Advanced Techniques3 lectures • 6min

Bonus Content and Goodbye2 lectures • 8min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: