Virtual learning is a relatively new education plan revolutionizing the education sector. While it’s an extensive, crisis-driven approach, it has caught most stakeholders unprepared. Learning institutions strive to explore effective ways to streamline curriculum delivery and enhance student engagement.
In the virtual classroom environment, students often miss the sense of community available in traditional learning settings. Subsequently, students may feel isolated and lose the motivation to excel. However, the following practices can enhance student engagement and performance in a virtual learning environment.
Personalized Learning Experience and Feedback
Every student is unique, and teaching institutions should customize the learning experience to meet diverse needs in a cohort. A personalized learning experience is more meaningful and relevant for students– which is essential for optimal engagement and motivation.
Educators can ensure student engagement by providing personalized attention and feedback to students. Ideally, you should acknowledge each student in a virtual classroom and provide feedback to maintain engagement.
Involving and interacting with each student in every lesson ensures the entire class is following the course material and gaining from the learning process. In addition, you can create sessions for personalized interactions where students can receive personalized help and feedback after the teaching session.
Introduce Gamification and Encourage Peer Collaboration
Gamification is a creative strategy to enhance student engagement and motivation in a virtual classroom setting. Typically, you can incorporate game-play elements like point-scoring, non-aggressive competition, and rewards in the learning process. In addition you can make the learning tasks more interesting by creating student teams and turning the process into a subtle contest.
Maintaining attention in the learning process can be daunting when you have multiple students in the same virtual classroom. You can facilitate virtual collaboration by introducing group discussions where students discuss course material and share perspectives. After the short discussions, students can resume the classroom session to review learning outcomes and experiences.
Similarly, you can also schedule recurring group sessions outside of the normal learning sessions. For instance, a weekly 30-minute group discussion can help students work on specific subjects they may be struggling with.
Asynchronous Learning
Asynchronous learning is an essential element in online education and virtual reality training since it helps students interact with the course material at their convenience. Besides managing scheduled classes, asynchronous learning requires educators to offer pre-recorded videos and other curriculum materials with coursework lessons that students can revisit when necessary.
Most importantly, asynchronous learning can support students who may struggle to keep up with normal class time schedules. On the other hand, you can implement a hybrid approach with both synchronous sessions and asynchronous learning after the live classes.
Endnote
A virtual learning environment is a relatively new concept for learning institutions and students alike. The approach requires significant creativity to make the teaching process engaging and educational. While the format seems effective and convenient, the transition from a face-to-face education approach can pose challenges. However, there are various strategies to enhance engagement and performance in virtual classrooms.
Published by: Martin De Juan
