From a practical perspective, true both of in-person and online classes, you can't engage students who are not present. Thus, one goal of engaging students is helping them develop a sense of belonging…and fostering a class environment in which that can happen. I am by no means an expert either in the philosophy or the practice of this concept, but I can at least give a few of examples of how I try to help students feel comfortable participating in my classes, even when taught online.
When I think back on my experiences as a college student, the individual classes and topics that stand out in my mind were ones in which the professors were dynamic and tried to develop a light mood in the classroom (even if we were laughing more at them and less with them, if you know what I mean). I try to do the same by introducing myself with some humor and by hopefully making me seem more of a person and less of an authority figure. For example, as part of my introduction, I often tell students that the student of genetics is about DNA, and about how changes to our DNA (mutations) can cause differences between individuals. I go on to explain that I am a mutant: I have a mutation in one gene that is involved in color vision, which is why I'm red-green color blind. That usually opens up a good introductory discussion about what exactly it means to be a mutant, and how scientists define what organism is (and is not) a mutant.
Perhaps most importantly, the first day of class is also a great day to remind students that you're there to help them learn and succeed, and that you're on their team! One approach I use on the first day of class is to ask students if they have any questions for me about anything: class mechanics, the class topic, or about me. Sometimes I have brave students ask silly questions, like what my favorite color is - and that's what I hope happens, because we can have some casual banter and demonstrate that it is easy to ask questions.
It is essential, in my mind, to address student questions in ways that validate the student's perspective and experiences. I'll have to reflect more on this, because I'm not self-aware exactly of how I do this, but I know from student course evaluations that they're aware! I often get comments about how they feel like I respect student input in the class. It might be because I use good tactics for effective communication. For example, when a student asks a question, I clarify by re-stating the question in my own words, like, "If I understand your question correctly, then I think you're asking…(this)?" Another tactic I use is to thank students for asking questions, like, "Thank you for asking that! I had almost forgotten to mention that," or "That's an excellent and insightful question."
With respect to potential benefits of a virtual environment for building community, I'm very much looking forward to how Zoom works with respect to something I'm absolutely terrible at: remembering student names. I hope we all can envision how important it could be to help students feel welcome and involved if their teacher refers to them by name - I know I felt that way when my teachers, especially in large classes, remembered my name! However, I'm essentially face blind (I have a diagnosed deficit in the ability to connect names and faces). So, thank you videoconferencing for clearly displaying each student's name beneath their video feed!
I have one final (somewhat tangential) example of another way that virtual class meetings might help level the playing field in student interaction and engagement. You might have encountered a class (though to extent this happens in every class) in which one or two students almost always have a question or want to respond to a question you pose. To this day, I'm still uncomfortable in that situation: what's the best way to kindly tell those students that others need an opportunity to participate as well? Again, I think videoconferencing will help lend me a crutch. I wonder if the dynamic of the virtual classroom is such that I (and maybe the students, too) will feel less of the "in the moment - everybody is watching" pressure for students to decide whether to raise their hands above the sea of their peers' heads and for me to decide how long to wait before selecting a student to respond to my inquiry. In other words, I expect that Zoom will help reduce that pressure to the point where I feel more comfortable saying, "Ok, I see that three students have used the Raise Hand feature in Zoom; I'm going to wait until at least two more join in before I choose somebody to respond." Plus…I hope the more strict rules of Zoom (please use the chat to ask a question, or Raise Hand…don't just unmute yourself and start talking) will also help abolish the practice of the students who routinely blurt out answers before I even get a chance to call on somebody else to participate!
The intended net effect of the decisions we make about how to run our first class meetings are to accomplish two things, I think: the first is to make the course topic relevant and interesting to as many students as possible. The second is to develop a course atmosphere that is not stressful and that is engaging and affirming. As long as we're mindful about the need to do this, we've made good strides in helping build a strong class community.
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