Engagement has been the big puzzle in the remote teaching environment. Although what I perceived as engagement in the face-to-face environment may have been incorrect. Face-to-face we can use facial expressions, gaze, body language, participation, and gesture to gauge engagement. Remotely with many students off-camera and muted, many of these no longer apply. And even in the face-to-face setting, the seemingly attentive student may not actually be mentally engaged (since we cannot see the inner workings of their brain). So where does that leave us? I've decided to focus on "small victories." For example, nearly every class I used a Zoom poll, often just a generic one to see if they had any questions after we went over something together. Each time, I had near 100% participation in the poll. They felt safe enough to answer, due to anonymity and the format most likely. I would also utilize chat and, again, most students would chime in there too. But if I were to judge engagement by unmuting and talking or eye contact/camera on, I would have felt like I'd failed. The same applies to their time in breakout rooms. I found that if they had an artifact to produce, say on a Google Slide, they were much more likely to engage in the activity as evidenced by the fact that there was something completed. I know that none of this is revelatory, but it was a turning point for me last semester when I accepted these small victories and shifted what I perceived actual engagement to be.
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Chris Sabino
Associate Professor
Harold Washington College
Chicago IL
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-11-2021 08:48
From: Evan Evans
Subject: IMPACT in Action - Engagement #2
What do you think motivates students to engage in your learning environment? Share your thoughts here, but if you have a more detailed activity/document, feel free to share it by posting it in the All Access Public Library and then providing the link to your entry in this discussion thread.
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Evan Evans
Professor of Mathematics
Frederick CC
Frederick MD
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