Blog Post 7: Strategies for Online Motivation

 Carissa Dembinski

Online Motivation

    Keeping students engaged in an online setting can be quite challenging, but there are many ways that it can be done. The first strategy that I would use is educational games or game-like activities. This approach makes learning more fun and easier to understand as the students feel more like they are simply playing a game without even realizing that they are learning and retaining the class material. The next strategy I would use is regularly communicating with students or taking polls to find out what their current interests are and update lesson plans based on that information. The next thing I would do ensure that I am always "present" in the online setting by replying to students in a timely manner, answering any questions, holding zoom or other video meetings, offer tutoring, post regular announcement, etc. I would also make sure to have assignments and activities that need to be worked on in groups as well as having peer review and editing assignments when working on things like essays or studying. However, I do understand that even in an online setting, there will be students who experience extreme social anxieties when working in groups of people that they don't know well, which in turn, will can cause them to not become engaged in such activities so I would like to create some kind of way for them to participate in these assignments in a way that would make them more comfortable, like perhaps allowing them to pick their group or have their work reviewed by a family member or teacher instead of a student they don't know. The last strategy that I would use to keep my students engaged online is giving the class materials and information out in a way that fits each of their learning styles. Each student learns in a different way so presenting information in one particular fashion will not be helpful to most. 

    For the online games I would use apps such as Kahoot or Bottle or create my own "quizzes" for students to test their knowledge in a fun, stress-free way. I would also make sure I am always updating my lesson plans according to the students interests. An example of this would be something I have recently done with my preschoolers. Many of them were very much into dinosaurs at one time so instead of doing the art activity I had planned for that day, I had them dip our toy dinosaurs in paint to make "dino footprints". Doing this got them really excited and they actually wanted to take part in the activity and didn't get bored with it within minutes. In order to appeal to all of my students' learning styles I would post my lectures in different formats for the different learning styles. For example, I could post the key points as flashcards or videos for visual learners, lectures or podcasts for auditory learners, etc. Overall, I would make sure I am always available to answer questions and assist with class work and check in regularly to ensure my students are engaged and interested.