{"id":8470,"date":"2020-09-22T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-22T08:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/tel\/?p=8470"},"modified":"2020-09-07T11:31:01","modified_gmt":"2020-09-07T10:31:01","slug":"student-engagement-in-zoom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/tel\/2020\/09\/22\/student-engagement-in-zoom\/","title":{"rendered":"Student engagement in Zoom"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We all know that trying to focus on someone speaking for long periods can be very draining, more so when we are increasingly holding digital meetings where a plethora of distractions lurk behind every browser tab (the rise of the digital world appears to have decreased our already fragile attention spans<\/a>), so in a situation such as this how can you ensure that you keep your students\u2019 eyes and minds engaged and focused on your teaching and their own learning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polls<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Zoom has the ability to pose questions to participants at any point through the Poll tool which allows you to pose multiple choice question\/s to your students. You can use this to poll students on how they are finding the current session or what topic they\u2019d like to cover next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"screenshot<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For guidance on using Polls in Zoom see the Zoom guidance on Polls<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chat<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Ask students to put suggestions or ideas to a topic within the chat, even if you can\u2019t respond to all the responses due to a large cohort size or time constraints you can respond to a few responses and build on them, just the fact that your getting students to think about the question your asking them and formulating a response through typing will increase engagement and attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"screenshot<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Non-verbal feedback<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Probably the easiest way for students to interact with just a click of a button is for them to use the non-verbal feedback tools within Zoom. This allows students to choose an icon that will appear next to their name within the Participants <\/strong>menu within Zoom. Even with large cohort sizes this makes it very easy to quickly get some clear feedback from students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can use this to have regular check-ins with your students to assess their understanding and comprehension of the topic at hand, if they need a break or to see if you should adjust the pace of your session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It may also be good as a way to engage students who feel too shy or anxious about typing a response into the chat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"screenshot<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

See Zoom\u2019s guidance on non verbal feedback<\/a> for more information<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whiteboard<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The whiteboard functionality in Zoom allows you to display a whiteboard onto the screen which students can write, draw on and annotate, this can allow for a bit of informal engagement, getting students to write out a response or even draw a response to a certain question or prompt onto the whiteboard.  See Zoom\u2019s guidance on whiteboards <\/a>for more information<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019d like help with any of the features of Zoom or any of the other technologies we support then please contact Technology Enhanced Learning at tel@sussex.ac.uk<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Share this:<\/h3>