Motivating students doesn’t suddenly become easier when learning gains an online component. In this week’s webinar, Cambridge trainer and blended learning expert Deirdre Cijffers offered some advice on how to improve students’ engagement levels when they’re involved in blended learning.
You can find all of Deirdre’s advice in the webinar recording below, but we’ve picked out five of her top suggestions as a taster…
- To get students motivated right from the very start of the semester, take some time to find out their interests and reasons for learning English. This not only prompts them to be more self-aware in their learning, but it also allows you to tweak the content of your lessons to match those interests, and so make lessons more engaging for them. Even if you can’t change the actual content of the session, you may be able to change the perspective from which you approach the topic.
- It’s important to keep learning goals in mind throughout the semester. When you begin a new unit, look at the learning goals with your class, and then make sure to review them at the end: that will give students a sense of their short-term progress, building their confidence.
- To increase the likelihood of students’ completing their online activities, make sure to spare some time in class to talk through what they involve, and then show them that the work they do online is valued by praising some of the best online work in the following class.
- When you remind students to complete their online work, make sure to phrase your emails positively: make them sound more like opportunities to be part of the winning team than nagging reminders…
- Regardless of your institution’s assessment policy, you must make sure that the online component counts towards the final grade in some way, perhaps as part of a continuous assessment grade. If not, students will be less inclined to take it seriously.