How to Increase Student Engagement (5 Step Framework for Instructors)

There are millions of online courses out there. But only a few thousands get recognised. And only a few hundreds truly impact a student’s learning journey. Yet, the average completion rate of these regular courses fall between 5%-15%.

Imagine waking up on Monday morning, and you’re about to start your week’s course delivery. You’ve worked hard on the content, but can’t shake off this question: Will I be able to keep my students engaged?

What if gamifying your course could not only make teaching more enjoyable but also drastically improve student involvement?

Today, I’ll give you a 5-step blueprint that will help you increase student engagement and make every course session a win-win.

Let’s dive in

1. Create Mini-Sections

Course sections often consist of multiple concepts and topics which can get overwhelming for students.

Just like mini-games in life help us complete tasks, think of your course sections as mini-games. Each section can be broken down into a further smaller section covering a single concept, making it easier to complete for students.

Every time a student completes a section, they get that dopamine hit. This small but powerful neurochemical change boosts their motivation to move on to the next section.

Here’s what you can do:
Divide your course into bite-sized sections. Only cover a single concept in a section with various course items – quizzes, labs, articles and videos to re-enforce the learning.

2. The Big Boss: Complex Concepts

Every course has that one complex concept that students dread — the Big Boss.

Use interactive labs to ‘defeat’ this boss.

Here’s what you can do:
Identify the complex concepts in your course and build an interactive lab around it. You can also pick an interactive lab, relevant to your concept, from the “Public Lab Library”. This library has 1000+ questions to add and supercharge your course with interactivity

Once the ‘Big Boss’ is defeated, the sense of accomplishment and the endorphin release make other tasks in the course seem more achievable.

3. The Question Answer Loop

Whenever students opt for an online course, they often get multiple questions and doubts which slows down their learning process.

The possibility of having questions addressed in real-time or near real-time adds an interactive layer to the learning experience. It also helps students to engage more deeply with the material and feel supported in their learning journey.

Here’s what you can do:
Set aside some time during your week, at least once or twice where you can get back to all the questions and doubts on your course items.

Navigate to the comments sections inside your instructor dashboard and quickly jump to the necessary comment.

This will also give you a good reflection of how your course is being perceived by the students. If you notice a lot of questions on a particular concept, you should consider updating your course with more information on that concept.

Set aside time each week to provide constructive feedback on student submissions. Make use of codedamn’s communication features to directly connect with your students about their progress and hurdles.

4. Gamify your Course

Keeping an online course interactive had been a common hurdle for everyone – until now.

Codedamn allows you to turn your course into a fun, engaging learning session for students by adding interactive quizzes and evaluative labs!

Adding such interactive elements fosters a challenging environment, elevating the whole learning experience.

Here’s what you can do:
Whenever you add a course item – a video, or an article, consider combining it with an interactive item – like a quiz.

Build your course keeping in mind the interactivity ration, the more it is interactive, the better the learning experience is.

5. Summarise with a Personal Touch

Once students complete a course or a section of it, they may feel overwhelmed by the volume of information they’ve absorbed.

Summarising key points aids in memory retention and provides students with a conceptual framework that ties the course material together. A personal message from you can serve as a motivational booster.

Here’s what you can do:
At the end of each course or module, offer a quick summary or recap that distills the most important points. You can also include a personal message that encourages students to apply what they’ve learned, congratulates them on their progress, or previews what’s to come in future courses.

Conclusion

Teaching is a tough job, but who says it can’t be fun?

By gamifying your approach to student engagement, you’re not just making your life easier; you’re also boosting the educational experience for your students.

Incorporate these practices in your existing courses or the next time you’re building a course.

If you need any help while building a course on codedamn, connect with team codedamn in our exclusive discord server for instructors: https://cdm.sh/instructor-discord, we respond to everyone within an hour!

All the best,
Team codedamn