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Keeping students engaged


Summary:  

This week I read an article about keeping students engaged during online tutoring. The article was written by Marcelo Barbosa Gagliano and in the article they mention that there is a specific type of student that will succeed in this setting and they have the following characteristics: 

(Gagliano 2017)


These characteristics are definitely the ideal traits for a student who is going to engage in online learning. The article goes on to say the instruction should mirror this set up: 

(Gagliano 2017)

My Thoughts: 

When I was reading this article I immediately thought about online learning due to the COVID-19 shut down. Those great qualities mentioned above of students are definitely not the qualities all students possessed going into the pandemic. A lot of students were ok and could get a handle on what they were supposed to do, but a lot of students struggled. My ELL students definitely missed out on the hands-on attention they usually receive in the classroom. 

During the Covid Shut down I tried to mirror the second Bulleted list above, but I found that my main struggle was getting students to interact with each other. I could tell the students wanted to interact together, but they were really dead set on keeping their cameras off. They did participate more in forum type settings, but my students found it challenging because they have learning disabilities and many have a hard time writing down their thoughts, so they were sometimes indiscernible. Add language difficulties on top of that and the online learning game became even harder. I am so glad we are finally back in the classroom and I can support my students with technology and try to engage them after a year of a lot of video games and TV for most students.  

Source: 

Gagliano, M. B. Keeping students engaged in an Online Tutoring System: A Brief Literature Review.

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 6, 2021 at 12:37 PM

    Great post Samantha! I think all students and teachers struggled with the same issues. The interaction between students was very minimal. I would tell my students to put their cameras on before we started class. They usually would but there were a few students that would not have them on occasionally. Besides submitting their work, having their cameras on was the only way I could hold them accountable during class time. The characteristics you posted above are necessary for the student to be successful with online learning. There are so many distractions when students are home that it is difficult for the majority of them to learn in that environment.

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