The global pandemic of 2020 caused many businesses and schools to quickly pivot to digital sales and e-learning, forcing those who didn’t pivot to shut down. Schools and students were forced to stay at home and continue studying online completely, creating their own learning environment.
With the inconsistencies with internet access among other issues, engagement levels and grades dropped at alarming rates. Students simply were not enjoying working alone, accompanied by bad internet connections which further deterred the learning experience and caused engagement to drop even further.
In the U.S., over 50 million students went into complete e-learning overnight, and schools struggled to pivot and completely swap over to all online classes.
To summarise the experience, an LA School district superintendent stated that “We all know there’s no substitute for learning in a school setting, and many online learners are struggling and falling far behind where they should be”. In fact, student failure rates went up as much as 30% globally.
This isn’t all doom and gloom for the entire e-learning, however. Online learning has proven to be incredibly effective across many industries, the educational system simply needs to understand and implement effective tactics to ensure their students’ success.
If the demand for e-learning is forecast to see a great increase, how can we successfully adapt?
What are some of the reasons your online classroom could not be producing the results it potentially could? The team at Archy Learning has not put together an easy to use e-learning platform for teachers and students, but also a few things to consider implementing and upskilling your staff before planning your next semester’s curriculum.
- Utilize data to view your students progress
- Use gamification to increase engagement
- Add different forms of content
- Ask for feedback
1) Utilize data to view your students progress
Data is arguably the most useful source a teacher can have while teaching and monitoring their student’s progress. Using an LMS (Learning Management System) that tracks and reports progress on not just the entire class, but each individual student is imperative to ensure that they are receiving a successful learning experience from home. With Archy Learning, you can track each student’s completion rates and quiz scores, and even scores they achieved on their mini-games that help with retention and engagement.
These insights will allow you to then take action if you notice a student is falling behind on their studies, and what their time management skills are like. The Teacher portal will provide all the data you need to properly track your student’s progress throughout the semester.
2) Use Gamification to increase engagement
One of the largest problems that educators have faced in the last year with online students is lack of engagement. It’s easy to think that since students spend so much time on their phones, digital learning will be effective, but that’s an assumption that is made too quickly.
With at least 25% to 50% of all students reported to be disengaged, it’s time that educators look at different strategies or approaches to not only present the content in new, and engaging formats but also be able to help the students retain the knowledge that they are receiving and processing. This is where Gamification can be an incredibly effective solution.
Gamification is the addition of game-like elements into non-game activities, which in this case is learning! Instead of sending over stacks of content and quizzes to your students to learn from home, try breaking up the content into micro-sized learning, and in between the videos and quizzes (visual elements help) add in mini-games that will help reemphasize the content and help store it in their long term memory. Archy Learning has partnered with Gamify to help create gamified learning pathways, using gamification, and game-based learning.
You can also award your students with badges, create fun competitions with leaderboards, as well as track their data along the way. You can measure progress and the difference in engagement before and after gamified implementation.
3) Add different forms of content
We’ve covered game-based learning, but besides that, consider other types of content that have been proven to increase engagement, such as video. Video has been proven to help with retention and visualization of new ideas and concepts, allowing students to process and engage with the learning content better.
Creating and uploading videos onto your learning pathway will help break up the content from having only written courses for your students to read through. Afterward, we encourage only study groups and for teachers to help provide study tips, and go over the content in online discussions and see how your students are progressing. You can also view your students’ video content completion rates as well on Archy’s e-learning platform.
4) Ask for feedback
The best way to test, curate, and improve your content is by simply asking your students for feedback. Asking your students how your online school can offer a better experience or what aspects of courses they enjoyed the most can go a long way.
Asking questions and not being intimidated by feedback will be one of the most valuable ways to constantly improve your online education classes, and degree programs and ensure your students’ opinions and personal experiences are valued.
Summary
Online learning has boomed in the last few years, with most schools and businesses offering online courses of some kind. This has reaped many positive benefits, however, the downside of not implementing successful online strategies can leave students disengaged and not completing the given course content. There are a few proven successful tactics and strategies teachers can utilize to increase engagement and be able to track students’ progress along the way all throughout the e-learning platform.
Using data, gamification, varied course content, and feedback are all solid strategies that are sure to engage your students as well as leave positive and memorable experiences for them to learn from, and keep learning in future digital courses. Archy Learning helps provide and implement these strategies along with your current course content on their e-learning platform, so be sure to sign up and start for free, today
