Assignments for Improving Student Engagement

If you're an educator, you know what it's like to stand at the front of the classroom and see nothing but blank stares looking back at you. Maybe it's Friday syndrome, or maybe they're confused – either way, how can you gauge how students feel about a lesson if they won't engage?

And it's not just about engaging with you – it's about engaging with the material, too. How do you conduct a lesson if everyone shows up to class having not read the material? How do you encourage them to ask the right questions so they can better understand the lesson?

It's important to set up your assignments in such a way that students have no choice but to engage with the educator and the material. It's easier for you when it comes to leading a discussion, and it's easier for them when the big test comes around.

Short, Open-Ended Responses

We hesitate to use the term "essay question," because that's intimidating for both the people who have to write them and the people who have to grade them. But if you replace long essays with intermittent, short essays, it's easy to see that the students are absorbing the material and it's easy to grade. If you give them two big essays per semester, you're only getting two good checkpoints. However, asking students to respond to essay questions – ones that focus on an important aspect of the material, but one that requires thought -- in one paragraph, you're getting several "checkpoints" throughout the semester to ensure that they're engaged and you're saving yourself some grading hours.

Forum Discussions

Whether you're using performance learning systems for mobile devices or using social media, you'd be amazed at how much online forum discussions get students talking. Your shy students who are afraid to raise their hands during class are suddenly the most talkative when they're behind a keyboard, and those who tend to zone out during class can visit the discussion at their leisure. If you assign contributions to the forum as homework, you can get an idea of what to discuss, what they already seem to understand, and what they haven't thought of. It's great for feedback on material, improving engagement, and sparking discussion.

Peer-Editing

Before turning a large assignment into the instructor, set aside a class period strictly for peer-editing. Not only does it help students to polish their work before it makes it into your hands, but it gives them another point of view to consider – the point of view of one of their peers. Leave a week between the peer-editing session and the due date so that students can mull over the critiques they got from their peers as well as what they've read in the content created by their peers. They might even be more willing to engage with the ideas of a classmate than they would with those of an instructor.