Engage Students

Fall semester classes at BYU will take place using four instruction modes: classroom, blended, live remote delivery, and on-demand remote delivery. Visit each tab to review some tips for preparing asynchronous material for your class and conducting online or hybrid synchronous classes.

Best Practices

Spruce up an in-person or real-time online class with these best practices:

• Set aside class time for interactive activities. For example, ask your students in-depth questions about the reading material instead of giving a lecture. You can also give a demonstration or split the class into partnerships or groups to work on a problem.
• Send reminders. Consider sending an agenda or Zoom link before class. You can also have a TA send weekly emails announcing topics, class activities, and reminders for upcoming assignments.
• Facilitate pre-class small talk. Open the link to class early, and encourage your students to do the same. Prepare a few icebreakers to promote interaction. Have a screen welcoming students and music playing when they arrive to test their audio. You can also get a feel for how your students are doing during this time.
• Encourage focus. Consider reminding students to continue to take notes on paper or avoid surfing the web. Thankfully, coronavirus hasn’t changed the benefits of taking notes by hand or concentrating on a lecture’s visuals.
• Have breaks. If your class is longer than 50 minutes, consider introducing a regular 5- or 10-minute break. Pause often to encourage and answer questions.
• Use the chatbox and poll features. Encourage students to ask and answer questions about the course material in the chatbox. Assign a TA or student to monitor the chatbox and to let you know if you’ve missed a question. Ask open-ended questions that students can answer in the chatbox or on Digital Dialog. Don’t be afraid to encourage comments, links, jokes, and social interaction on the chat. You can also lighten the mood by sharing a few memes or cracking some jokes in the chatbox.
• Use a virtual whiteboard. Several apps (like Zoom) have built-in whiteboards that work for basic activities. If you rely on a whiteboard for more detailed work (such as long functions or diagrams) use a tablet and pair it with videoconferencing software (here’s an example). To collaborate on a whiteboard with your students, check out programs like Limnu or Miro. We’ve provided a more detailed guide for using digital whiteboards in Tools & Technology.
• Embrace multimedia. Use images, music, or videos during class. Click the “share computer sound” icon in Zoom to share video sound. Consider posting video links in the chatbox and having students watch it individually to avoid any technical difficulties of sharing it on screen. Copyright-free images that can be used during class or in PowerPoint presentations are available on Unsplash, FreeImages, or Pixabay.
• Clarify your expectations for participation. An online setting can sometimes make it easier to skip class or leave part way through. The results of a recent department survey indicated problems with students exiting the class instead of attending group discussions in breakout rooms. Build attendance and participation points and spell out exceptions in your syllabus. Consider explaining to your students how you or your TA will record attendance and participation.
• Consider assigning groups. One faculty divided students into small groups with a team leader. The purpose of the groups was so that the students could help one another mathematically, but the real success was how much they supported one another emotionally.
• Have backup plans. Recording your lecture is highly recommended, even if you opt to set restrictions on who can access the recording. If you are teaching a hybrid course, use a backup method of recording class in case you experience technical difficulties. More tips on teaching for two audiences.

Send tips to students

It may be helpful to include a page of advice for how your students can participate in class. Some examples include:

Remember to have your mic muted during the Zoom meeting. If you would like to unmute it briefly to make a comment or ask a question, hold down the space bar or click on the unmute icon.

Whenever possible, please keep your camera on during class time. This allows me to see how you’re responding to the class and the material we’re learning. Plus, there’s good evidence that turning on your camera can make the class more interesting for you.

Please raise your hand by clicking on the “raise hand” button. You can also type your question in the chatbox, send a message to the TA, or raise your hand in real time. This will (hopefully) get us all moving around a little bit!

Avoid distractions like the plague. Make a practice of not opening other windows or tabs while you’re logged into class except to complete class activities. Put away your phone and try to sit in a quiet place during class time.

Learning Experiences

Increase classroom engagement with learning experiences that can be done in person or online. Here is just a sampling of the assignments you could give your students:

• Activities in which you ask a question and have students reply in chat or Digital Dialog
• “BigIdea” presentations (formatted after a TED talk, for example)
• Case Studies
• Collaboration-based projects
• Consultations with the instructor
• Discussion or debate about course content (this can be done on Learning Suite or sites like Tricider)
• Discussion forums
• Encourage comments, appropriate jokes, and other social interactions in chat
• Videos for students to watch before class using Google Jamboard
• Guest speaker presentations
• Activities in which students share materials in chat (e.g., documents, images, or links)
• Breakout rooms where students can interact, practice with, or teach peers
• Journals (Google docs, Penzu)
• Literature reviews
• Peer instruction
• Play review games (Jeopardy, Kahoot, Nearpod, Quizziz)
• Portfolios (Seesaw)
• Proposals
• Research papers
• Polls for student to respond to (use Bungeelink, Kahoot,Zoom polls, Zoom breakout rooms, etc.)
• Activities in which students collaborate to solve COVID-related problems (a detailed explanation here)
• Presentations that use animations or visuals like Morphosource (if you can’t find the ones you’re looking for, consider using BYU’s in-house service or drawing your own images)
• Timed essay questions
• Virtual labs