Engaging Virtual Environments: Creative Ideas and Online Tools to Promote Student Interaction, Participation, and Active Learning

In a classroom setting interaction among students is the norm. How do you replicate that informality, spontaneity, and focus online? This book provides you with a framework to think about the different kinds of engagement you want to foster -- whether participation, collaboration, or quick feedback -- and then introduces you to available online tools, some of which may be in your LMS, offers practical tips, and guides you to how make the most of commonly available technologies to achieve your goals.

Within the context and progression of a course -- from developing a welcome page, presenting yourself and the purpose of your course, to icebreakers, assignments, and alternative forms of assessment -- the authors introduce you to a range of easy-to-use online tools that they have introduced to the faculty and teachers in their classes, and that foster active learning and student engagement. In doing so they provide a checklist that you can also access and print from the Web, to help you review additional tools from the wide and ever-growing range of tools that are available online and determine whether they are appropriate for what you want to accomplish.

This book will help you connect with students, whether you’re teaching synchronously or asynchronously, regardless of the devices students may be using; develop community; and introduce you to gamification to add enjoyment and variety to your students’ experience of your class.

Recognizing that using new tools with confidence requires practice, the authors offer ideas for implementing them in private online spaces. Each chapter concludes with reflection questions that can be addressed individually by the reader or within a learning community to encourage faculty to work together and support each other in virtual teaching and learning. This book addresses the challenge of embracing new models of course offerings to students in the evolving landscape of virtual learning.

Laura McLaughlin is a professor of education and teaches undergraduate and graduate courses. Laura has over 20 years of experience working with adult learners providing training, professional development and coaching in corporate and educational settings. She is coauthor of Nurturing Young Innovators: Cultivating Creativity in the Home, School and Community and Teaching the 4 Cs with Technology: How Do I Teach 21st Century Skills with 21st Century Tools.

Joanne Ricevuto is the Assistant Vice President for Instructional Success and is responsible for the faculty programming at her institution, which includes providing and presenting a multitude of professional workshops to the faculty on various current topics in higher education. She also serves as the managing editor of the website for the Office of Instructional Success. She has been in higher education for 20+ years and a professor of early childhood education. Additionally, she is the author of many published articles on virtual learning as well as student engagement.