Five Ways to Engage with Your Online Students -

Offering interactions with your students could enhance their learning.

The advantages of online courses are numerous that they can easily fit in students' busy schedules, they are usually cheaper than the courses that are offered in brick and mortar schools, and they are ideal for those who have caring or parenting responsibilities.

While focusing on these benefits is great, I think it's important to recognize the main drawback of online courses: they lack the human factor that's essential for certain learners to be successful.

The best part is that you are able to give your online course an individual feel. It simply requires some thinking and a smart use of technology. Below are some strategies to boost interaction for a more enjoyable overall experience to your students.

1. Live stream on social media.

Live streams let students experience the feeling of being an integral part of what is taking place at the moment. Live streams can make it more enjoyable as opposed to watching a set of pre-recorded videos. During a live stream on social media, students can also leave comments and questions that the presenters can answer in real-time.

There are two options to choose from: YouTube and Facebook Live to stream live videos to your students. Make sure you announce live streaming events well before the event so students have time to put aside the moment to log in and join in.

2. Hold regular, live webinars.

Webinars function like live stream, except perhaps not in the same way as casual. They're more like "events". They can be extremely beneficial to students who otherwise feel lost in their educational experience.

During a webinar students can not only view slides or listen to the presentation that is being given as well as participate in real time using the chat feature, either text or voice. They will require a reliable internet connection, along with an audio device if they wish to speak (should you choose to permit for this).

Regular webinars give students a opportunity to gather exactly like in classrooms in an educational institution of the past. They foster a sense community and provide students with the help they require to be successful in their online learning journey.

I would recommend Zoom for webinars. It's cheap and reliable.

3. Start (and be part of) the Facebook group.

Students in a Facebook group can share content related to the subject. For example, if the course you are teaching is focused on contemporary poetry, students can post links to poets who have been published who you didn't get time to include in the content of your class. They can also share articles or other materials to help students understand and read poetry.

One of the advantages of setting up a Facebook group is that it needs minimal effort from you compared to the scale of the advantages your students can enjoy as the result of becoming in the group. It is your primary responsibility to establish the group. Following that, you need to establish rules for how people should make use of the site. In the end, you have to enforce those rules - for example by removing people who are spammers or behave rudely to users.

Being part of the Facebook group you have created can aid you succeed, particularly during the initial days that the organization is in its beginning stages. Make sure you get discussions started and encourage your students to share their thoughts and stories. Once you've had a few discussions then, you will be able with a non-directive approach, as students start to engage in conversations to benefit each other.

4. Create an Slack or Discord.

The Slack as well as Discord are two chat applications which you can utilize to create a platform on where your students are able to interact with each other in real-time. You can create channels, or chat rooms to discuss each subject you will cover in your online course. In addition, you can have channels for introductions and discussions that are off topic, which will aid in keeping the channels related to your course focused on the course content.

Slack and Discord Groups are invitation-only, this helps in avoiding spammers. Send an invitation to every student who register for your course.

Many students like these chat platforms to traditional social media sites like Facebook because they encourage real-time conversation. It is a good idea to make use of both Facebook groups and a chat application so that everybody is able to participate in a manner that suits their individual preferences.

5. Put on an in-person event.

The online events can be great but for certain students, an event in person can be a lot more exciting and fulfilling. It is true that you can't count on in-person events to deliver the essential course material, however running a one-off occasion or workshop at the real world is a fantastic way to strengthen bonds with your students , and to strengthen your learning community online.

In-person events are most suitable when the majority of students are located within a reasonably small geographical area, and where the students are keen to learn more. For example, if almost all your students are British and you have a large number of British students, you may have the ability to organize an event that is held in London or another city that can be accessed by a large fraction of the students. If your students are spread relatively evenly across the various continents, it will be more challenging to organize events that do not restrict a significant portion of the audience.

One way to make in-person activities accessible to a greater fraction of your students is to hold numerous events in various cities. But, this method can be more expensive and take longer for arranging. Events in person can be a great experience for students who are interested, but the majority of course designers should steer clear of having them as a central part of their online courses.

Human factors can make the success of your online course.

In the beginning of an online course business , it's easy for you to become distracted by creating amazing educational content that will help students achieve, so as it's difficult to forget the personal aspect of an online learning course.

Emphasizing the personal interaction will also aid in ensuring the financial success of your online course business. If students are given plenty of support in real-time, then they are more likely to stay with the course until they achieve their goals in learning, rather than giving up and leaving the course. As a result, interacting with students may help lower the rate of refunds. Your sales figures will be better able to represent your total revenues, which means that you will know how much money you have available to spend on creating additional classes for your students to please them.