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Student Engagement Activities

Student engagement activities encourage collaboration, student-centric learning, student-driven inquiry, and active meaning-making aimed at achieving the learning objectives of the course. Synchronous active learning promotes engagement and often consists of short course-related individual or small-group activities that all students in a class are called upon to participate in. Most activities alternate instructor-led intervals and student response tasks. Results are often processed, and information can be shared or presented.

The following examples illustrate activities for use during synchronous class whether meeting face-to-face or online.

Jigsaw

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Small group, problem-solving activity where each group works on one aspect of a problem. Then the entire class collaborates to combine individual group’s findings and present them in a logical sequence. The activity gives students an opportunity to learn from their peers.

In person

  1. Create small groups of 3-4 students.
  2. Task each group to solve one aspect of a problem or to present one portion of a topic.
  3. Give each group time to work on the assigned task and list their findings.
  4. Bring all the groups back together. Each group takes turns explaining their part of the problem or their topic.
  5. The activity ends with the groups joining their answers/thoughts together to make a complete solution or presentation, completing the jigsaw puzzle.

Online

  1. Using Zoom breakout rooms or Teams channels, group students with their jigsaw team.
  2. Provide student groups with a set amount of time to work with their teammates.
  3. Consider using collaborative tools such as MS Whiteboard, Zoom Whiteboard or MS Word, to record group notes.
  4. Have students work together in their small groups. Then, have them return to the main meeting session/channel to gather the class back as a whole.
  5. Have students present their segment to the rest of the class. Each group takes turns explaining their part of the problem or their topic.
  6. The activity ends with the groups joining their answers/thoughts together to make a complete solution or presentation, completing the jigsaw puzzle.

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Socratic Seminar

Small group, student-led critical thinking discussion activity that leads to peer discourse and group analysis. This exercise creates a discussion space for sharing multiple perspectives.

In person

  1. Divide students into groups of three.
  2. Provide a text or problem to be analyzed.
  3. Give each student time to form questions/opinions.
  4. Assign roles to each of the students for the first round:
    • A Leader who proposes 3 open-ended questions about the text at hand
    • A Scribe who writes the opinions
    • A Discusser that responds to the open-ended questions with other questions or opinions.
  5. Repeat the exercise for three rounds so that each of the students has a chance to play each role.
  6. Once all three students have served as Leader, Scribe, and Discusser, the groups create a combined analysis from their notes in all the rounds.
  7. All groups present their analysis to the class.
  8. Alternatively, to have a discourse in a group larger than three students, remove having one Discusser. Instead, everyone in a larger group can respond to the open-ended questions. Rotate roles for the next question and end with a presentation on the combined scribes’ notes. Continue till all the students have had an opportunity to be in Leader’s role.

Online

  1. Using Zoom breakout rooms or Teams channels, group students into their Socratic teams.
  2. Students can use collaborative tools such as MS Whiteboard, Zoom Whiteboard or MS Word, to record their collective notes and thoughts.
  3. Once all three students have served as Leader, Scribe and Discusser, the groups create a combined analysis from their notes from all the rounds using their collaborative writing tool of choice.
  4. All groups return to main session.
  5. Each group presents their analysis to the class by screensharing.
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Concept Mapping

An activity that helps students with critical thinking about a topic by visualization of relationships between sub-topics.

In person

  1. Provide a topic, idea, problem, or question to the students.
  2. Give students time to brainstorm related key ideas on posterboard or an assigned whiteboard in the classroom.
  3. Students determine the relationships between key ideas and the larger question or topic provided by the teacher and start to draw a concept map, linking these ideas together.
  4. Students discuss and visualize the layout of the concept map. If there are hierarchical topics, the highest level will be on the top, branching from below to specific detail and sub-topic at the bottom.
  5. The finalized concept map is shared with class to explain the larger concept and how it is built upon or contingent on the sub-ideas or parts.

Online

  1. Using Zoom breakout rooms or Teams channels, divide students into groups.
  2.  Students can use collaborative tools such as MS Whiteboard, Zoom Whiteboard or MS Word, to record their collective notes and thoughts.
  3. Each group can create their own map using MS Whiteboard’s Brainstorm tool.
  4. Each group presents their maps to the class by screenshare.
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Zoom Whiteboard

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 Microsoft Whiteboard's Brainstorm tool

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Think-Pair-Share

Student pair activity that fosters collaboration, sharing of ideas, reflection, and peer review.
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In person

  1. Present a short question, problem, or scenario.
  2. Give students a minute or two to think about the problem individually.
  3. Divide class into pairs.
  4. Give students 5-10 minutes to share ideas and comments with partners. The aim is to give and receive constructive feedback, agreement is not necessary.
  5. Reconvene class and invite volunteers to share responses.

Online

  1. Introduce the short question, problem or scenario to the class using Zoom or Teams.
  2. You can create a slide of your text and share your screen for students to see.
  3. Using Zoom breakout rooms or Teams channels, divide students into groups.
  4. Students can use tools such as MS Whiteboard, Zoom Whiteboard or MS Word, to write down pointers from the discussions in real-time.
  5. Each pair can acknowledge their partner’s responses and share their own responses with the whole class.

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Small-Group Discussions

Student-centric activity that creates a classroom environment which promotes peer learning and an open exchange of perspectives.

In person

  1. Introduce a discussion prompt, problem, or scenario.
  2. In each group, assign one student the role of facilitator (keeps time and discussions on track) and reporter (takes notes and presents summary or solution when class reconvenes).
  3. Allow about 15 minutes for discussion (longer for complex problems).
  4. Visit each group for a few minutes.
  5. Reconvene entire class for summary reports.
  6. Invite students to analyze or respond to reports.

Online

  1. Introduce discussion prompt or problem using Zoom or Teams.
  2. You can create a slide of your text and share your screen for students to see.
  3. Using Zoom breakout rooms or Teams channels to divide the class into groups of 3-5 students.
  4. Visit breakout rooms for each group for a few minutes during the 15 minutes you have given them to discuss.
  5. Students can use tools such as MS Whiteboard, Zoom Whiteboard or MS Word, to write down pointers from the discussions in real-time.
  6. Reconvene entire class for summary reports.
  7. Open class discussion for responses to reports.

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Essential Questions

Student activity that pushes students to Higher Order Thinking by posing wide-ranging, open-ended questions that begins their inquiry into big ideas.

In person

  1. Pose open-ended questions at the beginning of the activity; for example: “What makes a simulation effective?” “How will the war in Ukraine end?”
  2. Remind students there is no single best answer.
  3. Invite students to volunteer preliminary answers.
  4. Ask students what skills and knowledge they need to think of better answers.
  5. Give students any opportunity to discuss with each other either as a class or in groups.
  6. Return to the question at the end of the activity.
  7. Encourage students to revise preliminary answers and reassess their skill and knowledge needs.

Online

  1. Pose open-ended questions to the class using Zoom or Teams.
  2. You can create a slide of your text and share your screen for students to see.
  3. Give students any opportunity to discuss with each other either as a class or in groups (Zoom breakout rooms or Teams channels).
  4. Students can use tools such as MS Whiteboard, Zoom Whiteboard or MS Word, to write down pointers from the discussions in real-time.
  5. Each student can share their responses with the class.

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Polling

An activity that provides real-time feedback to check comprehension, identify topics for clarification, gather class opinion or stimulate discussion. For this exercise students will need to have their mobile device available for face-to-face classes.

In person

  1. Use Sakai Polls, Polling for Zoom Meetings or Microsoft Forms to design opinion gathering or knowledge check questions (multiple-choice, Likert scale, open-ended, muddiest point, etc.)
  2. Create a share link from your poll of choice and distribute to class.
  3. Review responses and share results as needed.
  4. Use knowledge check results to adjust session plan as needed to let students’ feedback influence class direction or as you see fit.
  5. Use opinion results to lead into class discussion or as you see fit.

Online

  1. Use Sakai Polls, Polling for Zoom Meetings or Microsoft Forms to design opinion gathering or knowledge check questions (multiple-choice, Likert scale, open-ended, muddiest point, etc.)
  2. Distribute polling method to class.  Either create a share link if using MS Forms or create a poll in Zoom.
  3. Review responses and share results as needed.
  4. Use knowledge check results to adjust session plan as needed to let students’ feedback influence class direction or as you see fit.
  5. Use opinion results to lead into class discussion or as you see fit.
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Microsoft Forms

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Sakai Polls

 

For more ideas and suggestions on Student Engagement Activities contact the NEC Instructional Design Team at nec@nps.edu.

References

Ashwin, Paul & Mcvitty, Debbie. (2015). The meanings of student engagement: Implications for policies and practices. In Curaj, A., Matei, L., Pricopie, R., Salmi, J., & Scott, P. (Eds.), The European higher education area (pp. 343-359). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20877-0_23

Barkley, E. F., & Major, C. H. (2020). Student engagement techniques: A handbook for college faculty. 2nd ed. Jossey-Bass.

McTighe, J. & Wiggins, G. (2013). Essential questions: Opening doors to student understanding. ASCD.

Felder, R. M. & Brent, R. (2009). ASQ higher education brief. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242102584_Active_learning_An_introduction

Sennet, P. (2021). Understanding intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. University of Rochester.

Waldrop, J. B., & Bowdon, L. (2015), eds. Best practices for flipping the college classroom. Routledge.

Velden, G. V. D. (2013). Staff perceptions of student engagement. In E. Dunne & D. Owen (Eds.), The student engagement handbook: Practice in higher education (pp. 77–91). Emerald.

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