13 Thinking about Barriers: Scenario Two

Increasing student engagement

Let’s try another scenario – one that many of us, unfortunately, know all too well!

Taking inspiration from the three UDL principles, what could you adjust in the middle of the term, when you cannot retool your course expectations in a major way, to increase student engagement?

Write down a few thoughts in the box provided. Or, if you are working with colleagues on this module, take the opportunity to discuss this scenario with them.

What did you come up with?

While ideally, UDL can help us to eliminate barriers before they are encountered, it can also be a responsive strategy for enhancing the learning environment at any point in the term.

• One of these could involve asking students to engage in collaborative discussion in smaller online breakout rooms, to help those who need to “talk through” their ideas to do so in a lower-stress, peer-centred environment, before sharing their ideas more confidently in the larger class environment.
• Sometimes, class disengagement is prompted by an instructor’s overreliance on lecturing. This format of instruction can be especially challenging for neurodivergent students who may struggle with sustained passive attention. But all of us have had the experience of struggling to concentrate on even an interesting lecture when we are tired or distracted by ill health, worries, or other circumstances. When students are struggling to balance heavy course loads, unpredictable health, unavoidable employment responsibilities, and sometimes caregiving commitments as well, the ideal of the well-rested, focused, and alert student who has completed the readings for class may simply not be realistic. One option here is to break up lecture content with short streaming videos, offering questions for reflection while watching them, and following up with class discussion immediately afterwards. Crafting such video-based discussion questions to tie into the assigned reading material, but without requiring direct knowledge of it for participation can prompt some of those students who feel unprepared to contribute.
• “Gamification” is a word that makes some faculty roll their eyes, but the basic idea – that making learning fun through enticing learners to use their minds and skills in new ways or collaborating or competing with peers enhances engagement and retention – can take many forms. These can range from simple games, such as team-based trivia-style competitions based on lesson content, that do not require any specific technology, to ones that make use of free apps, like Kahoot, to prompt learners to engage through their own familiar devices.
• For some students, one of the most important factors in learning engagement is affective or emotional considerations, including feeling acknowledged and valued by their instructor. The middle of the term is not too late to ask students to fill out a brief questionnaire or discussion post “introducing” themselves and offering their thoughts on what they believe they need in order to do their best work in the remainder of the course.