How to Improve Student Participation & Involvement

Question: 
​How do we (teachers) improve our interaction with online students? How do we gain students' participation? Or how do we get them involved every online class? 
Submitted by Y.O. on November 5th, 2020

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Answer:
Hi Y.!!!! Thanks for contacting us and posting your inquiry about improving students' interaction/participation in an online environment. Interaction comes as a result of setting an adequate learning environment for our students. Here are some tips:

1. Be energetic and transmit positivism while you are delivering your videoconference. Students love this type of teachers as it creates a welcoming setting. 
2. Get to know your students individually. This will help you design activities that can encourage students to participate as they already know what you are talking about. (Try to have a special notebook with comments about topics of interest for them)
3. Encourage students to participate in chats. You can do this during your video session/WhatsApp group/forum (if you are using a platform) or even creating a Facebook group. Set the objective (based on the content you are teaching), provide clear instructions of what the students have to do, model the task and have them perform it.
4. Promote the creation of videos. I use Flipgrid  to increase participation through videos. You assign a project, students record themselves and can interact with other students' videos. I created a tutorial for my students on how to use this website. Take a look at it https://www.loom.com/share/c5b55c55862942e5b0fc2923d1894df1 
5. Monitor and give feedback. Students appreciate when you care about them, and this increases their inner motivation. We love hearing how good we are doing and receiving constructive feedback.

I want to keep the answer short, but I will be willing to share more specific tools and ideas that can help you build a stronger interactive class if you let me know what type of students you have, their age, classes, etc.

Sincerely, 
Roberto