**4.4 Tips on student engagement in synchronous online learning**

	- Gain attention

Gain attention by a case-scenario or a short video and ask questions to stimulate inquiry. Compared to the face-to-face lecture, the strategy to prepare the students for online lecture should differ and should be planned earlier by posting a small number of quizzes for the students to self-assess along with a short video reviewing the topic of the lecture.

• Learning outcomes

Describe the goal by making clear statements on learning outcomes. Many a time, the outcomes from F2F teaching sessions are copied into online synchronous sessions without any alterations leading to increase in the cognitive load of the students. Choose the outcomes, which can be best delivered using the principle of microlearning (to keep the resources manageable) in the asynchronous learning resources (PDF/Video/links to web pages) component

## *New Updates in Online Learning DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.102576*


### **Table 1.**

*Strategies for student engagement in asynchronous learning [15].*

of the module page in the LMS. A timely reminder in the chat box of the web-conferencing tool in a non-intimidating tone is often helpful in guiding the student learning.

• Prior knowledge

Link the outcomes with the prior knowledge.

• Chunking of contents

Explore the contents by chunking the contents into short segments under outcome 1, outcome 2, outcome 3 … by explanation of the concepts using examples, metaphors, and asking student experience.

• Scenarios or Examples

Integrate the concepts under different outcomes by the scenarios or examples which can connect the outcomes.

• Voice as a tool

Some instructors find the concepts of 'using the voice as a tool of engagement' and 'marrying the number of outcomes with duration of the session' useful in delivering the online lecture. Using emotive words, varying the speaking rates and volumes and use of verbal signposts are often helpful.

• Interactive tools

Elicit performance by using interactive tools like 'Poll Everywhere', 'Kahoot', 'Slido', 'Kahoot', 'Quizizz' and 'Mentimeter'.

• Summarization

Summarize the key concepts of the topic and let the students know about the arrangement of the question-and-answer session (chat-box/forum/discussion board).

	- Lecture plan:
		- Heading and Sub-Headings, division into segments (with maximum time for each segment)
		- Text-based content in each slide, font size, number of diagrams in each slide, choice of diagram and its clarity, clear explanation (Instructor should plan the text, narration, and images in the presentation with suitable application of Mayer's cognitive theory of multimedia learning (**Figure 5**) [18].

### **Figure 5.**

*Application of Mayer's cognitive theory of multimedia learning in presentation [18].*

*New Updates in Online Learning DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.102576*


Pause, silence, hesitations, change of vocal quality like increasing tone to emphasize and then decreasing tone to continue, gesture/facial expression

• Common errors:

Too quick speaking, failure to pause, explaining too much at one time, inaudible voice, not able to pitch the voice at comfortable level, not emphasizing key-points, use of long text without flow-chart/images/bullet points, not maintaining the timing to be given to sub-headings or parts of the lecture.

• Digital whiteboard:

Use of digital whiteboard: an online whiteboard is used so that both the lecturer and students can write on the whiteboard and both sides can see it. Apart from sketches and calculations, video, audio can be displayed and used inside the whiteboard. Notes from the class can be digitized, saved, and shared with the students.
