Improve student attendance and engagement

Are your students not showing up for lectures? Or are they passive and disengaged during class? On this page you will find strategies to enhance student attendance and engagement, based on the white paper: “Six reasons students don’t attend your (online) lecture & strategies to enhance student attendance.”

Why enhance attendance and engagement

Interaction in the classroom, online, and with both lecturers and peers, improves learning outcomes. When students are present and engaged, their interactions happen naturally. This also helps with bonding and creating a safe learning environment.

Six strategies to enhance attendance and engagement

1. Demonstrate the relevance of lectures to your students’ learning processes

• Elaborate on the design and structure of your course in a welcome message on Brightspace and in your first lecture.
• Let students experience how the assignments contribute to their professional development by using real-life assignments.
• Let students peer review each other’s work during lectures and use the next lecture to review their work. It will help them understand each other’s perspectives. Learning how to provide feedback will benefit them as professionals.

2. Design lectures that support the learning process

• Explain to your students that asking questions is essential to the learning process, share the science behind successful learning, and elaborate on how regular study moments lead to better results.
• Show students that building relationships with peers and lecturers is a crucial element of successful learning by facilitating dialogue with and between your students, and being proactive in getting students to ask questions.
• Organise “live” (guest) events that offer a new or unique perspective.

3. Create lectures that are easy to follow

• Let your students experience a sense of control by being specific in what will be discussed during lessons and what is expected of them. Important information needs to be communicated beforehand (preferably a few days in advance) and exercises, tasks, other content objectives, and timeframes should be clear.
• Ask yourself if words are the best way to tell your story. Design clear slides and use different media formats such as videos, podcasts, and posters during your lecture to maintain the engagement of your students.
• Add energizers and let your students be physically active from time to time.
• Take regular breaks and make it clear at exactly what time you will start again.
• Add a teaser at the end of the lecture on what will be covered in the next lecture and why it is worth attending.

4. Incorporate different student needs

• When students need to prepare, try to pair the reading or videos to an activity. This can be an online quiz, a discussion board post, or even an interactive video or document. Use the online activity as input for your teaching session.
• Check understanding at the beginning of a teaching session by preparing some questions you can ask. You can use hand raising, think-pair-share, or a polling tool to collect the answers.
• Instead of repeating the same content students should have learned, show them how that content can be applied. You can demonstrate how theories are used in assignments or give real life examples.

5. Show the relevance of your course in the bigger picture

• Link your course to study programme by demonstrating how your course content is used in other courses, and how previously learned content is used in your course.
• Try to paint the "bigger picture” by explaining how different chapters, concepts, or topics are related to each other. It can be difficult for students to see the relevance of the materials they read or watch.
• Explain the societal impact by demonstrating (or having a guest speaker demonstrate) how the contents are used in the real world.
• Ask your students what topics they find challenging and would like to learn more about. By answering their questions, you can explain why the lecture is relevant or make small adjustments to make it relevant.

6. Create a safe online environment

• Keep the overall experience in mind: online education is an experience in itself with unforeseen distractions which may bring additional challenges that are not possible to control.
• The best way of making your students feel comfortable is sharing your discomfort or overall experience so students feel comfortable doing the same.
• You can ask your students if they feel uncomfortable being on camera. And that they are welcome to e-mail you to let you know and/or talk about it. Explain to your students that it is not mandatory to turn on their camera and that it is their choice. This is how you can show understanding and take these students into account as well.
• Make it clear if you are going to record the lecture (or not) and make it clear that you will always be clear about your plans so students are never surprised.
• Tell your students they can use a background which hides their real situation and the people around them; you can even make this a fun challenge by asking them to find a background thematically related to the day’s lecture.

How to get help

Do you have any questions about these principles? Reach out to the educational advisors at your faculty or contact Teaching Support for 1-on-1 guidance.

References

• Hayward, G. et al (2023). Six reasons students don’t attend your (online) lecture & strategies to enhance student attendance.