How Teachers Can Best Engage Students

A majority of students are upset when they find out that a class they need for their major is at 8 am. Most are not natural morning people, which is normal, considering how late students stay up. But there are simple and effective ways teachers can make each student feel they have an important role as a part of the class.

Here are ways to make your student feel engaged and involved:

Scatter material. Nobody likes a class where every meeting is difficult material. It’s important to try to switch off between dates or trade off between introducing difficult material and concepts that are easy to comprehend.

Use fun stories and anecdotes. Score one if you can make people laugh!

Ask for student responses. In a class of 300 students, it can be hard to prompt students to speak up about topics. With that being said, it seems like the best teachers are the ones who try to pick on new students and hear new voices. Nectir has a feature that offers a poll for student to use which gives you instant feedback on their progress and understanding. Take away the lack of efficiency and pressure of a pop quiz — an online poll makes participating in class fun and less stressful for students.‍

Be reassuring. It is important to show students that their teachers care. Nectir allows for direct student and professor engagement which can make students feel recognized. Also, you can see which students are contributing and send them a reaction, showing them how much you value their contributions and participation.

Be approachable and accessible. Technology can make a vast difference in helping you better communicate with your students. Teachers can use Nectir’s automatic Google Calendars integration to hold online office hours, which will not only make those weekly hours much more productive for the teacher, but give students with busy schedules an easier way to ask questions or reach out to their teacher from the comfort of their own home.

Remember that teachers, like everyone else, are not perfect. Sometimes you can’t engage every student. Despite that, it’s worth the attempt. Just as observant teachers are on how hard their students work, professors' effort and heart does not go unnoticed by their pupils.