Enhance Student Engagement by De-Risking Social Learning

Photo by Alex Radelich on Unsplash

One of the biggest points of frustration, expressed by both staff and students over the past year, has been poor student engagement during synchronous ‘live’ sessions. Crucially, this challenge is not unique to online learning; poor attendance and limited engagement were also evident in pre-pandemic sessions that relied on in-person social interactions. As we move from online to a more blended learning approach, with small group interactive teaching prioritised as our in-person offer, it is essential that we support students to engage in effective social learning.

Lots of useful tips, tools and practical advice have been made available to support online learning (e.g. ITL Delivering Blended Learning, FBMH Lessons Learnt) and staff have had the opportunity to try a range of new strategies in the past year. Hearing staff report different levels of engagement, despite using similar techniques with the same student cohort, suggests that there are critical features of sessions, other than the specific activities or tools used, that facilitate engagement.

Informed by the reflections of Psychology staff and students, we have recognised many students find it difficult to publicly contribute to discussions and activities because that engagement carries the risk of social discomfort (fear of giving the wrong answer, asking a stupid question, being perceived negatively by peers). This article identifies a number of de-risking strategies that have worked online, and which may have potential to generalise to in-person contexts. Importantly, we are not proposing that students should never be faced with the challenge of contributing publicly; being prepared to share your thoughts with others is a key transferable skill. However, as educators we can create conditions that make it easier for students to contribute, particularly in early years, with the goal of building confidence through positive experiences.

Encouraging interaction by depersonalising contributions

Photo by Crazy Cake on Unsplash

Social learning allows students to test out ideas and receive instant feedback. However, exposing your ideas to public scrutiny is inherently risky as the resulting feedback can be received as a personal evaluation. De-risking can be achieved by creating opportunities for students to contribute in a less personalised or more anonymous way.

• Offer a range of engagement options during the session (e.g. give students the option to respond to questions verbally, in the chat, or via a shared document)
• Allow students to choose between ‘cameras on’ or ‘cameras off’ breakout rooms (but remember first to emphasise the value of engaging with cameras on)
• Concern about contributing publicly will be exaggerated in live sessions that are being recorded. For live sessions where the goal is social learning (rather than content delivery) replace the live recording with a summary of discussions (even better, have students document their ideas/responses during the session to serve as the summary).
• Host ‘watch parties’ which involve live streaming pre-recorded lectures for groups to watch socially. Students can post questions to the member of staff, reassured that other students’ attention is likely to be focussed on the lecture rather than their question.
• There are various tools available that can be used online or in the classroom which facilitate students to contribute anonymously, such as Google JamBoards, NearPod, Mentimeter and Padlet. We’ve found that for those students whose second language is English these tools work particularly well in encouraging engagement as opposed to contributing verbally.

Supporting active preparatory work

Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash

Typically, we assume that directing students to subject content in advance (e.g. lectures, directed reading) will provide sufficient starting knowledge to use during social learning. However, students often engage with this content passively (i.e. reading or memorising); when called on to share deeper understanding or thoughts about that content in live sessions, they’re not prepared. De-risking can be achieved by offering preparatory tasks that involve active rather than solely passive engagement with asynchronous content.

• Offer independent investigation tasks focused on the asynchronous study materials, to generate ideas that they can bring to group discussions (e.g. to find an example of something or identify limitations of a paper)*
• Ask students to submit questions or ideas in advance of the live session and structure the session around those inputs (e.g. encourage them to ask questions about asynchronous materials or to suggest real-world examples or potential applications of the concepts they have encountered in those materials)*
• Give cues about what will be required of students during the live session (e.g. questions that will be discussed) so they can prepare contributions in advance
• Using small breakout rooms to allow students to try out ideas and get peer feedback, before sharing group-owned ideas to the larger session

*These suggestions require students to do additional work, which needs to be accounted for in the overall unit workload. Consider incentivising this engagement; you could award small amounts of course credit for completing such activities (just 1% of course credits can be sufficient to motivate high-quality engagement).

Managing social comparisons

Photo by Eric Prouzet on Unsplash

In social learning settings, students will be concerned about how their peers will judge both their ideas and their behaviour. For example, who talks when, for how long, how much enthusiasm is acceptable etc. The desire to ‘fit in’ means students can be reluctant to contribute if they are uncertain of social rules. De-risking can be achieved by actively establishing the rules of engagement or minimising the potential for social comparison.

• As a new group is established, encourage group members to discuss and establish ground rules for successful interaction.
• Create consistent groups for students to work with each week so attention can be directed to learning activities rather than concerns about social behaviours
• Encourage groups to develop meaningful relationships. For example, icebreakers that allow students to share who they are, highlighting informal channels of communication (e.g. whatsapp) and creating shared online spaces (e.g. group discussion boards on blackboard)
• Include simple ‘stooge’ questions in Q&A or discussion sessions (e.g. asking for the definition of a key concept). Students will be less concerned about the quality of their own questions
• Start discussions with low-risk topics (where any perspective/point is relevant)
• Design preparatory tasks that facilitate students to bring unique contributions to group discussions (e.g. assigning students different materials to read in advance). There is less potential for social comparison (e.g. ‘other students were better able to spot key info or mistakes’)

Reviewing our experience on the Psychology BSc, we have reflected on de-risking as one approach to improve social learning that may translate from the online context to in-person teaching. We’d love to learn what insights you have gained from your programmes in the past year that offer improvements to social learning. We invite you to share your experiences of what worked and plans for taking insights into the classroom by posting to the Padlet: Enhancing social learning