Student engagement is a popular goal in education, but what does it actually mean? Engaged learning is more than answering and asking questions. Student engagement is an initiative, learning objective, and instructional approach designed to nurture learner interest, motivation and curiosity, and agency. Student engagement is not just a nice-to-have skill; it's essential to student success.
This article explores student engagement challenges in modern classrooms, top tips for fostering positive outcomes, and ways to spark deeper learning in students in both K-12 and higher education.
Student Engagement Challenges
In the quest for fostering engaged students, teachers work tirelessly to create a diverse classroom environment with effective lessons and curricula. So why is it still hard to keep students as active learners, especially in post COVID-19 classrooms?
It’s no surprise that learner engagement suffered in unprecedented ways during the pandemic. In fact, a survey found that only 46 percent of students were engaged in school in 2021, down from 53 percent in 2019. Now, as the education industry continues to recover from global learning loss — amounting to one half year of learning — student engagement has become a top-of-mind target.
Simply, learning styles differ from what they used to be. Beyond creative curricula and effective delivery, teachers need to be able to monitor, manage, and measure engagement to ensure the presence of active learning.
Traditional rote learning and lectures are no longer the headline in the educational success story. Ed News Daily suggests students often feel their schools take a "one-size-fits-all" teaching approach that doesn't tap into their distinctive skills, interests, or preferences.
Today's students are also immersed in multimedia, such as videos, images, and audio. As such, they expect teachers to harness similar methods and activities to make learning more engaging and effective.
Statistically, studies show that highly engaged students are 1.5x more likely to graduate and require less time to do so. This Barnes & Noble College study reveals more than half of the participants said they learn best by doing, and 38 percent said they learn by seeing (ex: videos, multimedia formats).
Back in 2018, Gallup found that engaged students are 2.5 times more likely to say they are successful in school and are 4.5 times more hopeful about their futures than their peers. Given today’s post-pandemic educational climate, it’s safe to consider student engagement as an urgent and constant priority.
And what about student engagement in higher education? Maryellen Weimer, Ph.D., suggests, "Engagement can be the difference between continuing to degree completion and dropping out. Factors like student-faculty interaction and active and collaborative learning experiences are shown to make a difference."
Even though student engagement as a concept seems intuitive, applying strategies in everyday classrooms can present some unknowns. Let’s go there next.
Top 15 Student Engagement Strategies to Boost Learning Outcomes
Beyond the established fact that student engagement has become a non-negotiable in learning, the question is now: How do teachers implement this objective? The first step is having strategies at the ready. Here are 15 to get you started — easily suitable for any subject or grade level.
1. Whiteboard Splash Activity
The whiteboard splash activity brings students together and gets them physically moving around the class.
In action:
First, generate a prompt or question. Have students respond to the prompt and write their answers on the whiteboard, chalkboard, or paper. Next, have students read through what other students have written and make notes of important observations they have yet to consider.
Encourage reflective questions like: What similarities did they find? What differences? What surprised them?
2. The Quote Mingle
The quote mingle engagement activity works best as a pre-reading activity.
In action:
- Each student is given a character's line from a book or play and practices reciting the line with inflection.
- Students deliver their lines to at least ten other students.
- Students are grouped by character and make an inference or prediction based on their character's quotes.
- Groups recite the character lines to the class and share their inferences.
3. The "Says/Does" Match
The says/does activity offers students an active learning experience while reviewing specific concepts.
In action:
- Each student gets a printed card with a “says” or a "does" statement.
- Students mingle in the classroom to correctly match their “says” quotes with the "does" statements.
- After students correctly match their ”says”or "does" statement to their counterpart, the partners draft 1-3 sentences embedding the "says" and "does" statement together.
- Each pair presents their findings to the class.
4. Experiential Learning and the "Living History" activity
Experiential learning is an engagement strategy that has students develop connections, knowledge, and skills through experiences outside of school.
In action:
Create a "living history" activity for history/social science classes. For instance, if learners study Chinese American history at the turn of the 20th century, have them volunteer to help improve a local Chinese garden. Students can then take what they've learned to create group presentations.
5. Video and Multimedia Learning
Video and multimedia tools are another powerful engagement strategy teachers can use for live-action learning.
In action:
One easy-to-use interactive strategy is to add pop-up questions (fill-in-the-blank, multiple-choice questions, polls, etc.) throughout your videos. For example, with WeVideo’s dynamic video learning platform, teachers can easily add interactive features to lessons or courses using teacher-made videos, learner-made videos, or to existing videos from YouTube or Vimeo.
6. Bounce Cards
With the bounce card participation technique, teachers provide each student with a card that lists key prompts they want them to discuss with a small group.
In action:
If a teacher asks students to discuss a video clip, they might simply say they liked it. But using a bounce card forces them to dig deeper.
For students who struggle with conversational skills, this can be an excellent tool for helping them develop more thoughtful responses.
7. Students As Teacher
It's amazing to watch a student grasp a concept. Use this moment to ask the student to explain the lesson to the rest of the class.
In action:
Have students demonstrate a lesson previously taught. It can be as simple as mixing the colors blue and red to make purple or as elaborate as a lesson on the principles of kinetic energy.
Using video or multimedia in class? Have learners create a podcast, meme, GIF, or screencast to showcase their process.
8. Group Work and Collaborative Multimedia Activities
In group work, students come together to investigate and report on a specific subject, topic, or idea.
In action:
For a biology class, have students brainstorm the topic of plastic waste in the ocean. What's driving this issue? Are there any solutions to the crisis? Then, have students create a collaborative research video sharing their findings and solutions with the class.
9. Design Thinking Podcast
Podcasts are not just for adults to listen to their favorite crime drama; they are an excellent tool for engaging students. Podcasting creates an outlet where students can learn how to tell a story or share something they've learned with others.
In action:
Have students gather recyclable objects like cans, cardboard boxes, or similar items to create a product from the recycled material. Finally, have them develop a design thinking podcast explaining each step of the creation process and the finished result.
10. Case Studies and the "Traffic Light" Activity
When using a case study, students review a real-life situation and explore how they would resolve it. Here's a twist on the original called the “traffic light” exercise.
In action:
Have students read a case study and write a short essay (or script a digital essay) answering one of three study questions you create about the readings. The next day, have students assemble in groups and explain the traffic light activity.
- Give students three cards: red, yellow, and green. Have students write their names on all three.
- A red card means they want to refrain from participating.
- A yellow card means they're willing to participate but do not want questioning by the instructor.
- A green card means they welcome in-depth questioning by the instructor.
Points accompany each color choice: two points for green cards, one point for yellow, and no points for red. The points system can be modified for any grade level.
Begin class with a quote from one of the student's essays and ask the student to elaborate on it. Then, ask other students to join the discussion. They can use this time to select one of the three cards.
11. Interactive Video and Discussion Boards
Interactive videos can be created for any grade level. However, in higher education, video lessons allow students to analyze, understand, and apply concepts in synchronous and asynchronous environments.
In action:
Interactive video instruction allows professors to measure and maintain engagement in real-time with embedded questions like multiple-choice, free-response, quizzes, and polls. Use videos to build threaded discussion boards to foster more robust collaboration and communication, even in asynchronous environments.
12. The One, Five, and 15-Minute Activity
College faculty use the one, five, and 15-minute activities to offset bland classroom presentations.
In action:
Professors have students present every week in one of three formats: One minute (seven students per week), five minutes (three to four students), or 15 minutes (two students).
- One minute: Students present an idea that illustrates the week's topic. Questions follow.
- Five minutes: Students present a more detailed perspective on the topic. Questions follow.
- 15 minutes: The student provides a copy of the paper for the class a week before the presentation. Every student posts open-ended questions about the paper on the website at least 48 hours before the class meets. The student presenter addresses these questions in the presentation.
13. 3-Sentence Wrap-Up
This activity serves as a gauge of student understanding.
In action:
- Pose a question anytime during a lesson.
- Ask students to write a response in three sentences.
- Answers are collected anonymously and reviewed by the teacher.
14. The Flipped Classroom Debate
Having a debate is a great way to introduce the flipped classroom technique. This engagement strategy allows students to have the new material before class, freeing class time for advanced thinking and activities.
In action:
Choose a controversial topic and determine which side of the argument the students would support. Have students review material on the topic the night before class. Then:
- In class, separate the students into groups based on their alignment.
- Give students 30 minutes to prepare an argument and then have each group pair up with a group of opposing viewpoints and engage in a debate.
- Synthesize the different points of debate in a larger class discussion.
15. Concept Maps
A concept map is a visible presentation that helps students see relationships between ideas, concepts, or authors and clarifies ideas.
In action:
Explain to students that they will create a concept map for your chosen topic. Let's use a story's "hero journey " as an example.
- Ask students to list words, phrases, and ideas about the story's hero or protagonist.
- Have students write a topic or question surrounding the "hero journey" in the center of a piece of paper. Ask students to sort the ideas and organize their list on the page in a way that makes sense to them. For example, students might use color to help sort their lists into categories.
- After students sort their lists, ask them to connect similar ideas with lines, dotted lines, and arrows. In small groups, ask students to share their maps.
There are endless student engagement strategies that can be customized to suit any classroom, grade level, or learning environment. Using interactive video also transforms otherwise traditional textbook learning into transformative experiences.
Ultimately, implementing diverse lesson plans and engagement strategies is a steady rule of thumb. However, having the right tools and resources is another part of the equation. Beyond a one-off lesson or project, how do teachers measure student engagement?
Ideally, having a learning management system that syncs with a full suite of video editing and creation tools is a perfect way to ensure streamlined workflows. Additionally, robust analytics tools that track learner progress, analyze metrics, and identify learner gaps offload the “guesstimation” that occurs when data isn’t available.
Key Student Engagement Takeaways
The good news about deepening student engagement is that there are truly countless ways to do it. Find what’s best for your learners based on the current curricula, preferred styles of learning, and learning environment. Here are some quick takeaways before giving it a go.
Do: Offer multiple options for assignments. Accept diverse submission methods, whether through video, visual, written, or something else. This targets cognitive, emotional, and behavioral learning styles.
Don’t: Pigeon-hole learners into one style of learning.
Do: Encourage reflection. If using WeVideo, there are options to insert reflective pauses, supporting integration of the material.
Don’t: Breeze over assignments without allowing space to debrief.
Do: Incorporate a balance between group, solo, and pair work. Collaboration is a critical aspect of learning in community and developing social-emotional skillsets.
Don’t: Rely too much on group work or solo work, as it can imprint certain dynamics in the classroom that discourage flexibility.
Do: Introduce course objectives before assigning. Let learners know student engagement is the target.
Don’t: Be afraid to remediate! Learning curves are part of the process.
Student engagement, when treated as an instructional approach, is a wise way to invite learners into their preferred method of learning. Empower the quieter learners to participate in ways they learn best. Allow the more verbal learners to take a step back and explore their creativity. Student engagement aims to achieve outcomes in more effective ways for everyone.
Enhance Student Engagement in Your Classroom 
Simply, student engagement is a critical aspect of education and one that requires consistent attention. By building connections, promoting creativity, and embracing challenges, educators can foster an environment where students are actively involved and motivated to excel.
Not sure where to begin with enhancing student engagement in your classroom? WeVideo’s video learning platform also includes a hands-on support team that helps educators, schools, and districts deepen learning with intuitive tools.
Minimal learning curves, hassle-free integrations, and amplified learning outcomes? Yes to all! Reach out to us today to discover exactly how WeVideo and student engagement go hand in hand.