Learning is not a spectator sport. Students do not learn much just by sitting in class listening to teachers, memorizing prepackaged assignments, and spitting out answers. They must talk about what they are learning, write about it, relate it to past experiences, apply it to their daily lives. They must make what they learn part of themselves. Use problems, questions, or issues, not merely content coverage, as points of entry into the subject and as sources of motivation for sustained inquiry.
Students learn what they care about and remember what they understand.
Then focus on helping students successfully complete the assignments. Encourage faculty-student contact, in and out of class. Frequent interaction with faculty members is more strongly related to satisfaction with college than any other type of involvement, or, indeed, any other student or institutional characteristic. Get students working with one another on substantive tasks, in and out of class. Students' academic performance and satisfaction at college are tied closely to involvement with faculty and other students around substantive work.