Increasing Student Engagement With Patience and Understanding in a Distance Learning Environment
By: Daniel Lieu
Tags: Distance Learning, Growth Mindset, Zoom, Education

It’s been a while since my last reflection post. It felt like the year froze in March and we’re still in it. It’s weird. We’re in a full online teaching environment and it’s actually a lot different than what we experienced last year. Last year, we had an emergency shift to distance learning and were completely unprepared for the shift. Now, I still feel unprepared, but less so than before.

I felt like I was beginning to have a routine and a system that felt natural in the classroom. Taking attendance was a breeze because I knew how to look at the tables and know immediately who’s missing. I had a routine where as the students were getting their supplies for the day, I’d take attendance and by the time they were settled, I’d have the non-instructional tasks completed and a coffee in my hand.

Now, all the systems and routines that I had down changed and I have to adapt to a whole new system that isn’t natural. Attendance takes forever… it’s so hard to scroll through the names and figure out who’s here. PowerSchool sorts all of the names by last name, whereas students join by first name. I have 4 students with the same first name and reminding them to edit their name on Zoom to have their last name too takes away from the efficiency in the classroom. My entire teaching process feels inefficient.

At the same time, I’m really thankful that we’re in a place where we can teach remotely and that students have access to learning opportunities even when they’re at home. I couldn’t imagine this being a thing that would work as effectively as it does now when I was in school. I’m also thankful that I’m working at a school that goes above & beyond for students by providing them with all of the technology and tools for internet access. Even though there’s a lot of negatives about distance learning, I know that it’s huge that we can even do this and that students can learn from home during a global pandemic.

Student Engagement

Student engagement is a topic that it seems like every teacher talks (or complains) about. Between the, “Students aren’t turning on their webcams,” or, “I feel like I’m talking to myself all day,” comments, it seems like a topic that is always discussed negatively.

I’m not going to lie and say that my student engagement is where I want it to be or that I have 90%+ student engagement in the distance learning classroom. I have more students with their webcams off than their webcams on. I have students who can’t seem to find the unmute button when they need to. I have a few students who I know I’m going to struggle with associating a face to the name when we shift to a hybrid learning environment because I’ve seen them maybe twice.

Although, what I do know is that my students are awesome and that I don’t know what they’re going through. I don’t know how my students are being affected by COVID-19, racism, and the multitude of current events. I don’t know if they’re in a space where there’s 7 people living in a studio and they don’t want to turn their webcams on because they’re embarrassed to. I’m not going to force them to turn on their webcams or require them to turn on their webcams because I don’t know what’s going on behind the webcam. When they’re at school, they leave that environment and don’t have to share that if they’re not comfortable sharing it, but at home, when we force them to turn on their webcams, we’re forcing them to share what they may not be comfortable sharing.

Instead, I prefer to say: If you’re in a space where you’re comfortable and able to turn on your webcam and unmute yourselves to have discussions, I encourage you to do so.

Success Over Time

I’ve noticed that since being open and receptive to student situations, I’ve noticed a drastic increase in student engagement. I realized that this is similar to building a classroom culture. In the physical classroom, before a student is open to sharing and engaging in discussion confidently, a classroom culture needs to be built up first. This occurs over time and isn’t really a process that’s rushed. Sometimes it takes about a month for students to feel comfortable sharing within the classroom. Similarly, webcams and microphone discussions are aspects of teaching now that also need to be approached with patience. It takes a while for a student to feel fully comfortable switching to working on computers and engaging in online learning. It’s a new format that they’re not familiar with, even more so if they don’t have computers at home to work with before the shift to distance learning.

The last time I asked for students to turn on their webcams, I noticed that all but 3 of my 28 students had their webcams on! It was great to see how the first time I asked at the beginning of the school year, I had one student turn on their webcam, realize that no one else was turning it on, and then promptly turn it off. That shifted to a few students over time. Now, most are comfortable with turning them on and engaging in discussion unmuting themselves, rather than typing in the chat, and I couldn’t be more proud of these kids.

This whole situation helped me to realize that even though we shifted to an online format, we still need to realize that rapport, patience, and love are still important. They still need all of these and a classroom culture still needs to be cultivated through an online format. I don’t see the point of forcing students to turn on their webcams or demand that they turn it on in hopes that they do when they’re going to not understand the purpose and value of it. I’d rather teach them the value and the purpose of participating in class and the joy of a classroom where they can see their classmates and engage in discussions verbally, rather than through chat. This takes time and I’m ok with that. I see the results now and I’m glad that the students are comfortable with turning on their webcams because they want to and not because they have to.

Still a work in progress

There’s still so much I want to do. There are still days when I feel like student engagement has dropped so low I don’t even know if they’re sitting at their computers. There are a lot of moments when I ask a question and get no response, follow by a, “What was the question?” in the chat after the long silence… even after the question was posted in the chat.

At the same time, I know that it’s important to keep encouraging student engagement and working as if they were there behind the screen, even if they aren’t at times. I think it’s even more important to encourage them with patience and understanding, rather than demanding engagement. I always think about the process as the Simpsons Gif where Homer is backing into a bush.

If we force students to be engaged, they’ll turn it on. However, they see the reason for being being engaged only as a classroom rule. They may not understand the value in being engaged. When the focus of student engagement is enforcing student engagement, the value isn’t communicated. When students are in an environment they’re not comfortable in, forcing them to turn on their cameras may be more detrimental to student desire to be engaged than allowing them to keep it off for now, but communicating in the chat or through voice.

Instead, what if we can do the opposite? I’ve seen it work in my classroom. On the days where I notice participation and engagement has dropped, I’d rather be patient and understanding with them than to force them to turn on their webcams. I see it more like a reverse Simpsons meme, where students are in the bush initially, but through patience, understanding, and teaching them the value of engagement over time, they’ll start having conversations and turning their videos on.