Engaging your students at the start of term
Engaging your students at the start of term
We’ve partnered with customers across the globe to put together this short list of things to consider at the start of term or semester to make sure you and your learners get the most out of our digital solutions.
Thinking about course structure
How you set up your course can have a big impact on engagement. Some of our customers have seen success here when they’ve set their course up to feature a variety of different assignment types. One customer, Linda Stewart, whose course sees between 93-94% of learners complete all activities she sets them, has set things up so that students only get access to gated quizzes when they’ve completed specific tasks. Linda explains, “The gated quizzes are worth 5% of the final marks.” For them, that’s just the incentive they need.
Giving them a reason to believe
One of our customers, Bo Van Der Rhee, shows his students a graph at the start of each term. The graph uses non-personal data from prior cohorts and shows a positive relationship between engagement in Connect, McGraw Hill’s learning platform, and final course grade. This gives students a reason to engage with the materials and shows the benefits it can have: better grades!
Partnering with students
We’ve heard some customers use students from further along in their studies to ‘teach’ the newest learners about the platforms. Hearing first-hand from peers about digital learning may be something you’d like to consider for your learners.
A student manual
One of our customers shared his view of how overwhelming it is to begin time at university. “The students are in contact with so many different departments and they need to set up so many accounts. They have usernames and passwords and it can be really confusing. We really try to help them with a student manual and step-by-step instructions.”
Once may not be enough
Another customer, this one in Saudi Arabia, explained that showing students once may not be enough. He explained that he revisits the conversation a handful of times over the course of the first 2 weeks. “I start with Connect on the first day and then the second day I meet them, I’ll take any questions, and then the third time or fourth time we meet—usually in the second week—we’ll revisit and any students who aren’t yet set up can get help.” He shared that there’s an additional benefit to revisiting during the second week. “What’s great to see at this stage is that those learners who are already set up will then be helping those who aren’t yet up-to-speed. For me, this is really nice to see. It’s great to see them supporting one another and it’s actually great for their skills, leadership, communication, and teambuilding,” he said.
Digital skills
Believing all students are up-to-speed with technology isn’t always the right approach. They may feel comfortable on social media, but they’re often grappling with a number of new platforms, as well as an information deluge, at the start of a new course. Being on hand to guide them through setting up new accounts and navigating new platforms is important. McGraw Hill will work tirelessly to support you here— whether it’s face to face or virtually.
Understand the platform
We want you to get the most out of our digital learning platforms and are on hand to show you how you how you can maximise their use. Reach out to one of our McGraw Hill consultants to hear more.
