The article below is a blog post that talks about the different ways to add interaction to online lectures and the pros and cons of each. It is targeted towards professors looking for a reason to add interaction to their lectures.

Technology plays an enormous role in modern day life. Due to this, many students have migrated towards online education. It allows students from far and wide to have unlimited access to education that they may or may not be able to access otherwise. Given the increase in use of online education, there is a strong need to improve it so that the students taking online courses receive an equal education compared to those taking the course in person. Interaction between the professor, material and student are one of the ways that we can improve online education.

For many subjects, this is the ideal way of learning, but for some subjects, like History or Geography, interactivity in lectures are not preferred. The advantage of lectures without interaction are that they can cram a lot of information in a short period of time, which is why it is preferred for memorization-based subjects like History or Geography.

The purpose of adding interaction into lectures is for students to get a chance to practice the material while they are learning. The benefit of this is that it keeps students from losing focus over long lectures and they get a chance to apply the material they just learned.

Now that you know the purpose of adding interaction into online courses and when to add it, let’s discuss the different ways to do so.

Adding Pauses in Lectures

This is a simple and easy addition to lectures that can increase interactivity. This idea is self-explanatory, but basically it follows the lines of giving the student an exercise to work on and then asking them to pause the lecture and solve it. The professor would then solve the problem and the student could see how to solve it if they got stuck. This strategy is basic and easy to implement, taking little time and effort to implement. The downside to this solution is that it is optional and not graded, which gives the student less of a reason to participate.

Incorporating Interactive Segments

This strategy is more sophisticated and time consuming than the previous one mentioned, but it can be more beneficial for the student. It is basically an online version of handheld clickers. This option requires a third-party presentation software that may cost money. For example, there was a program called Zaption that allowed professors to pose questions for the students to answer during the presentation and receive credit for it. This strategy makes it mandatory for students to participate in the lectures and learn the material better. Unfortunately, Zaption is no longer in business, but there are other programs out there that do the same thing. The downside to this is that it is more expensive and time consuming than just adding pauses into your lectures and giving the students the option to attempt the problem.

Live Lectures

Live lectures provide students the chance to ask the professor questions directly while “attending” the lecture. If a student is struggling with a topic or has a question during a pre-recorded lecture, it may take days for the professor to write a response back. With live lectures, the students get immediate feedback on any questions or issues they have with the material. This can be very beneficial to the student because their question is fresh in their mind and the help will be better received than waiting a few days after the question arose. The downside to live lectures are that many online courses have students that are in various time zones, so it is hard to find a good lecture time to please everyone. The solution to this is to keep recorded copies of your live lectures to post online afterwards.

These are all good ways to increase interaction between the professor, the material and the student and I hope you find them useful.