The Benefits of Student Engagement
Helping students to reach their potential is every educator’s ultimate goal. But simply throwing information at them in the hope they’ll take everything in is not going to help realise that ambition. Instead, students need to feel interested, involved and motivated by their learning. As influential educator Dr Fred Newman wrote, true student engagement in education is when learners “take pride not simply in earning the formal indicators of success (grades), but in understanding the material and incorporating or internalizing it in their lives.”
It seems obvious enough that having students who are fully invested in learning is a good thing, but it’s still worth listing some of the documented benefits such as:
• Reduced dropout rates
• Higher grades and improved test performance
• Greater persistence on tasks
• Greater sense of involvement and belonging
• More developed appreciation of the value of education (Christenson et al., 2008; National Research Council, 2004)
Improving Student Engagement in Education
Some psychologists estimate that the average student’s attention span is somewhere between 10 and 15 minutes. Other research suggests that it may be as low as 3 to 4 minutes. If that seems a little on the short side, consider this: that’s the attention span inside the classroom.
Now imagine your students at home where they have access to TV, mobile devices, and a world of online distractions at their disposal. How can you keep them involved in their studies? Simple – by adapting.
With GoConqr, users are given full access to a suite of free online tools which they can use to create clear, concise and visually impactful study resources. By giving students and teachers full creative control over their study materials, GoConqr users can create an unlimited variety of Notes, Flashcards, Mind Maps, Slides or Quizzes to support their learning.
View the slide set below for more info and examples. The tools GoConqr offers are designed to encourage students to take control of their studies and become active participants capable of planning, creating and publishing their own learning materials. This allows for far deeper level of immersion in particular topics and areas of interest.
Sharing is Caring
One of the most effective student engagement strategies for teachers is to establish learning communities. These allow students to explore topics by having discussions with their peers (Zhao & Kuh 2004).
This is another major benefit of using GoConqr to create online study resources. Users can select the Groups tool to set up online learning communities and share their work with fellow students, colleagues or friends. Because user-generated content can also be made publicly accessible, all GoConqr users can view an expansive library of learning material covering a huge range of subjects. Not only does this offer users a great way of finding online learning materials, it can also help inspire ideas for their own content too.
Quizzes are another feature that allow teachers to keep students engaged. Users can easily create a variety of Quiz types: true/false, multiple choice or fill-in-the-blanks – all of which can be set to a timer. In addition to keeping students engaged with topics, Quizzes also offer teachers a means of underlining key facts and gauging the progress of students. All these features, and lots more, are available now. Simply sign up and get started!
GoConqr for Institutions
Are you part of an educational institution? Request a demo with one of our experts today.