ENGAGING STUDENTS & IMPROVING STUDENT EXPERIENCE THROUGH INTERACTIVE CLASSES
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Authors: Jennifer Kelly
Keywords: student engagement, interactive classes, mechanisms to promote learning, university education, student experience
Abstract: Tertiary institutions are committed to scholarship through the provision of high-quality teaching and learning. Ideally, scholarship should encompass academic staff ensuring worthwhile and stimulating learning and teaching opportunities to heighten student engagement. Further, the aim of enhancing student engagement is to promote learning which in turn, improves student experience. One mechanism to promote engagement is to move beyond traditional approaches to teaching and delivery of content and implement more contemporary approaches such as active learning using interactive classes.
A recent study reported that students learn more when they are actively engaged in the classroom than when are in a passive environment such as a lecture. However, despite evidence illuminating that interactive learning settings afford a superior method of teaching, many lecturers continue to use traditional teaching practices such as lectures and tutorials. Rationales and perceptions as to the use of traditional teaching methods over interactive settings relate to resources, access, time, support and personal preference.
This paper will outline evidence associated with the benefits of interactive classes that promote learning and foster student engagement. Additionally, this paper will discuss techniques and strategies to create and ensure interactive classes that improve and enhance student experience. The perceptions of students and lecturers in relation to implementation of interactive classes is also significant to reveal as misperceptions can reinforce the use of traditional pedagogical approaches. Finally, relevant examples will be provided to illustrate a relationship between interactive classes, improved learning and student evaluations are fundamentally linked.