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Teaching and Learning Centre

Pedagogical competence in higher education

Interactivity in teaching

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In digital environments, interaction is often textual, lacking the gestures and facial expressions that are used in face-to-face interaction to interpret messages. The risk of misinterpretation is therefore high. Demonstrating one’s presence also happens with messages.

It is good to go through the rules of interaction with the students

  • Use messages to express your participation. Only the teacher can see the activity from reports, the students can only see it in the posted messages.
  • Avoid monologues. Discuss previous texts. Ask, do not assume!
  • Stick to the timetable or let the students know about absences or delays.
  • Be patient. Others may not read or respond to your messages immediately.
  • Accept incomplete ideas from yourself and others, even if they remain visible in writing.

Avoid pitfalls

  • Using discussion as a learning assignment should have a clear, defined goal that everyone is familiar with.
  • Discussion should also have a time limit to maintain the intensity of participation.
  • It is good to draw together ideas or agreed issues in the discussion. Assigning roles may be helpful (eg chairperson, summariser, group observer etc.).
  • Discussion does not work well in very large groups. Divide the participants into smaller groups.
  • Choose the tools you are using according to the aim of the discussion (cf. discussion board, chat).

Real-time interaction via video also requires careful planning. You can utilise a versatile range of small group workspaces and the possibilities the digital environment offers to engage the participants in interaction through, for example, discussion, annotations, or chat messages.

Pay special attention to group cohesion in the digital environment. The group members can easily remain ‘faceless’ because it is harder to have informal conversations and get to know each other virtually than in face-to-face meetings. Commitment to the group and its objectives is generally higher if the participants have at least some degree of familiarity or feel connected with the group. It is also useful to give the group an opportunity for more informal discussions or to reserve time for group formation at the beginning. Before the actual work begins, groups can be encouraged to agree on common work methods and timetables and to discuss the objectives more generally.

Group assignments can be activating and motivating for the students, based on problem-solving or highlighting prior knowledge and understanding. It should be borne in mind that assignments are a key tool for guidance in digital environments. The structure and pace of the learning process in the same way as face-to-face lessons. Learning assignments allow the teacher to steer the learning process in the right direction and help the students process and apply available information.

See also

Aarnio, H., Ruhalahti, S., Michelsson, R. & Mäki-Hakola, H. (2020). Dialogue for learning: BINGO.

Lecture Breakers. (n.d.) Teaching Online with Zoom: How to Increase Student Engagement with Aaron Johnson. (podcast, 34 min)