Tips for enhancing student engagement
The following is a research-based, practical resource for Purdue instructors, with strategies for boosting student engagement, particularly in your classroom. Although this is by no means an exhaustive list, we hope that it will be helpful for instructors who want to help students be more involved at Purdue University. These instructional strategies are also curated on a downloadable PDF (below). Hyperlinks in the strategies link to scholarly resources on those topics that are available through Purdue Libraries; the resources are also curated on the downloadable PDF below.
Please encourage your students to visit a related site on the Academic Success Center website, with tips on how to engage in the classroom and beyond.
Establish authentic human connections
- Keep in mind that your students are human beings with lives outside of class.
- Display your own humanity; let your uniqueness and idiosyncrasies come through.
- Model intellectual approaches and share your process of solving difficult problems.
Take care of yourself
- Get plenty of sleep, exercise, and healthy foods.
- Be explicit with yourself and your students regarding the boundaries you have set (e.g. only responding to emails M-F 9 a.m.-5 p.m.).
- Experiment with a range of coping strategies.
- Minimize emotional exhaustion.
Use variety to activate student cognition
- Vary activities and pedagogical approaches.
- Switch between the students and you as idea generators.
- Consider having students physically move, discuss with one another, pose and answer questions, or apply newly gained knowledge).
- Incorporate flexibility within structure by offering students choices where possible.
Set the tone early and often
- Consider all of these strategies when planning your course.
- Use the first class period to model the type of engagement you want to see.
- Explicitly communicate the value of the in-person learning environment, as well as the benefits of attending class and participating in discussions.
- Emphasize where the syllabus encourages attendance and participation.
Build a sense of community and belonging
- Emphasize the value each student brings to the learning environment.
- Encourage study groups and shared documents.
- Survey the students in Week 1 and ask what they want to get out of the course.
Foster curiosity
- Pull students in with examples of unanswered questions and mysteries within your discipline.
- Communicate your passion for your subject.
- Model intellectual approaches and share your process of solving difficult problems.