Interactive Tools to Engage Participation and Increase Retention in the Online Classroom

Concurrent Session 5
Streamed Session

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Brief Abstract

As more students are turning to online education, educators must constantly reflect and adjust their teaching to effectively engage all learners. In this workshop, you will learn several tools to increase interaction and student engagement in the online classroom. The attendees will walk away with three specific tools to engage participation and retain engagement.

Presenters

Lead Presenter: Roiann Baskin, American Public University System

Roiann Baskin is a full time Spanish instructor at APUS. She has 20 years of experience teaching Spanish in a variety of settings including middle school, high school and higher education. She has been teaching online for the past 7 years and has earned two online teaching certifications through Lonestar College and Houston Department of Education. Roiann is a Google Certified Educator, Flipgrid Certified Educator and holds other certifications through Edpuzzle and Kahoot. She has presented on a variety of topics for foreign language teachers including best practices, Flipgrid, Edpuzzle and TPRS.

Co-presenter: Karolina Kopczynski, American Public University System

Dr. Karolina Kopczynski is a native of Poland. Her passion is learning foreign languages and their cultures. She earned her B.A. in Spanish from UMASS, Amherst, where she also studied French, German, Italian, and Russian. She completed her study abroad program in Oviedo, Spain. Dr. Kopczynski obtained her M.A.T. in Spanish and ESOL from the School for International Training, VT, in 2000. She also lived and studied in Russia, Mexico, and Greece. In 2010, Dr. Kopczynski completed her Ed.D. from the University of Phoenix in Curriculum and Instruction. In 2015, she completed two additional master’s degrees from the University of Jaén in Spain and the University Iberoamericana in Puerto Rico in Applied Linguistics in Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language and Formation of Professors of Spanish as a Foreign Language. She has experience instructing Spanish at all levels and designing online Spanish courses. Dr. Kopczynski was a recipient of the 2021 Undergraduate Excellence in Teaching Award from the University. Recently, Dr. Kopczynski and her colleague presented at the Teaching Excellence Summit on the Implementation of Technology into Spanish online classes to increase participation. She has also presented at Northeast OER Summit and OLC Accelerate 2021 about interactive tools to engage participation.

Extended Abstract

Classroom participation in an asynchronous online environment it's very important in order to engage students and maintain their interests so that they remain in the classroom.There are many technological tools that can be used in both asynchronous and synchronous classrooms  to engage participation and maintain retention. The tools included in this presentation are going to supply online instructors with ideas of how to create the hook for their students so that they stay actively engaged. During this presentation participants will play an active role as they will use all three tools.

Presenters will model how to use three interactive tools that will engage participation in an online classroom. The attendees will create three mini projects that can be used immediately in their online classroom. 

The attendees are going to walk away with three solid tech tools which are going to help them engage students via written and speaking assignments that can be implemented in discussion forums, individual assignments, group assignments and announcements.  Attendees will also create an announcement that will inform students about the content in a creative and engaging way.