The Dreaded Task of Creating “Engaging” Online Lectures

Eliciting and maintaining student engagement in online, asynchronous courses is notoriously difficult. Although advanced technology can address this issue, many faculty members do not have the time or resources to learn how to integrate such technology into the classroom. This teaching brief provides a simple yet effective way for advertising instructors to increase student engagement and perceived interactivity by combining online lectures and associated activities into a single quiz. Examples of activities that could be used based on the online engagement framework for higher education are also presented, including exercises meant to encourage social, collaborative, emotional, behavioral, and cognitive engagement. Through such, this brief helps reinforce that student engagement can still be fostered using basic online tools.