In analysing the knot of lacking engagement from students with online course material.
The initial question would firstly be surrounding connectivity. If the material is online and the students are not engaging, is it because of connectivity issues? The institution is a bring your own device and therefore it is a requirement that students have a device with the required specifications. Along with own device is the requirement for stable and sufficient connectivity. The campuses do provide safe facilities that provide some equipment and connectivity. In theory, there should not be any concerns surrounding connectivity.
So therefore, with the ever-present knot of connectivity (supposedly) out of the way, unravelling the learning knot further suggests that there is a lack of motivation or incentive for students to engage.
Next, we need to ask who are the students we are designing for? The specific classes in question are tertiary level, visual communication students. The field of visual communication lends itself to (but by no means exclusively) visual and tactile learners. As such traditional text-based course material would probably not be adequate on its own to foster the desired engagement.
With this in mind, the next questions would be then if they do not find the text-based content engaging what would be engaging for them? What incentives could draw students in, or motivate them to engage with the content?
In light of the needs analysis, the course content should therefore lend itself to be visually enticing and engaging to pull students into the content and it should be interactive to foster more engagement. A hands-on show and do approach have always been a mainstay in visual communication education. However, with the unprecedented rapid advent of online teaching, it has become imperative that online content is aligned along with the same methodology. Simple text and video tutorials are no longer enough. A more interactive and actively engaging solution is called for.
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