Involving Course Model

Recently I viewed a Cengage instructional video by Victoria Basnett, M.Ed. titled, Keeping them Hooked: Strategies for Student Engagement and Success. In this video, she highlights the Involving Course Model. This model promotes the concept that classes should follow the formula below to best engage students.

• 20% Lectures
• 20% Exercises
• 20% Conversations and Sharing
• 20% Guest Speakers and Media
• 20% Quizzes, Evaluation, Preview, Review, and Assignments

Examples of Exercises:

• Group work where students are placed according to their learning styles
• Role playing
• Scavenger Hunt
  
• Weekly self-evaluation
• Students teach concepts
• Team building exercises
• Case studies
• Top ten quotes no one told me
• Skits

Examples of Conversations and Sharing:

• Share highs and lows
• Share how students perceived an assignment
• Brainstorm at the whiteboard
• Discuss relevancy of lesson and when to apply it.
• Combine with writing activity.
• Share ideas
• Give presentations
• Use song lyrics to connect to course concepts
• Offer success quotes or stories
• Show how this class relates to other classes

Examples of Guest Speakers and Media

• Use motivational music to begin class
• Bring in career services, financial aid, academic advising, another faculty member, and/ or mental health counselor.
• Bring in librarian
• Invite industry and community leaders
• Bring in a second-year college student or student ambassador
• Use PowerPoint, Prezi, Facebook, TED Talk video, YouTube, etc.
• Have students create Google Drive shared activities

Examples of Evaluations, Previews, Review, and Assignments

• Portfolio or ePortfolio
• Jeopardy Game review
  
• Journals
• Money-Time Motivators
• Self-assessments
• Small Group review
• Discussion groups
• Quizzes
• Tests

Basnett also gave additional ideas to help teachers engage students. For example, she shared that we retain 10% of what we read but 95% of what we teach. The learner often constructs meaning in collaboration with other students. It is a myth to say we don't have enough time for engaging activities because we have too much content to cover. Active learning isn't just games or an easy A.

At the end of the session, Basnett offered a guide of additional activities. Please let me know if you are interested, and I will email it to you. If you would like to view the Webinar, I can forward the link to you.